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NCAA Basketball
Kentucky vs. Utah
CBS (8) 6p.m.
Sports
Emerald
Utes, Wildcats sauare off in chamnionshin name
Tonight’s
matchup
between Utah
and Kentucky
marks the
third season
the two teams
have faced
each other in
the NCAAs
By Jim O’Connell
The Associated Press
SAN ANTONIO — For Utah, payback
time has arrived against Kentucky in the na
tional championship game. The Wildcats’
plan: ending the Utes’ season with a loss for
the third straight year.
Utah and Kentucky have played each oth
er in the NCAA Tournament the last two
seasons, with the Wildcats winning both
times. The stakes have grown each year and
on tonight they will be as big as they get in
college basketball.
The championship pits a Utah team that
pulled off two of the tournament's biggest
upsets against a Kentucky team that used
two thrilling comebacks to
advance to the title game
for the third straight year,
this time under new head
coach Tubby Smith.
Two years ago, Ken
tucky crushed Utah 101-70
in the second round on the
MAJERUS way to its sixth national
championship. Last sea
son, the Wildcats beat the Utes 72-59 in the
regional semifinal and went on to lose in the
title game to Arizona.
"The main thing I remember about those
two games is that we lost. That’s about all
you need to know,” Utah senior center
Michael Doleac said of the recent postsea
son history with Kentucky. "Sophomore
year it was more like we were just watching
Kentucky play instead of being in the game.
... Last year it was a lot different. We could
play with those guys and we did play with
them until they had that spurt at the end
when we fouled.”
Utah’s 65-59 upset of top-ranked North
Carolina on Saturday may have been an
even bigger surprise than its 25-point laugh
er over No. 1 seed Arizona in the West Re
gional final a week before. But the common
thread was excellent defense; the Utes lead
the nation in field-goal percentage allowed
Turn to NCAA, Page 20
w
On tap
■WHO:
Utah vs. Kentucky
■WHAT:
NCAA men’s bas
ketball champi
onship game
■WHERE:
San Antonio,
Texas
■WHEN:
Tonight 7 p.m.
Ensrud ends
career 3rd
atNCAAs
The senior brought home all
American honors for the second
straight season to end his
Oregon career
By Joel Hood
Sports Reporter
It was a fitting finale to the Ducks’ season.
Six Oregon wrestlers made the trip to
Cleveland, Ohio, last week for the NCAA
Championships. Only two brought home all
American honors, but each
realized his goal of making
it to the NCAAs. And five
of them will look for noth
ing short of a return trip
next season.
As he has been virtually
me enure season, jeremy £,nsrua was tne
Ducks’ highest finisher and most dominat
ing performer. The 134-pound senior
capped off his storied Oregon career with a
3-2 decision over Clarion’s Mark Angle and a
third-place overall finish at the NCAAs —
besting last year’s finish by one spot.
Ensrud’s only NCAA loss came on the
tournament’s second night when he was
beaten by Ohio’s Shawn Enright 8-6 in over
time. A crushing defeat, Ensrud later said,
because his season-long goal was to reach
the 134-pound finals.
The following morning, Ensrud defeated
Angle to win the consolation bracket.
“I was really glad to see Jeremy come back
strong and finish third,” head coach Ron
Finley said. “Being able to come back the
way he did is a real credit to him as a wrestler
and as a person. He had a brilliant year for
us and a great career. ”
Later in the morning session, Chael Son
nen became Oregon’s second all-American
honoree with an eighth-place finish in the
Turn to WRESTLING, Page 17
NICK MEDLEY/Emerald
Oregon’s Katie Mackey attempts to throw out Arizona State ’s Devyn Braga during the
Duck’s 5-3 loss to the No. 7 Sun Devils on Sunday.
After hot first
game, Ducks’
bats go flat
Oregon upset No. 7 Arizona
State in the first game of a
doubleheader before being
shut down in the second game
By Joel Hood
Sports Reporter
If there was any doubt going into this
weekend that the Pacific-10 Conference is
top-to-bottom the country’s most talented
and competitive conference, there isn’t any
longer.
A day after the Oregon softball team was
swept by No. 1 Arizona,
the Ducks (28-13 overall,
1-3 in the Pac-10) pound
ed out 18 hits and 16
runs in a spirited, four
hour doubleheader with
No. 7 Arizona State at
Howe Field on Sunday.
SOFTBALL
The problem: nearly all of those runs
came in the Ducks’ 13-2 game-one victory.
There was a smile on the face of short
stop Jill Robinson as she stood at first base
in the bottom of the second inning follow
ing a one-out single to left that scored two
Duck runs.
There was a smile on the face of pitcher
Jennie Cook as she mowed down nine of
the next 12 Sun Devil batters after Oregon’s
five-run inning that broke open a one-run
ball game.
There was another after Cook forced out
fielder Devyn Braga to chop a pitch back to
the pitcher’s circle to end an Arizona State
rally in the top of the fifth and record her
team-high 15th victory this season.
But for all of the smiles and all of the
high fives during the Ducks’ game-one
route, the rest of the day belonged to the
Turn to SOFTBALL, Page 16
NICK MEDLEY/Emerald
Oregon head coach Jack Griffin consoles a frustrated Alina
Wygonowska during the Ducks 6-0 loss to Washington State.
Loss to Cougars drops women to 3-12
The Ducks dropped their match
with Washington State 6-0 after
falling to both Arizona and
Arizona State 5-0 last week
By Rob Moseley
Sports Reporter
In a match that resembled a meeting of the United Na
tions as much as one between two Pacific-10 Confer
ence tennis squads, the Oregon women were swept by
Washington State 6-0 in Eugene on Sunday.
After a grueling three-set victory by the Cougars' No. 2
player, Hungarian native Tunde Nagy, that gave Wash
ington State wins in all six singles matches, the three
doubles events were canceled.
The defeat drops Oregon’s record to 3-12 overall, in
cluding losses to both No. 19 Arizona and No. 6 Arizona
State last week in the desert.
The loss on Sunday was the first match in three
TENNIS
weens m wmcn me uucks naa enough
healthy players to fill the lineup card.
Oregon finished just four matches
against both the Wildcats and Sun
Devils, as Shanelle Kaneshiro retired
during the No. 3 match on Wednesday
before defaulting on Thursday. The
uucks lost d-u both days.
“We are going through a lot of adversity because
the injuries,” said-Oregon head coach Jack Griffin. “
the same time, we’re playing some of the best teams in
Turn to TENNIS, Page 15
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