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MONDAY
January 4,1999
Best Bet
College Football
Tennessee vs.
Florida State
5 p.m., ABC
Ducks pound Cal 64-49, face Stanford toniaht
Saturday’s win over California
gives the Ducks momentum to
overcome a struggling Stanford
By Joel Hood
Oregon Daily Emerald
The Oregon women’s basketball team
needed a spark to beat California, and once
again Lindsey Dion was ready to deliver.
The sophomore guard scored nine of her
career-high 16 points in the second half on
Saturday to lift the Ducks to a rousing 64-49
victory over the Golden Bears in the teams’
Pacific-10 Conference opener at McArthur
Court.
With Oregon holding on to a slim 17-15
lead late in the first half, Dion energized the
3,927 in attendance with a three-pointer
On Tap
WHO:
Oregon vs. Stanford
WHERE:
McArthur Court
WHEN:
7 p.m.
over the outstretched
hand of California's
Sherrise Smith. Sec
onds later, Dion hit a
12-foot jumper along
the baseline to give
Oregon a 22-16 ad
vantage.
The Ducks (10-2
overall, 1-0 Pac-10)
closed the half with
on a 14-b run and led by eight points, 29-21,
at the break.
But California (6-4, 0-1) jumped back in
front 34-29 following a 12-0 run to start the
second half. Guard Courtney Johnson, who
paced the Bears with 13 points, capped the
California rally with a leaning jumper eight
feet from the basket.
Oregon took back the lead following two
free throws from forward Brianne Meharry
and a 15-foot jumper from Dion with 11
minutes, 54 seconds remaining.
The Ducks outscored California, which
averages a conference-low 37 percent from
the field, to 18-6 over the next eight and a
half minutes to cruise to its first Pac-10 vic
tory this season.
“You never really know whose going to
lead this team each night," said Dion, who
also had two assists and three steals in just
27 minutes of play.
“1 guess tonight was just my turn. For the
most part our guards played very well. Our
goal was to beat them on the boards and we
were able to do that.”
Forward Angelina Wolvert scored 16
Turn to STANFORD, Page 10
Man Hankins/ Emerald
Oregon’s Nicole Strange tears down the court Saturday night while winning a scramble with California's Courtney
Johnson.
Motivation
key against
the Cardinal
By Allison Ross
Oregon Daily Emerald
Motivation alone doesn’t always win
games, but when Oregon faced California on
Saturday it certainly helped,
Oregon sophomore Lindsey Dion had an
unusual motivating factor as she faced Cal
forward Paige Bowie, a former teammate of
hers from Clovis West High School in Pres
nu, ijuui. uiuii uanie on me
bench to score a career
high 16 points and proved
to he just the kind of inspi
ration the Ducks needed as
they struggled to find a
rhythm early in the first
and second halves.
“1 was playing an old
high school teammate, and that may have
caused me to be more focused," Dion said.
“It’s kind of a personal rivalry.”
Oregon has a personal rivalry of its own
tonight.
With Oregon’s leading defensive player
Lisa Bowyer out for three to four weeks with
a broken finger, and last year’s Pacific-10
Conference champion Stanford coming to
McArthur Court tonight, the Cal game on
Saturday was a chance for the Ducks to eval
uate exactly what they need to do in order to
beat the Cardinal for the first time since
1987.
"Cal is a good team, and we were ready for
that,” Oregon forward Brianne Meharry said.
“But Stanford is a big personal thing for me
and for the rest of the team. We haven’t beat
them in a long time.”
Meharry and the rest of the Ducks have ex
tra motivation heading into the Stanford
game, but that alone won’t be enough to
knock off the Cardinal.
Cal out-rebounded the Ducks 37-30 and
shot .500 from three-point range, while Ore
gon managed just .182. The Ducks, usually
consistent from the free-throw line, made
Turn to RIVALRY, Page 10
Men’s basketball fights odds against formidable Cardinal
The Ducks are coming off of
seven straight wins, but No. 5
Stanford presents a huge
challenge in tonight’s game
By Tim Pyle
Oregon Daily Emerald
Off to a sparkling 9-1 start after its Pacif
ic-10 Conference opening win at California
on Saturday, the Oregon men’s basketball
team today faces its biggest challenge yet
this season.
The Ducks will be aiming for their eighth
straight victory when they meet No. 5 Stan
ford (10-2 overall, 1-0 Pac-10) at Maples
Pavilion in Palo Alto, Calif., at 7:35 p.m.
National and Atlantic Coast Conference
powerhouses North Carolina and Maryland
are the only two teams to hand the Cardinal
defeats so far this season.
Stanford, which has won six straight
since losing to the Terrapins 62-60 in Wash
ington, D.C., on Dec. 6, advanced to the
NCAA Tournament’s Final Four last season
and was ranked No. 1 nationally in the pre
season by many publications, including
Sports Illustrated.
Oregon head coach Ernie Kent is hopeful
that his team will have more success than it
did in last season’s appearance at Maples
Pavilion, where the Ducks suffered a 95-67
setback.
“Stanford is a tough, physical basketball
team,” Kent said, “and I expect a challeng
ing game in a hostile environment.”
The Cardinal is well-balanced offensive
ly, with three players averaging in double
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scoring more than seven
points per game.
Guards Arthur Lee and
Kris Weems combine to
form one of the nation’s
best backcourts, while cen
ter Tim Young and for
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BMxmuu
wards Mark “Mad Dog" Madsen and Peter
Sauer start in the frontcourt.
The Ducks have lost 12 straight at Stan
ford, dating back to an 83-69 Oregon victory
in 1986.
But in securing their best start since a 10-0
mark in 1996-97, the Ducks have meshed
five newcomers with their seven veterans.
Kent said he could not be happier with
the results.
“I am obviously extremely pleased with
the way we’ve played to this point,” Kent
said. “We’ve only really played one bad half
of basketball to this point, that being the sec
ond half at Minnesota."
The now-No. 16 Golden Gophers gave
Oregon its lone loss when they recovered
from a 14-point halftime deficit to beat the
Ducks 72-61 on Nov. 30.
After rebounding with a 93-62 home win
over Brigham Young on Dec. 5, Oregon en
joyed a perfect winter break. Despite the
loss of point guard Mike McShane to an in
jured right ankle for four to six weeks on
Dec. 8, the Ducks went 6-0, including the
win over Cal, while Oregon students had a
respite from classes.
Portland State was the Ducks’ first victim,
losing 73-62 at McArthur Court on Dec. 12.
Senior guard Terik Brown paved the way
with a game-high 23 points, which also
marks Oregon’s highest individual scoring
output for the season. The win atoned for
the Ducks’ 56-54 home loss to the Vikings
last season.
Oregon then won its first-ever game at
Santa Clara in an 80-65 decision on Dec. 14.
Forward A.D. Smith recorded his second
double-double of the season with 17 points
and 12 rebounds.
The Ducks then returned home to battle
Alcorn State on Dec. 19. Forward Alex
Scales’ all-around talents led Oregon to a
78-68 victory. Scales filled the boxscore
with 18 points, five rebounds and four as
sists.
At the Portland Jam at the Rose Garden on
Dec. 22, freshman guard Freddie Jones
scored a team-high 18 points and added five
rebounds as the Ducks rolled past Vander
bilt 90-70. The game was Jones’ first in the
Portland area since graduating from Gre
sham’s Barlow High School last year.
Jones again paced Oregon in scoring in an
87-67 victory over Saint Martin’s at
McArthur Gourt on Dec. 28. The Oregon
ian’s two-time state player of the year in
high school scored 16 points, grabbed five
rebounds and dished three assists. Junior
college transfer forward Skouson Darker
contributed 15 points and five rebounds.
Heading into today’s game, Smith leads
the Ducks in scoring and rebounding, aver
aging 15 points and eight rebounds per
game. Brown is scoring 14 points per game,
and Scales has produced more than 13
points and six rehounds per game. Jones is
shooting a team-high 61.2 percent from the
floor and averaging more than nine points
per game.