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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 7, 1999)
THURSDAY January 7,1999 Best Bet NCAA Basketball Georgia Tech at Duke 6p.m.,ESPN Ducks hope to beat revamped USC Oregon takes on Southern California tonight and is looking forward to an upcoming UCLA game By Tim Pyle Oregon Daily Emerald For only the second time this season, the Oregon men’s basketball team will he looking to recover from a loss when it takes on Southern California in the Ducks’ Pacific-10 Conference home opener tonight. Oregon (9-2 overall, 1-1 Pac-10) suf fered a 77-59 setback at No. 4 Stanford on Monday after earning a precious Pac 10 road win at California on Saturday. WHO: Oregon vs. Southern California WHERE: McArthur Court WHEN: 7:35 p.m. TV: Fox Sports Net 7:35 p.m. lilt; 1 iujans ra-z, l-ij beat Arizona State 72-70 before losing to Arizona 87-78 in starting league play at home. Ducks forward A.D. Smith said USC looks much im proved from last sea son, when it finished eighth in the Pac-10 at 5-13 (9-19 overalll and split its series with Oregon, includ ing a 73-61 loss in Eugene. "Just looking at [the Trojans’] person nel, they have nine or 10 guys who can really play, as opposed to last season, when they only had five or six,” Smith said. USC’s revamped roster includes four freshmen, and the Trojans start four un derclassmen along with senior forward Adam Spanich. Sophomore center Brian Scalabrine leads the team in scoring and rebound ing at 16 points per game and seven re bounds per game. Those averages are good for sixth and eighth in the Pac-10, respectively. “Scalabrine is going to be the guy they are going to when they need it,” Smith said. “Then they have a couple good shooters and some good athletes.” Sophomore guard Jeff Trepagnier has also been impressive offensively, averaging more than 13 points per game. But his defense has been even better, as he ranks first in the Pac-10 Turn to DUCKS, Page 8 Nick Medley/Emtmld Junior-college transfer Alex Scales soars to the hoop in the Ducks' 93-62 victory against Brigham Young at McArthur Court on Dec. 6. Ice Hockey team loses head coach Louthis steps in, promising a smooth transition and a shot at the nationals By Brett Williams tor the Emerald Call it addition by subtraction. Within tho midst of a nine-game winning streak, the Oregon Club Sports ice hockey team received news during the break that its second-year coach, Geoff Norman, will not be returning for the second half of the season because of personal reasons. Fortunately for Oregon, last season's team captain Ezra Louthis has stepped in to replace him. Promoting Louthis from assistant to head coacn was welcomed by Oregon’s players. "Ezra was the smartest player I ever played with," forward Tyler Shaffar said. "He knows the team well. We expect it to uea very smooin transition. It needs to be smooth for Oregon (10-2-1), which will travel down south this weekend for a doubleheader with Padfic-H Conference fron trunner l ICLA (9-1-0). The Ducks need at least a split this weekend to continue their chances of advancing to nationals after the regular season. A sweep would almost guarantee Oregon a bid. However, a sweep by the Bruins could be devastating to Oregon. The Ducks need to fin ish in the top four in the Western Division in order to advance to nationals. Oregon is cur rently ranked fourth. After splitting with UCLA during the reg ular season last year, the Ducks fell short against the Bruins in the Pac-8 champi onship consolation game. "We were really let down for that game lie cause we had not qualified for the Pac-8 cham pionship,” Shaffarsaid. Despite the long layoff since its victories against Idaho more than a month ago, Ore gon players have been keeping in shape. "Our team did a lot of individual things dur ing the break, like weight lifting, skating and running. We shouldn’t be rusty," Shaffarsaid. Louthis’ strategies need to mentally pre pare the Ducks for this weekend, which is shaping to be one of Oregon’s most challeng ing of the season. “We need to play with discipline and avoid dumb penalties,” Shaffar said. “If we stay out of the penalty box, we’ll win.” Oregon wrestling team stomps Stanford Cardinal 28-9 Oregon won eight of the 10 opening matches against Stanford, leading to an improvement in its dual meet record By Scott Pesznecker Oregon Daily Emerald There was a tone of readiness in the voice of wrestling head coach Chuck Kearney before the Ducks’ meet against Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif., on Wednesday. The Cardinal, he said, has “traditionally wrestled Oregon very well.” However, traditions are made to be bro ken. Oregon improved its dual-meet record to 3-0 by beating Stanford 28-9, winning eight of the 10 opening matches. Two of those matches were won by major decisions and one by technical fall. Stanford’s record was 2-2 after losing to Oregon. Later on in the evening, Stanford lost again to Harvard and the Cardinal’s record dropped to 2-3. The Ducks won the first four matches of the evening and jumped to an early 15-0 lead. Stanford could not recover from the deficit. Stanford’s Tim Kendall, wrestling Ore WRESTLING gon s 104-pouna uoug Lee, was the first victim of the evening. Lee shut down Kendall, winning the decision by a score of 16-9. Chael Sonnen, wresmng at iu/ pounds, iollowed Lee s performance. He won by technical fall in the second match of the evening against Stanford’s Chuck Fairbanks. Kevin Keeney wrestled third for Oregon at 285 pounds and embarrassed Andy Hunter by winning with by a decision of 15-2. Kenny Cox made his wrestling debut in the 125-pound weight class, down from his usual 133 pounds. In the fourth match of the evening, Cox beat his opponent by de cision 8-2. Daryl Christian and Sean Morgan were victorious but had their hands full against the Cardinal. Christian won the decision over Beau Weiner 3-1 and Morgan squeaked by Warren McPherson 2-1. The Cardinal was allowed only two matches in the meet. Stanford’s Shane Cross won the decision 2-0 over Jesse Culp at 174 pounds, and Zach Zimmerer won points for the Cardinal by forfeit at the 133 pound weight class. Wednesday’s meet marked the start of Oregon’s Pacific-10 Conference season. Next the Ducks will face Cal Poly SLO on Friday and CS Bakersfield on Satur day. CHRISTIAN
