Wednesday
February 24,1999
©regonSK&meratfc
Best Bet
NCAA Basketball
Duke vs. Depaul
6 p.m., ESPN
Oregon Basketball
Mowe able to block out past injuries
The 6-foot-5 sophomore has
worked her way back from
injury to be a force at center
By Allison Ross
Oregon Daily Emerald
The best athletes are those who play
their sport year-round, never giving it
up unless their body forces them to
take a break. They may lose part of
their game, but they always find it
again.
Two years ago, Jenny Mowe was a
member of the USA Basketball Junior
Women’s World Championship team
that won its first gold medal. Mowe
was coming off an honorable freshman
season at Oregon in which she tied the
team lead with 30 blocks and was
third in rebounds with almost four per
game.
The Pacific-10 Conference All
Freshman team honoree played in all
29 of Oregon’s games in her debut
season, converting more than 50
percent of her shots and scoring in
double figures six times.
“When she went to the Junior
National Trials she was playing as well
as I’d ever seen her play,” Oregon head
coach Jody Runge says.
Last season, Mowe was on track for
another stellar season. But several
years of continuous play — years in
which she competed in the summer,
fall and winter —had taken their toll.
Tendinitis in her right knee slowed her
progress during fall practice. Mowe
was never at full strength and played
in just the first four games of the
season.
“It was hard to sit out all of last
season," Mowe says. “I didn’t even
practice. Now, I want to be [playing at
my potential] and the coaches want
me to, but my body just isn’t quite
there.”
Mowe’s performance in those four
games — 10 points in the season
opener against Idaho, followed by 26
points, 18 rebounds and eight blocks
in an MVP performance in the Pepsi
Shootout — earned her another invite
to the USA Basketball Junior National
Turn to MOWE, Page 12
Matt Htmkins/V.merald
Center Jenny Mowe rips a rebound away from two Wyoming defenders last November.
Top two teams
to tangle over
Pac-10 title
It all comes down to this — maybe.
Provided that Thursday’s games go ac
cording to plan, the Pacific-10 Confer
ence title could be decided Saturday
night, when No. 9 Arizona and No. 6 Stan
ford tangle in Palo Alto, Calif., at Maples
Pavilion at 7:30 p.m.
Unless, that is, whichever team wins the
game— or both — stumbles in the final
week oi tne season,
which is always a pos
sibility in the wildly
competitive Pac-10.
The Wildcats (20-4
overall, 11-3 Pac-10)
have doggedly kept up
their pursuit of a sec
ond straight league
championship by
winning five straight
and seven of eight.
Point guard Jason
Terry further en
trenched himself as
Men’s
Pac-10 Notes
Tim
Pyle
everybody s rac-lU player ot the year by lead
ing Arizona to home victories over the Ore
gon schools last week and being named play
er of the week for the second time this season.
Terry scored 21 points to accompany six
assists and two steals against Oregon State
before he burned the Ducks for the second
time this season with 32 points and seven
assists Saturday.
Meanwhile, the Cardinal (22-5,12-2)
seemingly got its groove back — my apolo
gies to Stella — by destroying fourth-place
Washington in Seattle, 89-57, Thursday to
recover from a stretch in which it lost three
ofsixaftera 13-game winning streak.
But then last-place Washington State
promptly took Stanford to the wire Satur
day night, eventually succumbing 64-58.
The Wildcats started what has become
the Cardinal’s late-season tailspin with a
78-76 win in Tucson, Ariz., on Jan. 28. In
that game, Terry, in what has been his dra
matic fashion all season long, hit a game
winning runner to show that Stanford,
which had been considered invincible by
many in the Pac-10 to that point, was in
Turn to MEN, Page 10
Women’s
Pac-10 Notes
Joel
Hood
Arizona head coach Joan Bonvicini sees it
as strictly a three-horse race.
UCLA's top dog Kathy Oliver thinks
there is just one logical choice.
Oregon’s Jody Runge doesn’t have a clue who to
vote for.
The Pacific-10 Conference’s player of the year
race is heading down the home stretch and there
are a handful of worthy candidates.
First on the list is UCLA junior Maylana Martin,
who finished second in the voting last season and
was also a third-team All-American and a first
team all-conference selection. The 6-foot-3 for
ward averaged 18 points and more than seven re
bounds a game.
This season, despite injury, Martin’s productiv
ity has not dropped off. She leads the Pac-10 in
scoring with an average of more than 18 points a
game. Martin also ranks second in rebounding,
nine boards per game, and third in field goal per
centage at 54 percent.
“Maylana is one of the most competitive
players I’ve ever worked with,” Oliver said
Tuesday. “The attitude she brings with her is
such a big part of this team. It’s difficult for us
to practice without her, let alone have to play
an entire game.”
Other coaches agree.
“Maylana is probably the best player in this
league,” Bonvicini said.
Martin, from Perris, Calif., turned in the sev
enth-best scoring performance in Bruins’ history
last weekend as she poured in a career-high and
Pac-10 season-best 38 points and grabbed 18 re
bounds in UCLA’s 82-64 win at USC on Friday.
For her efforts, Martin was named Pac-10 play
er of the week Monday for the second time this
season.
Washington senior Amber Hall and Oregon
freshman Shaquala Williams are the two other
names most often mentioned in the same breath
as Martin.
The 6-3 Hall leads the conference, averaging
more than 10 rebounds a game, and ranks seventh
on the Pac-lO’s all-time rebounds list with 952.
Williams, who didn’t take over the starting du
ties until Oregon began its Pac-10 schedule
against California on Jan. 2, ranks second on the
team in scoring (just fewer than 10 points a game)
and has scored in double figures eight times this
season.
Tournament talk
Here’s the scoop on Oregon’s NCAA Tourna
ment information. The Ducks will make the tour
ney for the sixth consecutive time under Runge,
but when and where they begin their postseason
journey is still up in the air.
Regardless of whether Oregon hosts the first
and second rounds of the tournament, those
games will be played on Thursday, March 12 and
Friday, March 13. The tournament’s second
round will begin a day later and run through the
weekend.
If the Ducks make it through the first two
rounds of the tournament, something they have
never done, they could play their Sweet 16 games
at the L.A. Sports Arena in Los Angeles on March
20. But that is only if the Ducks host the first and
second rounds in Eugene.
This season, the Final Four will be played in
San Jose, Calif., at the San Jose Arena on March 26
and 27. The championship game will be played
on Monday, March 28.