Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 7, 2000)
Ducks eager for first test ■ Women’s tennis opens the Pac-10 season with the annual Pac-10 Indoors tournament in Seattle By Matt O’Neill for the Emerald The Oregon women’s tennis team opens Pacific-10 Confer ence play this weekend in their annual trip to the Pac-10 Indoors in Seattle, Wash. The tourna ment begins today and contin ues through Sunday and will have four flights of singles play and two flights of doubles. Head Coach Jack Griffinsees the Indoors as a great way to open the conference season. Be cause all of the conference’s schools will be represented, Griffin said this trip will be a great measuring stick for the team. “The Pac-10’s are a great way to start the season,” Griffin said. “There is no better tune-up for us for the main season than against some of the best players in the country.” All of the current members of Griffin’s team will be making the trip and will see action. Griffin expects that senior Alina Wygonowska will only see dou bles action due to the flu. Fresh man Monika Gieczys moves in the top singles flight in her place. i “Alina is coming off the flu,and is not moving around as well as I’d like,” Griffin said. “That moves Monika up to the number one spot for the tourna ment.” There is a new Duck who will be making the trip with the team. Jeanette Mattsson, a native of Sweden, recently enrolled at Oregon and is a big ad dition to the team ac cording to Griffin. “Jeanette has the po tential to play in our top four this year,” Griffin said. “She might even move into the top two before the season is out.” Mattson comes to the program with numerous accolades and a great deal of international expe rience. She was ranked as high as the top three in Sweden in the junior circuit. Mattsson will join the fresh man Amy Juppenlatz in the sec ond flight of singles. Sophomore Janice Nyland and Sarah Col istro will be in the third flight, while Adeline Arnaud and Va lerie Young will play in the fourth flight. The Ducks will field only four ioubles teams at the tourna nent. Wygonowska and Gieczys will be the only team for Oregon n the top flight. The other three earns will all play in the second light and will consist of the iuos of Nyland and Juppenlatz, Vlattsson and Colistro, and Ar aaud and Young. Griffin has been touting this year’s team as one of the best at Dregon in a long time, but he Feels that it is now time to put that statement on the line as :onference play opens. “Our team looks so deep and so talented on paper that it is hard to see why we can’t win a lot of matches,” Griffin said. ‘But now is the time to translate that team which is on paper onto the court.” He said that the depth and the quality of players will act as a motivating factor for many of them. As long as the team re mains healthy, there will be a lot of players competing for the top four spots. “We have a lot of quality play ers who want and are capable of playing in the top four,” Griffin said. “That should be a great mo tivating factor for them. In the past, we only had a couple of great players who knew that they would play pretty much all the time.” Garnett propels Wolves past Blazers MINNEAPOLIS — Kevin Gar nett hit the winning basket with 3.3 seconds left to cap a 27-point performance as the Minnesota Timberwolves beat Portland 98-96 on Thursday night. Malik Sealy tied his season-high with 27 points for Minnesota, which won for the eighth time in nine games. Terrell Brandon had 17 points, 14 assists and eight re bounds. Rasheed Wallace scored 24 points, and Steve Smith had 20 for Portland, which had its six-game winning streak snapped. Portland had a 92-88 lead with 2:45 remaining before Garnett and Brandon each made two free throws to tie it with 1:52 left. The teams then traded baskets twice before Garnett banked in a 10-foot er to win it. Damon Stoudamire’s jumper from the foul line, rimmed in and out at the buzzer. Leading 49-47, Portland took advantage of eight Minnesota turnovers in the third quarter to extend its lead to 75-70. Smith scored seven in the quarter and Pippen added five. Wallace scored nine in the first quarter as Portland took a 27-20 lead. Minnesota used a 9-2 run at the start of the second to tie it at 29 with 8:46 left in the half. Portland center Arvydas Sabo nis didn’t play because of an up per respiratory infection. Notes: Minnesota activated cen ter Dean Garrett, who had been on the injured list since Dec. 17 be cause of a sore left knee. He had four points and three rebounds in eight minutes.... Minnesota guard William Avery played for the first time in six games, following a bout with the flu.... The Wolves are in the midst of a tough stretch (Dec. 23-Jan. 19) when they play 11 of 13 games against opponents with .500-plus records, including all four division leaders. ... Sealy shot ll-for-16 from the field and is shooting 61.4 percent in his last 11 games. Heat 111, Rockets 99 MIAMI — Alonzo Mourning put a dreadful performance against the Vancouver Grizzlies behind him in a hurry. Mourning, coming off a 12 point, eight-rebound effort in Mia mi’s loss to Vancouver, had 28 points and blocked nine shot in the Heat’s 111-99 victory over Houston on Thursday night. “He was phenomenal,” said Houston coach Rudy Tom janovich, who will coach Mourn ing in the Olympics. “We didn’t have anyone to deal with him. ... He just overpowered us.” Mourning was 12-of-15 from the field as the Heat beat Houston for the eighth straight time. Steve Francis has 22 points for the Rockets, who have lost six straight on the road and 10 of 13 overall. The rookie wasn’t impressed with Mourning, saying the star center got away with fouls on some soaring dunks. “He fouled me every single time,” Francis said. “I was over the rim.... I’m going to lift weights tomorrow and get my legs stronger so next time I play him I’ll put it on his head five times.” Jamal Mashburn had 19 points and Dan Majerle added 16 for the Heat. Without retiree Charles Barkley or injured Hakeem Qlajuwon up front, Mourning had his way down low against Carlos Rogers and a lumbering Thomas Hamil ton. “I thought Zo was about as effi cient as he could get on offense and blocked shots,” coach Pat Ri ley said. “We made a conscious ef fort to drive the ball, execute the offense and we attacked the rim.” Mashburn and Mourning scored 10 points apiece in the third quarter to help the Heat ex tend an 11-point halftime lead to 89-67 heading into the tourth quarter. Eight of Mashburn’s points came during an 18-6 run, turning a 56-47 lead into a 74-53 rout. Miami was 14-of-22 from the floor in the quarter and outre bounded Houston 12-6. “We were beating them on the boards in the first half but they just wore us down,” Tomjanovich said. Shandon Anderson and Walt Williams each had 17 points for the Rockets. Pacers 102, Nuggets 87 DENVER — Travis Best scored 13 points in the fourth quarter and Sam Perkins hit key 3-pointers as the Indiana Pacers ran their win ning streak to a season-high seven games with a 102-87 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Thursday night. Reggie Miller finished with 20 points, Rik Smits had 17 and Best 15 as Indiana beat the Nuggets for the eighth straight game. Antonio McDyess led Denver with 21 points and nine rebounds, and Raef LaFrentz had 15 points. Indiana, leading 76-74 after three quarters, outscored Denver 26-13 in the final period. After a free throw by LaFrentz cut the deficit to 76-75, Best hit a driving layup and followed with two free throws, and Miller made a fast-break layup for an 82-75 lead. LaFrentz hit a layup, but Miller countered with two free throws and Austin Croshere hit the first of three straight 3-pointers by the Pacers. Perkins and Best followed with 3s, and Best’s jumper com pleted a 19-3 run, making it 95-78 with 5:22 left. Indiana was 12-of-26 from 3 point range, including four by Perkins, compared to Denver’s 4 of-13. The Pacers also were 14-of 15 from the line compared to Den ver’s 13-of-23. The Associated Press Rocker to undergo psychological testing ATLANTA — John Rocker was ordered by baseball to undergo psychological tests before decid ing whether to punish the outspo ken reliever for remarks he made disparaging gays, minorities and immigrants. Commissioner Bud Selig said Thursday he will await the evalua tion of the Atlanta Braves star be fore deciding on any disciplinary action. “Mr. Rocker’s recent remarks made to a national magazine re porter were reprehensible and completely inexcusable,” Selig said in a statement. “I am pro foundly concerned about the na ture of those comments as well as by certain other aspects of his be havior.” Selig said he will take “whatever additional action that I consider to be necessary” after Rocker’s eval uation. Braves president Stan Kasten said at a news conference that he thought punishment was warrant ed, but said the commissioner’s of fice will decide, not the team. “It’s important that John gets right with the organization, his teammates and the community,” Kasten said. “But we at least need to give the man an opportunity to demonstrate his heartfelt remorse and correct the problem.” He said if the comments had been published during the season, Rocker likely would have been suspended indefinitely. Kasten said the evaluation should begin within days. He said Bolt’s Ski Bus (o Willamolto Pass, Jit. Bachelor \ Hoodoo! //irj Sign up at Berg’s! Call For Details, Reservations & Information. Berg’/ /hi /hop 13th&Lawrence • Eugene * 683-1300 releasing Rocker remains an op tion but is unlikely. Kasten said baseball officials and the players’ association decid ed the evaluations were appropri ate. The two organizations jointly will pick psychologists to evaluate Rocker. Rocker’s agent, Randy Hen dricks, said neither he nor Rocker would comment. In his comments to Sports Illus trated last month, Rocker said he would never play for a New York team because he didn’t want to ride a train “next to some queer with AIDS.” He also bashed immi grants, saying, “I’m not a very big fan of foreigners ... How the hell did they get in this country?” While driving in Atlanta during the interview, Rocker spit on a toll machine and mocked Asian women: “Look! Look at this idiot,” he said. “I guarantee you she’s a Japanese woman. How bad are Asian women at driving?” He also called a black teammate “a fat monkey.” Rocker later apologized and said he was not a racist, but several ad vocacy groups said the written apology and baseball’s action thus far was not enough. “We have asked for his termina tion and still stand by that,” Jeff Graham, executive director of At lanta’s AIDS Survival Project, said Thursday. “This certainly falls short of what we asked for and think is appropriate.” The Associated Press RENTALS! Downhill [Jiew shaped skisj ^ I (I & Cross Country.. BV Snowboards SO** & Boots... Back Country SIT & Telemark Pkgs.11 “ S'* Snow Shoes.; i) BetgV fki/hop 13th & Lawrence* 683-1300 ■I fflacWnt WED* SAT: 9PMTO CLOSE HOUSE*CHSCX)*TOP40 SateUlfcrC- _ 15 T\/S 3 BIG SCREENS “37 years of Quality Service” Mercedes • BMW • Volkswagen • Audi German Auto Service 342-2912 • 2025 Franklin Blvd. Eugene, Oregon, 97402
