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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 11, 2000)
Women’s continued from page 9 from the floor and hadn’t been to the foul line. The Cardinal anticipated a miss. Former gold medal-winning Olympic coach Tara VanDerveer had two timeouts remaining. A well-executed set play could then tie the game, or win it. Really, it isn’t that complicated. But when Wolvert’s first free throw bounced off the iron and into the hands of the Cardinal’s Sarah Dimson, she paused. So did point guard Milena Flo res and VanDerveer. And the refs. Then Dimson dropped the ball and did nothing. Even the clock stopped with 4.1 to go. For the briefest instant, Stan ford had no clue. Flores w'as the first on the floor to realize that Wolvert’s shots were one-and-one — not the two shot bonus — and with the clock restarted, seconds winding down and the ball sitting on the floor, the senior guard raced over and picked up the rock. Error No. 2: Instead of using one of her two timeouts, Flores desperately hucked the ball downcourt toward the basket. The ball flew out of bounds, and rather than set her team up for a potential game-winning shot, Flo res racked up her team’s 19th turnover with .08 seconds left. After that, it was over — al most. The Ducks inbounded twice, once after the clock started early and time expired illegaly. But Flores didn’t waste any time on that second inbound pass. She fouled point guard Shaquala Williams before the ball even touched a player, giving Williams two free throws and Oregon two more points in a wild 61-57 victory in front of 5,944 at McArthur Court. To say the least, it was a frus trating finish for the Cardinal. “The ref signals one-and-one, we’re standing there, I don’t know,” VanDerveer said. “Unfor tunately, it didn’t come down to that. We fouled to make her miss, and she missed, and we get the ball back, but people are just standing around, I have no idea. It’s extremely frustrating.” Meanwhile, Oregon head coach Jody Runge was in a much better mood than her Stanford counter part. She seemed tongue-in-cheek as she recalled the final seconds of regulation, saying she was ful ly aware that Wolvert was shoot Kevin Calame Emerald Headache-free and loving it, Lindsey Dion takes it to the Cardinal Thursday night. mg one-and-one. “I was way ahead of that,” Runge said. “[Assistant coach Dan Muscatell] handles the officiating, and if there was something that would have come out of it I need ed to be concerned about, then he would have let me know.” Stanford’s final breakdown was not the only lapse. With the first half winding down and the Ducks up 28-25, Oregon forward Lind sey Dion was nearly uncontested as she grabbed her own rebound, dribbled deep into the lane and beat the buzzer with a short jumper off the glass. Dion continued to be a pres ence in the second half, finishing with a game-high 16 points, three assists and three rebounds. Dion said the Ducks played partly for Betty Ann Boeving, a former Duck who was in a car ac cident prior to the game. Also, Oregon hadn’t forgotten its earlier bout at Stanford, when a 26-point lead turned into a 16-point loss. “We had a lot emotionally at tached going in. We were talking about how we went down there and embarrassed ourselves with a 42-point turnaround. We decided that wouldn’t be the case when they came here.” The Ducks are. looking for a sweep when they play California on Saturday at 7 p.m. Williams said it is a game that Oregon needs to keep in perspective. “We’ve got to think about the next game,” Williams said. “We can’t get too high with the highs and too low with the lows. We’ve got to approach every game the same.” Dion continued from page 9 Traits that Stanford players have traditionally been known for. Characteristics that Oregon play ers are getting known for. Dion returned the following Thursday against Washington, but she still wasn’t herself, wob bling through 17 minutes of play — and still managing to score eight points and collect five boards. And saying afterward, that, yes, she had felt a little “loopy” out there. Two days after that on Jan. 22, Dion chased down a loose ball, collided with a Washington State player and had to leave the game with what everyone feared was another concussion, but turned out to be post-concussion syn drome — which would keep her out of action for a week, including in the Ducks’ loss to Southern Cal ifornia and then in the UCLA win. But having missed that time doesn’t matter now, because every game from now on is the biggest, the second-place Ducks (16-6,7-3) will tell you. “How do you eat an elephant,” head coach Jody Runge analo gized. “One bite at a time.” If that’s the case, Dion was in ef fect for Thursday’s big one. But she’s always effective against Stanford. It’s just a thing. “Coincidental” Dion called it. Last season, it was her 14 points lhat led Oregon to its first triumph over the Cardinal in 11 years. Thursday night it was tying her ca reer-high 16 that did the job. Purely coincidence, sure. Inter esting though, the non-statistical similarities that exist between Dion’s game and those of former Stanford stars like Jamila Wide man and Kate Starbird, who Dion, like many young players, couldn’t help but admire as she grew up. Although Dion would never ac knowledge such a likeness. “Tonight was just my night to step up,” Dion said. “And my teammates made the right pass, I just had the easy part of shooting the basketball.” Except that there was more to it. Typical, timely Dion things. The Ducks took a lead into half time because Dion wanted them to. With seconds to go, she drove into the lane with an Tm-gonna score’ mentality, missed the shot, got the rebound and then the put back. Ducks up five. Nice. Then with less than two min utes left in the game and Oregon trailing 55-54, Dion did it again. Driving the lane, pump-faking, suckering three Stanford defend ers into the air, banking home the shot and drawing the foul — which she converted to put the Ducks ahead by two. Of course. And when Angelina Wolvert laid-in the deciding points a minute later, it was Dion who got the assist. No surprise there. “I knew Lindsey was going to be an All-American tonight,” Runge said. “She was really disappoint ed to not play in the game last time, and being the California kid, she just really wanted to make the difference in winning this basket ball game tonight. She was cer tainly the difference in what hap pened last time and what happened this time.” Mirjam Swanson is the sports editor at the Emerald. She can be reached at mswan@gladstone.uoregon.edu. -poppiV _/4na,4oli&. 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