Giant-slayer USC
eying postseason
Two very different
women’s basketball
teams took the floor Sat
urday night at McArthur
Court, each trying to accomplish
the goal that every team has when
they hit the hardwood—to win.
Yet there was something
greater at stake for each combat
ant.
The Ducks, trying to remain in
control of the Pacific-10 Confer
ence title chase, also wanted to
show the conference that its earli
er loss to Southern California was
a stroke of bad luck rather than
the sweet-stroke jumper of guard
Tiffany Elmore at the buzzer.
The Trojans had little hope —
then—for postseason play, but
they still had plenty of pride to
play for. And after much talk
about their win over Oregon on
Jan. 27 being a mistake, Southern
California wanted to prove it
could hang with stronger teams.
The ensuing 40-minute debate
was fierce.
But when all was said and
done, the Trojans said more and
said it louder.
“There were a couple things
said about the last time we played
them being a fluke, and [that]
they just didn’t work hard. And
personally that’s the kind of stuff
that puts a fire in your eyes,” for
ward Danielle Golay said. “Any
time you lose away, there’s al
ways an excuse. It’s great to be
able to reinforce that loss on their
home court, because it wasn’t a
fluke.”
The Trojans, projected by
many to finish the season some
where around seventh in the con
ference, have surprised many, in
cluding the Pac-lO’s toughest
teams.
After enduring three road loss
es —a 20-point loss to UCLA, a
four-point overtime loss to Ari
zona State and a 15-point loss to
Arizona—the Trojans came
home and beat Oregon, 74-73.
Three losses later, USC
avenged the first part of its sea
son, beating UCLA, Arizona and
Arizona State on its home floor.
And on Saturday, it was Ore
gon’s turn to lose.
The Trojans’ win was their first
Pac-10 road victory of the season.
It was also their first sweep, and it
happened in
front of
6,037 hos
tile fans.
“Basket
ball’s a
game of
matchups,”
USC head
coach Chris
Gobrecht
said. “We
happen to
be a tough
- matchup
for the top teams in this confer
ence. There’s probably a lot of
reasons for that. Now it’s like our
big goal is to go out and beat the
teams we’re not supposed to
beat.”
USC last won the Pac-10 title in
1994. A few more wins, and the
Trojans could be heading for a
trip to the NIT.
And they have to be eying their
home game on March 5. It’s
against first-place Stanford.
Look out.
Scott
Pesznecker
Men’s hoops
continued from page 7
the face. Smith suffered a concus
sion and watched the rest of the
game from the stands behind Ore
gon’s bench.
Eight minutes later, Darius
Wright was called for a flagrant
foul. The call made Kent livid,
and he was issued with a techni
cal foul — a rarity for him.
With Smith gone and a fired-up
coach on the sidelines, the Ducks
battled the Trojans down-to-the
wire with a weapon that had been
missing as of late — their jump
shot.
Alex Scales led the charge as he
hit 11 of 16, including 4 for 8 from
three-point land, to finish with a
career-high 30 points. In all, Ore
gon shot a much-improved 50
percent from the field and 42.9
percent from beyond the arc.
The game was close in large
part because the Ducks had no an
swer for Scalabrine, who had
himself a career-high 29 points.
Oregon owned a 50-42 lead
with 6:30 to go, but three minutes
later, USC’s David Bluthenthal
scored two of his 24 points. It
capped a 9-0 run and put the Tro
jans in front, 51-50.
With 4:24 left, Oregon found it
self down 67-61 after Scalabrine
converted a dunk and a three
point play on consecutive posses
sions.
Kent called a time-out, and as
Scales walked back on the floor,
his face was one of determination.
His eyes were focused. He was
not going to lose.
On the first possession, he
found Julius Hicks for the bucket
and the foul. Then he hit a three
pointer with 3:38 left, cutting the
IVojan lead to one.
USC took a 71-69 lead with
2:42 to go, but like a true senior
leader, Scales knocked down an
other three and then rebounded a
miss and outran three streaking
Trojans to execute the fast-break
lay-in.
Oregon led, 74-71. Two min
utes remaining.
Game over? Not quite.
USC guard Jeff Trepagnier hit
three of four free throws to tie the
game.
Wright then knocked down a
baseline jumper and hit two free
throws with 20 seconds left to
give Oregon the 78-74 advantage.
With USC’s postseason hopes
on the line, Scalabrine muscled
home a bucket while getting
fouled and cut the margin to one
with nine seconds left.
On the ensuing inbounds,
Wright passed to Scales, who then
passed back to Wright, but the ball
went out of bounds. Yet Oregon
dodged a bullet when USC’s own
inbound pass turned disastrous as
Scalabrine tripped and fell over
his own teammate, and Hicks
picked up the loose ball.
Hicks knocked home two free
throws, and when USC’s Brandon
Granville? missed’ his target on .a
three, the win — and the “life les
son” — belonged to the Ducks.
“It was just an outstanding
win,” Kent said. “This might be
one of the biggest character wins
in this program. They have
tremendous character, and I’m
lucky to be able to coach them.”
Like a true warrior, Smith
spoke after the game with his eye
swollen shut and his cheek mak
ing it difficult to speak.
“The boys pulled through
tonight,” Smith said. “Talk about
Alex, Darius and Julius. Those
guys are clutch.”
Basketball
continued from page 7
USC’s constant pressure and never
got going.
“Usually when you start out
slow, you figure, ‘OK, we’ve gotta
pick it up sometime, there’s no
way we can play a whole game
like that,”’ junior forward Brianne
Meharry said. “But that’s what we
did tonight.”
Oregon wasn’t ever completely
out of the game. It just wasn’t ever
in it, either.
With three minutes, 32 seconds
to go, the Ducks emerged from a
timeout trailing 60-53. But sopho
more guard Shaquala Williams
pushed through the press and made
a lovely up-and-under hesitation
layup, bringing Oregon within five.
Then, after forward Danielle Go
lay — who led USC with 19 points
— hit a jumper, Angelina Wolvert
answered with a layin, and the
Ducks were back down five with
two and a half minutes left.
Moments later, Jenny Mowe
came up with a tremendous block
on the baseline, which led to an
other hesitation Shaq layup at the
other end, on the assist from sen
ior guard Nicole Strange.
With just less than two minutes
to go, the TYojan Women led by only
three, 62-59. Oregon, it seemed, has
finally got its groove back.
But then, with 1:12 left, Mowe
stepped to the free throw line with a
chance to pull her team within one.
But the junior missed both shots.
Forty seconds later, Wolvert
was called for her fifth foul and
joined Meharry as the second
Duck to foul out.
“It wasn’t until I fouled out that I
realized we weren’t going to be
able to pull this off unless we came
down and hit some big shots,”
Wolvert said.
And that didn’t happen.
Williams knocked down a des
peration three from the top of the
key with eight seconds left, and she
then drew a foul with :02 on the
clock. It was all too little, too late.
“We ran though our whole arse
nal of offenses, but we couldn’t
find anything that could get any
body an opportunity to score,”
Oregon head coach Jody Runge
said. USC “did a great job, they
picked us up at 40 feet and forced
us into a place where we just
wanted to get rid of the ball. We
just weren’t at all prepared to exe
cute against this kind of pressure.”
Williams, playing in front of her
friend Chamique Holdsclaw, had
a game-high 22 points on 7-of-17
shooting, but she had only one as
sist and six turnovers. As a team,
the Ducks finished with nine as
sists and 27 turnovers.
The Ducks also committed 24
fouls, which may have been some
what abetted by nit-picky officiat
ing. Regardless, the only time this
season that Oregon fouled more
was in its 74-61 loss to Santa Bar
bara in December.
As disappointed as Runge was
in Oregon’s overall execution, she
seemed to be even more disillu
sioned by her players’ demeanor.
“I told them ‘I’m not going to get
too upset about it,”’ Runge said.
“‘If you don’t care about it—and I
didn’t see any tears after the game
— then I’m not going to care that
much.’ They have to decide what
they want to do: if they’re going to
come in and get ready to go down
[to Arizona] and win some games
or if they’re gonna be fragile. They
have to get a lot tougher. ”
Or at least ditch this evil twin.
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