Monday
Best Bet
NFL: Chiefs at Patriots
6 p.m., ABC
SPORTS EDITOR: JEFF SMITH Smittside@aol.com
A win-win evening for Duck basketball
K
Tom Patterson Emerald
Oregon forward Bryan Bracey (42) blows by Ronell
Blizzard (3) of Massachusetts for two of his career-high 24
points. Ducks coach Ernie Kent (left) has his team at 5-0.
■Bryan Braceyand Freddie Jones
score a combined 47 points to help
keep the Ducks undefeated
By Jeff Smith
Oregon Daily Emerald
PORTLAND—In head coach Ernie Kent’s
eyes, ail is right in the world.
His Oregon basketball team is 5-0 after
beating Massachusetts 91-76 Saturday in the
third annual Pape Jam.
His two “go-to guys” led the charge as
Bryan Bracey had a career-high 24 points and
Freddie Jones contributed a season-high 23
points in front of 9,231 fans at Portland’s
Rose Garden.
And his bench play is putting in decent num
bers from a different set of players each night.
But while Saturday’s win did mark Oregon’s
best start since the 1996-97
team that opened at 10-0 and
I its second-best opening in 23
years, it did little to make a
convincing statement as to
I what kind of team this is.
The Ducks again outlasted
j their opponent in a sluggish,
foul-plagued game that
stretched late into Saturday night. The two
teams combined shot 83 free throws, dommit
Turn to Men’s, page 25A
Tom Patterson Emerald
Center Jenny Mowe scored 16 points on 7-for-7 shooting in
the second half of Oregon’s 62-54 win over Santa Clara.
Coach Jody Runge (right) has the Ducks ranked No. 12.
■Center Jenny Mowe wins Player of
the Game honors with 16 second-half
points
By Scott Pesznecker
Oregon Daily Emerald
PORTLAND — Oregon head coach Jody
Runge dressed to the occasion of playing in
an NBA arena.
She stood in front of the Oregon bench
sporting an uncharacteristic black pant suit
bordered around the collar and wrists with a
feathery red-and-black trim.
On the Rose Garden floor, however,
Runge’s team appeared shabby at best.
The No. 12 Ducks (4-0) overcame an ugly 21
point, 14-tumover first-half performance to
beat Santa Clara (3-2), 62-54, in front of thou
sands of fans at the Trailblazers’ home arena in
Portland Saturday night at the
third annual Pape Jam.“We’ve
I got problems,” sophomore
point guard Kourtney Shreve
said. “We turned the ball over
way too much.”
One problem was the three
point line, junior guard Jamie
Craighead said. Oregon’s
guards were disoriented at times when they
confused the pro-distance black line with the
Turn to Women’s, page 22A
Ducks show improvement at Cliff Keen Invitational
Sophomore
Brian Watson
leads the
Oregon
wrestling team
with runners
up honors at
the Las Vegas
Invitational
Tournament
By Robbie McCallum
Oregon Daily Emerald
With 53 of the top teams in the
nation bringing 36 top-10 ranked
wrestlers, the 19th annual Cliff
Keen Invitational Tournament
had a definite NCAA feel to it.
Nearly 640 wrestlers tangled
for two days in Las Vegas in one
of the most competitive tourna
ments all season.
Such an intense competition
was a major contrast to the Ore
gon wrestling team’s first three
outings. Butthe Ducks responded
well to the challenge and placed
seventh put of the 53 teams, beat
ing four'other top-25 teams.
“We wrestled well, but we have
a lot of things to keep working at
to get better,” Oregon head coach
Chuck Kearney said. “We didn’t
put together the whole tourna
ment that we’re capable of. We
can compete at this level of com
petition, and there’s a lot of little
things we need to keep working
on — but all stuff that’s fixable.”.
Three Ducks placed in the top
three to lead the Oregon effort.
Sophomore Brian Watson record
ed five straight decisions en route
to the 133-pound final match,
where he narrowly fell to second
ranked Todd Beckerman of Ne
braska. Watson’s season record
now stands at 11-1.
Senior Doug Lee lost for the
first time this season in the semi
finals to Illinois’ eighth-ranked
Nate Patrick at 184 pounds. The
second-ranked All-American
came back to defeat Boise State’s
Cash Edwards and Lehigh’s Rob
Rohn for the third-place title. All
of Lee’s victories on Friday came
by pin, technical fall or major de
cision.
After falling to the top-ranked
wrestler in the nation Friday,
Shaun Williams stormed back
with four victories on Saturday at
125 pounds. The junior trar
decisioned No. 8 Nathan N.i
Turn to Wrestling, page 24A