Best Bet
NCAA Men: Portland St. at Eastern Washington
7:30 p.m., Fox Sports Net
SPORTS EDITOR: JEFF SMITH Smittside@aol.com
Duck women ready to rumble with Stanford
Oregon senior center Jenny Mowe tunes up for Stanford’s
—--BE.__I
Adam Amato Emerald
6-foot-6 Carolyn Moos against Cal.
■Stanford is next on deck
for Oregon, which rolled
over California Thursday
night
By Scott Pesznecker
Oregon Daily Emerald
Enough middle-of-the-road
teams.
No more California, no more
Oregon State.
The Ducks want Stanford.
And come 7 p.m. Saturday
night, they
shall have it.
“I’m very
excited to
play Stan
ford,” for
ward Angeli
na Wolvert
said. “I’m very excited because
we were ranked second. I stat
ed that at the beginning of the
year when I found out we were
ranked second in the [Pacific
10 Conference] behind them. It
matters a great deal to me.
“I’m very upset about it and
I want to go out and kick their
butt.”
Oregon (9-3 overall, 2-0 Pac
10) showed it was ready to
host the No. 24 Cardinal (7-6,
1-2) by walloping California,
86-56, in front of 4,180 at
McArthur Court Thursday
night.
Guard Jamie Craighead led
the Ducks to a 46-26 first-half
lead by draining 4 of 5 three
pointers. Amidst a second-half
display of so-so execution and
overzealous officiating, the
Golden Bears (4-9, 0-3) never
recovered.
The loss was California’s
worst since an 86-54 setback to
UCLA in 1998.
“We intended to go inside
early because we wanted to get
their post in foul trouble,” said
Craighead, who finished with
14 points on 5-of-7 shooting.
“They weren’t really guarding
us outside, and when we start
ed hitting some they weren’t
finding us.
“We’re trying to take every
game one at a time. Cal was
the next team on the schedule;
we knew they were going to be
a good team, so we tried to
stop them early and make it
apparent that we were going to
beat them.”
While Oregon was busy
romping the Bears, Stanford —
now the next team on the list
— fell on its face in Corvallis,
losing to Oregon State 81-65.
Another Duck win on Satur
day would knock the Cardinal
down to 1-3 in conference
play; not a promising start if
Stanford plans on living up to
its preseason billing.
“Their loss at Oregon State
is just going to be fire under
their butt,” Wolvert said.
“They’re going to want to
come out and win. You don’t
go on a road trip and be ranked
first or second in the Pac-10
and lose one of them.
“They’re definitely going to
come in here and look to beat
us. Especially because we’re
ranked second in the Pac-10.”
Oregon must rebound better
if it is to get the best of Stan
ford.
California outrebounded the
Ducks 32-26 overall, 16-9 on
the offensive glass. However,
Turn to Women’s win, page 9
Women can t miss from outside
■Junior guard Jamie Craighead, the top
three-point shooter in the Pac-10, leads
the Ducks with a hot first half
By Adam Jude
Oregon Daily Emerald
Three ball, corner pocket.
Swish.
Roar.
Now repeat... seven times.
Heading into Thursday night’s Pacific-10
Conference women’s basketball matchup, first
year California head coach Caren Horstmeyer
stressed to her team that if Oregon was going to
win, it would have to do it from behind the arc.
Whoops. Wrong strategy, coach.
The No. 20 Ducks (9-3 overall, 2-0 Pac-10)
opened the game early with the long ball, and
did not look back en route to a 86-56 victory
that certainly pleased the 4,180 fans at
McArthur Court.
In the span of five minutes in the first half,
the Ducks sank four three-pointers, three of
which came at the hands of junior Jamie Craig
head, who torched the Bears for 14 points on 5
of-6 shooting in the opening session. The Ducks
drained a season-high seven threes overall.
“We said that if they were going to beat us,
they’d have to do it from the three-point line, but
Jamie Craighead is not going to shoot threes,”
Horstmeyer said. “She had five [attempts] in the
first half. So we did not stay with our game plan
whatsoever.”
Although Craighead does not consider herself
one of Oregon’s primary offensive weapons, she
has proved to be just that so far this season. She
is the Pac-lO’s top three-point shooter at nearly
46 percent, and has already surpassed her total
from last year (32 this season compared to 30 last
year.)
“I’m not saying that I’m not someone we can
go to,” said Craighead, who had 14 points.
“There’s just going to be nights when different
players step up and do that.”
It seems, though, that Craighead has earned re
spect around the league.
“Craighead is a very, very good three-point
Turn to Women’s, page 9
Ducks never find shooting touch, fall to Cal in Bay Area
The Oregon
men’s
basketball
team shoots 32
percent from
the field and
suffers a 78-62
By Peter Hockaday
Oregon Daily Emerald
In its first road game of the Pa
cific-10 Conference season Thurs
day night at California, the Ore
gon men’s basketball team kept
looking for Haas Pavilion’s hoop.
The Ducks never found it.
Oregon (10-2 overall, 1-1 Pac
10) made only 20 of 62 shots from
the floor in its 78-62 blowout loss
at the hands of the Golden Bears
(10-4, 2-1).
“This team took us apart
tonight,’’ Oregon head coach
Ernie Kenttold KUGN. “We lost
our composure.”
The Ducks started losing that
all-so important composure with
more than three minutes to play
in the first half. That’s when Cal’s
big men, sophomore center Nick
Vander Laan and junior forward
Solomon Hughes, started beating
Oregon in the post.
With 3:22 on the clock in the
first half, the Ducks’ Chris
Christoffersen threw a pass away
for Oregon’s ninth turnover of the
game. On the next possession,
Vander Laan floated a shot over
the outstretched arms of Christof
fersen to slice Oregon’s lead—
which had been as large as five—
to one point.
“We shouldn’t have let Vander
Laan and Hughes go off on us like
that,” Kent said.
After Golden Bears guard Den
nis Gates hit a three-pointer and
forward Sean Lampley scored on
back-to-back possessions, guard
Shantay Legans hit an off-balance
jumper to beat the halftime
buzzer and give Cal a 38-33 half
time lead.
“We gave them too much mo
mentum,” Kent said. “Even
though they were only leading by
five at halftime, we never really
regained our composure.”
Oregon scored only four points
in the first 9:30 of the second half,
as Cal went on an 18-4 run that
would put the game away for
good. The Ducks made only one
field goal during that stretch, and
missed 11.
Vander Laan and Hughes com
bined for 20 points, as Oregon’s
big men committed foul upon
foul while trying to stop them.
Duck centers Julius Hicks and Flo
Hartenstein both fouled out of the
game, and forward Bryan Bracey
played the final 10 minutes of the
game with four fouls but never
committed his fifth.
“Chris and Flo could have
done some more out there,” Kent
said. “[Cal] dominated in the
paint.”
Kent will take some positives
into Saturday’s matchup with No.
1 Stanford, which will be tele
Turn to Men’s, page 12
We gave
them too
much
momen
tum.
Ernie Kent
Men’s head
coach
t)