Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 29, 2001)
Monday Best Bet College Basketball: Georgetown vs. Syracuse 4 p.m., ESPN SPORTS EDITOR: JEFF SMITH Smittside@aol.com , . Laura Smit Emerald Oregon sophomore point guard Kourtney Shreve played a gutsy game against the Bruins as she led the team with 11 points, despite getting knocked out with a mild concussion in the second half. Shreve and the Ducks are tied for first place in the Pacific-10 Conference. U0 gets boost by beating UCLA SCOTT PESZNECKER The Oregon women’s basket ball team beat UCLA 54-43 at McArthur Court Saturday af ternoon, blah blah blah blah blah, [insert game highlight here]. Really, the details of how the Ore gon women’s basketball team beat the Bruins aren’t too important. What matters most is simply that the Ducks won. They needed the victory, for the sake of confidence, after losing two straight games so early in the Pacific 10 Conference title chase. “Losing two games in a row like that and knowing we had to have a win... it’s a fight to get back into our game,” senior forward Brianne Meharry said. Saturday’s game definitely wasn’t pretty — Oregon shot less than 38 per cent from the floor for its second straight outing—but a win is a win. The Ducks had a little more spring in their steps than they did, say, two nights prior after losing a heartbreaker to Southern California. “Our confidence has been shaken, and rightfully so,” Meharry said. “All athletes go through that, and we have to fight through it. We have to take it one step at a time.” “It’s always good when we win,” junior guard Jamie Craighead said. “I don’t think we lost any confidence in the USC loss. This team deals well with adversity, and I think this win showed that.” But Oregon did look beaten after losing to the Trojans. Thursday’s postgame atmosphere was capped when senior forward Lind Turn to PezSez, page 8 Women brake two-game skid ■ Senior Angelina Wolvert returns to the lineup against UCLA, but Kourtney Shreve leaves with a minor concussion in the Ducks’ victory By Adam Jude Oregon Daily Emerald “Wooohooo!” said senior Brianne Meharry, after learn ing that the Ducks had won the battle for the boards and their first game in a week, a 54-43 drubbing of UCLA on Saturday. The No. 20 Ducks (12-5 overall, 5-2 Pacific-10 Confer ence), averaging 32.5 rebounds per game, picked up 47 against the Bruins (compared to UCLA’s 42) and ended a two-game los ing skid in front of 5,346 fans at McArthur Court. “Let’s face it — we’re terrible re bounders,” senior forward Angelina Wolvert said. “But I think rebounding was the difference in the second half. We were able to push the fast breaks and able to run a little more than usual.” After consecutive losses to Washington State and USC, Oregon head coach Jody Runge said Saturday’s contest against UCLA (3-15, 2-5) was a “must win.” “This was really a game where we had to put it back together,” Runge said. “We have a tough road trip ahead [in Arizona], and it will be a tremendous challenge from where we’re at right now.” With the victory, Oregon stayed tied with Arizona State at the top spot in the Pac-10 standings. After missing two games with a knee injury, Wolvert came off the bench for the Ducks and tallied seven points and three rebounds in 17 minutes. “It feels good,” said Wolvert of the sprained ligament in her left knee, which was injured Jan. 20 at Washing ton. “It was interesting to finally go up and down the court because I hadn’t gone on it full strength. ... I’ll be fine, though.” The bruised Ducks suffered another setback when sophomore point guard Kourtney Shreve went down with a minor concussion in the second half. Despite the elbow to the head, Shreve led the Ducks with 11 points and four steals. Oregon led 24-19 at the half but took a 37-21 advan tage, thanks to a 13-0 run that ended at the 15:35 mark of the second period. Then, just two minutes later, the Ducks ran up another 13-0 run to take a commanding 52 27 lead. “We did a good job in the first half, and our team felt like we should have been ahead,” UCLA head coach Kathy Olivier said. “But in the second half, Oregon stepped it up and poured it on while we were still in the locker room for the first few minutes.” A big key for the Ducks was shutting down Michelle Greco, the Pac-lO’s leading scorer, who paced the Bru ins with 17 points but shot just 6-for-29 from the field and only 2-for-12 from three-point land. Overall, the conference’s worst shooting team hit 22 percent from Turn to Women’s, page 8 Bruins aggressively press Ducks into 17th defeat at UCLA Oregon plays tough against UCLA but folds in the end for its fifth loss in six games By Peter Hockaday Oregon Daily Emerald Before Saturday, the Oregon men’s basketball team had lost 16 straight games at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion. The Bruins’ stifling full-court press made sure that streak went to 17, as UCLA (12-5 overall, 6-1 Pa cific-10 Conference) handed the Ducks (11-6, 2-5) their second straight loss, 98-88, in Los Angeles. “They wore us down,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent told KUGN after the game. The Ducks took a 48-42 lead into halftime Saturday and appeared to be in control, despite Bruin guard Earl Watson’s two quick three pointers to end the half. But UCLA’s full-court press fatigued Oregon in the second half, as the Bruins outscored the Ducks 56-40 to notch the victory. “The game turned aggressive in the second half, and we didn’t han dle it very well,” Kent said. “We just ran out of gas.” UCLA held on to second place in the Pac-10 with the victory, while Oregon will stay in the bot tom third of the conference after dropping both games on its South ern California road trip. Foul trouble and turnovers plagued Oregon in the second half of Saturday’s game. The Ducks committed 16 turnovers in the sec ond half, compared to seven in the first frame. Defensively, three Ore gon players — Luke Jackson, Chris Christoffersen and Flo Hartenstein — all fouled out of the game. Christoffersen was the biggest loss, as he left the court in the mid dle of his best effort in an Oregon uniform. The 7-foot-2 center netted a career-best 15 points and seven re bounds in 17 minutes of action and played good defense against UCLA’s big man Dan Gadzuric. “We saw Chris come of age,” Kent said. “That alone was worth this trip down here.” Bruin forward Matt Barnes car ried the offensive load for UCLA, scoring a career-high 26 points. UCLA forward Jason Kapono added 18 points despite an injured shooting wrist. Kapono’s biggest points came with 11:22 on the clock in the sec ond half, when UCLA broke the game open. With the game tied, Kapono hit two free throws to put the Bruins in front 64-62. Oregon’s Luke Ridnour then hit a three to put the Ducks up by one point, but Kapono answered with a three-point play of his own when he was fouled by Christoffersen on alayin. After a steal on the Ducks’ next possession, Kapono nailed a trey from the corner to put the Bruins Turn to Men’s, page 6 CC We saw Chris come of age. That along was worth this trip down here. Ernie Kent Oregon head coach yy
