Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 2, 2001)
Friday Best Bet NCAAmer: Gonzaga at Pepperdine 7 p.m., Fox Sports Net SPORTS EDITOR; JEFF SMITH Smittside@aol.com Adam Amato Emerald Oregon s Bryan Bracey (42) drives past Arizona’s Luke Walton for two of his game-high 23 points Thursday night. He also added eight rebounds. Upset Wildcats feel Mac Court curse Arizona is toppled once more by the Ducks, but this year’s game may have meant more to Oregon’s season than 2000’s effort By Peter Hockaday Oregon Daily Emerald After the Oregon men’s basketball team beat No. 3 Arizona at McArthur Court late last sea son, Duck fans thought a bigger upset was im possible. Think again, Duck fans. With its 79-67 victory over the No. 7 Wildcats (14-6 overall, 6-2 Pacific-10 Conference) Thurs day night, Oregon (12-6, 3-5) secured what was easily its most important win of the season, and possibly its most important in a few seasons. “This was a breakthrough win for us,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said. Thinking in terms of the Ducks’ status before the game — 2-5 in the Pac-10 and losers of two straight — Kent said Thursday night’s victory meant more to his team than anything else this season. Arizona thought it was simply overmatched by the Ducks. “They had us scouted to perfection,” WildcctK. center Loren Woods said. “They executed per fectly. ” Arizona coach Lute Olson said his team had only one excuse — it didn’t play as well as the Ducks did. “Oregon played about as well as they’re ever going to play,” Olson said. “There’s no way we should have won that game.” The loss stopped Arizona’s six-game winning streak, and was the first for the Wildcats since Olson returned to the team from grieving for his deceased wife. It was the team’s second loss with Olson at the helm this season. The upset moved Arizona to 6-2 in Pac-10 play, and two games behind Stanford for the conference lead. With UCLA’s 92-63 loss to Cali fornia, the Wildcats now share second place with the Bruins and the Golden Bears. “We take a minor step back,” Woods said. “We’re not about to go down the hill. Oregon came, they were a good team, and they beat us. Oh well. We’ve just got to move on.” While Arizona suffered a minor setback in its Turn to Men side, page 9 Ducks give UA The Pits in win ■The Ducks feed off the energy from their fans to post a surprising win against the Wildcats By Jeff Smith Oregon Daily Emerald w'*-"™"’*, With the aid of its faithful roaring crowd, the Oregon men’s basketball team revitalized its season in a con vincing upset victory against a top 10 team. The magic of McArthur Court played a key role in sending No. 7 Arizona out of town a loser for the second straight year. This time, though, it wasn’t an improbable comeback victory for the Ducks, as last season’s was. Instead, Oregon played solid de fense, demonstrated good ball movement and shut down Arizona’s transition game in a 79-67 victory in front of a sellout crowd of 9,087. “This becomes another one of those special games at Mac Court,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said. “I really want to compliment the fans. They certainly gave us a nice comfort zone and helped us main tain the lead throughout the game.” The Ducks (12-6 overall, 3-5 Pa cific-10 Conference) needed one of these types of games to help get them out of the funk that had sent them to five defeats in their previ ous six games. Oregon forward Bryan Bracey, who scored a game-high 23 points and grabbed a team-high eight re bounds, said that the win was the first key step toward turning this ship around. “We said today that we were start ing our season over,” Bracey said. “We were 0-0. And it starts with a win tonight. We’re looking forward to beating everyone else, and that’s our goal. We know we’re a good team.” The Ducks did everything they had to do to pull off the upset, and that included playing a full 40 min utes of basketball. Arizona took an early 8-5 lead, but then Oregon went on a 12-2 run to take a lead it would never relinquish. “The key to this game was that we Turn to Men, page 9 a m becomes another one of those special games at Mac Court. Ernie Kent Oregon head coach -------1 ‘D’ is for disappointment as UO women lose in Tucson The Oregon women fall out of first place in the Pac-10 by losing to the Wildcats By Scott Pesznecker Oregon Daily Emerald Oregon’s offense was present from its first possession, when cen ter Jenny Mowe scored on an easy in bound basket on the pass from forward B r i a n n e Meharry. But when the Duck women’s basketball team ran down the floor to stop Ari zona’s offense, something bad hap pened — the defense didn’t follow. And as Oregon’s “D” was nowhere to be seen, the Wildcats (15-5 overall, 5-3 Pacific-10 Con ference) used 54.2 percent shoot ing to bury the defenseless Ducks, 88-76, in front of 2,550 people at the McKale Center in Tucson, Ariz. “I think we did not have a good defensive effort tonight,” Oregon head coach Jody Runge told Ray Martin on KSCR radio. “When they made their run in the second half, we scored plenty of points to win a basketball game, but we just kept putting them on the free throw line time after time after time, or let them have dribble pen etration right down the gut. ” The Ducks (12-6, 5-3) lost their share of first place in the Pac-10. Meanwhile, red-hot Arizona State beat Oregon State, 58-51, winning its fifth straight game and taking sole possession of first place in the conference race. Oregon must recover from the loss by 6 p,m. Saturday, when it looks to derail the Sun Devils’ win ning streak. “They’re a very good basketball team; they’re playing very well at home,” Runge said. “It will be a tremendous challenge for us to go over there and regroup from a loss on the road.” After Mowe put the game’s first points on the scoreboard, Arizona point guard Reshea Bristol re sponded with a three-pointer, sparking a 17-2 Wildcat run through the next eight minutes. The Ducks’ defense made a cameo appearance near the end of the first half, and Oregon actually took a 43-40 lead early in the sec ond period. But Arizona used a balance at tack to reclaim the lead. With eight minutes remaining and the score 63-57 in favor ofthe Wildcats, Bris tol was fouled on a layup and sank the free throw, then hit another trey to give her team a 10-point lead. Oregon never got close after that. “We just did not defend the bas ketball tonight, and that’s some thing we’re supposed to be known for and do pretty good,” Runge Turn to Women, page 9 I think we did not have a good defensive effort tonight Jody Runge Oregon head coach
