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NCAA Basketball: Utah vs. UNLV
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SPORTS EDITOR: JEFF SMITH Smittside@aol.com
Oregon runs out of gas against surging Bears
Chrystal McConnell Emerald
California’s Sean Lampley jams home two of his game-high 17 points over Oregon freshman Luke Jackson in the Bears’ nine-point win.
UO men continue downward trend
■The Ducks try to find answers
after losing another frustrating
Pac-10game
By Peter Hockaday
Oregon Daily Emerald
A mysterious pattern has emerged
for the Oregon men’s basketball team.
No matter the foe, the Ducks seem to
play to their opponent’s level; the dis
turbing part of this trend is that most
of the time Oregon plays just poorly
enough to lose.
The most recent case in point was
Saturday’s 65-56 loss to California at
McArthur Court. If the Ducks could
have scored anywhere near their sea
son average of 80 points, they would
have beaten Cal.
But Oregon managed only 56 and
shot just 37.5 percent from the field.
Last Thursday against Stanford, the
Ducks did the same thing, only in re
verse. Oregon hung with Stanford
most of the game, matching the Cardi
nal’s inside threats with some big men
of its own, and neutralizing Stanford’s
outside shooters.
But down the stretch, the Ducks lost
steam and allowed the Cardinal to pull
away and win 69-62.
Turn to Slump, page 8
■The Ducks’ slump continues as they close out
their four game homestand with their third loss
in that span
By Jeff Smith
Oregon Daily Emerald
Ernie Kent saw it in his players’ eyes.
The Oregon head coach could tell that
his team was just a step behind all game
Saturday. He could see that the tank was
leaning toward empty.
And because of this, he wasn’t at all
amazed to see his Ducks lose to Califor
nia, 65-56, in front of a disappointed,
sold-out crowd of 9,087 at McArthur
Court.
The Ducks’ 56 points marked their
lowest point total of the season.
“I looked into the eyes of guys that
wanted to get it done, and I saw a very
fatigued team out there,” Kent said. “We
just lacked the energy.”
The loss was yet another setback to an
Oregon team that has now dropped sev
en of its last nine games. The Ducks’ 3-8
Pacific-10 Conference record (12-9 over
all) has them in a three-way tie for sixth
place, and only one game ahead of cellar
dwellers Washington State and Oregon
State.
California (17-6, 8-3), meanwhile, is
only two games behind front-runner
Stanford and is brimming with confi
dence after winning 16 of its past 19
games. The Bears, who are most likely
headed to the NCAA Tournament, did
n’t play their best overall game but
pulled away when they had to toward
the end.
“It was not a pretty game, but the ob
ject is not to look good, but to play well
and scrap with good defense,” Cal head
coach Ben Braun said.
Kent compared California with his
Oregon team that won 22 games last sea
son and earned an invitation to the Big
Dance, a feat that this year’s Ducks lose
sight of with each defeat.
“They’re a good team that knows to
grind out a basketball game, like where
we were last year,” Kent said.
The most difficult part of this loss for
the Ducks was that it was a winnable
game. The teams were evenly matched
for most of the contest, and Oregon took
a 49-47 lead with 8:36 remaining when
forward Bryan Bracey knocked home
two of his team-high 13 points.
But then Cal’s A.J. Diggs converted a
Turn to Men’s, page 10
«/
looked
into the
eyes of
guys that
wanted
to get it
done,
and I saw
a very
fatigued
team out
there. We
just
lacked
the
energy.
Ernie Kent
Oregon
head
coach
Duck women sink to new lows in setback at California
■Oregon loses its fourth straight
because it can’t hold onto a 12
point lead
By Adam Jude
Oregon Daily Emerald
The good news is that Oregon, the
worst rebounding team in the Pacific-10
Conference, finally won the battle of
boards Saturday.
The bad news is the
Ducks (12-9 overall, 5
6Pac-10) lost 68-57 at
California despite
leading by a dozen in
the second half. The
loss is Oregon’s fourth
straight, its longest
skid in five years, and its first loss to Cal
under head coach Jody Runge.
Oregon is below the .500 mark this
late in conference play for the first time
in Runge’s eight-year tenure as a Duck.
“It was a very disappointing effort,”
Runge told KUGN. “We kept letting
them drive, getting fouled and missing
offensive rebounds. We’re not weather
ing the storm.”
With their fourth consecutive win,
the Bears (10-11, 6-5) move one-game
ahead of the Ducks in the fifth spot of the
conference standings.
Out of the locker room, the Ducks
quickly pushed a seven-point halftime
lead to 12 on a Kourtney Shreve three
pointer at the 18:18 mark. But the Bears
used a full-court press to force 23 Ore
gon turnovers, and took advantage of a
35 percent shooting performance by the
Ducks to go on a 14-2 run to pull ahead
of48-47 with 7:07 remaining. The Bears
would not look back, scoring 32 of the
game’s 42 final points.
Runge showed little optimism after the
loss, placing much of the team’s lack of
chemistry on the core group of seniors.
“This group of seniors had its share of
success as sophomores and juniors, but
they’re getting their licks now,” Runge
said. “We’ll have to see if this team has
the heart to make it happen.
“I’m sick and tried of them crying in
the locker room but not making it hap
pen on the court.”
Oregon’s starting guards, Shreve and
junior Jamie Craighead, combined to
make just two of 20 shots, and had more
combined turnovers than points—nine
turnovers, seven points. Comparatively,
Cal’s back-court combo, Courtney John
son and Kenya Corley, tallied 39 points
with nine turnovers.
Oregon was also just 4-for-20 from
three-point land.
Turn to Women, page 10
Laura Smit Emerald
Forward Brianne Meharry recorded a double-double against Ca!.