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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 16, 2001)
Friday Best Bet College Basketball: Idaho State at Montana 7:30 p.m., Fox Sports Net SPORTS EDITOR: JEFF SMITH Smittside@aol.com The Pits k The Oregon bench — Camber Ellingson, Alyssa Fredrick, Ndidi Unaka, Kourtney Shreve and Katy Polansky (left to right) Adam Amato Emerald — react to Oregon’s 77-76 last-second loss to Washington State Thursday at McArthur Court. Women stunned after loss to Cougars ■ ‘Duck soup’: Wazzu’s Joanna Smith shoots the Ducks down in the final seconds once again By Adam Jude Oregon Daily Emerald She did it again, folks. Joanna Smith is the dagger in the Ducks’ heart, the thorn in their side, the monkey on their back and any other cliche you can think of. The Cougar senior guard — who hit the game-winning three-pointer Jan. 20 to beat Oregon — won the game again for her team Thursday night at McArthur Court, this time with less than one second remaining. Running off the court after the last-sec ond hurrah, Washington State senior Vic toria Harrod expressed the flavor of the mo ment: “Duck soup baby, Duck soup.” After Oregon senior Brianne Meharry split a pair of free throws to put the Ducks up one with 10 seconds remaining, Cougar point guard Katie Nyseth drove the length of the court and dished off to Kelley Berglund, who threw up a desperation three. The ball flew off the front of the rim into the arms of Smith, who spun, released... swish. “I had no idea how much time was left; I just threw it up, and it went in,” Smith said or her last-second hero ics, which propelled her team to a 77-76 vic tory, its first season sweep of Oregon since 1991. “I don’t know; I just wasn’t thinking.” “Joanna is just awe some,” said senior Yvonne Volkman, who paced the Cougs with 22 points and eight boards. “She is the SMITH heart-breaker for Oregon.” Smith’s final shot capped off a fireworks display of long balls by the Cougs in the fi nal three minutes of the game. With the Ducks leading 69-60, Nyseth hit a trey, then hit another bomb following an Oregon bucket to bring the Cougs within five. A pair of Nyseth free throws preceded a Smith three-ball to cut the lead to one with 1:46. Harrod also added a three in the final 70 seconds to keep the momentum tilted in the Cougars’ favor. Washington State was 10-for-12 from be Turn to Cougars, page 12 ■The Ducks crumble in the final minutes, and their losing streak grows to five games By Scott Pesznecker Oregon Daily Emerald Oregon women’s basketball returned to McArthur Court for about 20 minutes Thursday night, and it was grand. Center Jenny Mowe swatted shots. Guard Jamie Craighead swished three pointers. Angelina Wolvert played a game’s worth in that first half, scoring 17 points. The home team led 32-16 with 4 minutes, 25 sec onds to go in the half, and the Mac Court crowd of 4,240 was rocking. But suddenly, the Pit turned into The Pits. Washington State (10-12 overall, 5-7 Pa cific-10 Conference), the team that hand ed the Ducks their first Pac-10 loss a month ago, staged a late second-half comeback to beat Oregon, 77-76, on a last-second shot by Cougar guard Joanna Smith. The Ducks (12-10, 5-7) lost their fifth straight, despite holding a 69-60 lead with 3:11 left to play. “I’m really at a loss for words,” a dis traught Mowe said. “I don’t know what went wrong. I mean, we were winning, and then all of a sudden we’re losing. And all of a sudden, she chucks up a shot and it goes in.” The Ducks lost, despite the fact that head coach Jody Runge had never lost to the Cougars at Mac Court before. “They’re not happy about where we are or what’s happening to us,” Runge said about her players, “but it’s really hard to point the finger when somebody’s hurt or sick.” And the Ducks lost, despite Wolvert’s career-high 32 points and 10 rebounds. “Honestly, it kind of felt like UAB to me,” said Wolvert, referring to the one point loss that tossed Oregon from the NCAA tournament last season. “The way it happened, the girl just turned around and took that shot, it felt like —” her voice trailed off— “lose it at the last second.” As if things couldn’t get worse, forward Lindsey Dion’s bad left ankle forced her to Turn to Women’s, page 12 Tumbling Ducks fumble last chance to win at WSU ■ The Oregon men’s basketball team loses its fourth straight Pac-10game — to a team it had beaten eight straight times By Peter Hockaday Oregon Daily Emerald Just when you thought the Oregon men’s bas ketball season couldn’t get any worse, the Ducks went ahead and lost to a team they had beaten eight times in their last eight matchups. Oregon (12-10, 3-9 Pacific 10 Conference) dropped a 63 62 thriller to Washington State (10-12,3-9) in Pullman, Wash., Thursday night. The loss was the Ducks’ fourth straight. The Ducks had an opportu ‘ nity to win the game in the closing seconds after the Cougars’ Mike Bush missed the back end of a pair of free throws, giv ing WSU a one-point advantage. But with five seconds on the clock, Oregon freshman guard Luke Ridnour dribbled into traffic, fell down and MEN'S BASKETBALL lost the ball to Washington State’s Framecio Lit tle, who held on to cement the Cougar victory. “This one got away from us,” a very tired Ducks head coach Ernie Kent told KUGN-Radio after the game. “We had them where we wanted them, but we just couldn’t turn the corner.” The contest see-sawed back and forth, with the two teams exchanging leads seven times, five times in the second half. But the Cougars never trailed after Bush hit a three-pointer with 2:20 left in the contest. Oregon knotted the game at 60 and 62, but couldn’t pull out the victory in the end. The Ducks led the game by as many as seven points in the first half, and led by two at the half after the Cougars closed the first frame on a 12-8 run. Washington State picked up where it left off in the second half, outscoring Oregon 15-5 in the first nine minutes. But then the Ducks’ Bryan Bracey took over, scoring nine points to give Oregon a 50-49 lead with 8:23 to play. After the teams exchanged leads, Bracey hit two key free throws to tie the Turn to Men’s, page 12 Washington State’s Mike Bush (left) hit the game-winning free throw with 5.5 seconds left to secure his team’s 63-62 victory over the Ducks. Oregon had eight straight wins over WSU before Thursday’s game.
