Laura Smit Emerald
Sophomore point guard Alissa Edwards (12), who scored eight points in the win against Washington, will start against UCLA.
Women seek to win in LA.
■Oregon must find a way to
win on the road to preserve
its NCAA tournament hopes
By Scott Pesznecker
Oregon Daily Emerald
Watching this weekend’s tele
vised games between the Oregon
women’s basketball team and the
Los Angeles schools might feel like
watching “Who Wants to Be a Mil
lionaire,” followed by “Jeopardy.”
Because in the first show, you can
almost go answer-to-answer with
Regis Philbin. But you just can’t
seem to flow with Alex Trebek.
So it goes when the Ducks play
against UCLA and Southern Califor
nia.
The first of the two matchups —
at 7 p.m. today on the Oregon
Sports Network and ESPN — pits
the Ducks (13-10 overall, 6-7 Pacific
10 Conference) against the Bruins (3
20, 2-10) at UCLA. Or, as guard
Jamie Craighead calls it, “Greco-U.”
“Contain Greco and you win the
game,” Craighead said, referring to
Michelle Greco, the Pac-lO’s sec
ond-leading scorer at 20.7 points
per game. “She got 29 shots here,
and that was with hand-in-your
face, off-balance shots. If we can
contain her, maybe keep her under
15,1 don’t think they can beat us. ”
Sounds easy enough to figure out,
doesn’t it?
Then, at 1 p.m. Sunday, there’s USC
(9-13,4-8). If Oregon beats the Bruins,
the war with the Trojans will have
NCAA implications, and it will be na
tionally televised on Fox Sports Net.
And unlike UCLA, which the
Ducks have bested four straight
times, Oregon has failed to topple
Southern California in its last three
attempts.
“We hate USC. You want to beat
them every time you play them, and
we’ve struggled with that in the past
couple years,” Craighead said. “So I
think this is our chance. They’ve
beaten us three times in a row, and a
fourth time would be really tough.”
“The Trojans are second; we’ve
got the Bruins first,” said forward
Lindsey Dion, who is playing de
spite a high ankle sprain. “We’re ex
cited to play again after the big win
on Saturday, and so far things look
good.”
That “big win” Dion talked about
came against Washington and
snapped a five-game losing streak,
the longest such streak in head
coach Jody Runge’s eight-year ca
reer at Oregon.
However, enough damage was
done to the Ducks’ season to possi
bly prevent them from earning an
eighth straight invitation to the
NCAA Tournament. For Oregon to
have any chance at the Big Dance,
winning out the remaining sched
ule is a must.
Easier said than done, consider
ing that Oregon has lost five straight
on the road.
“Yeah, I guess there’s kind of a
monkey still there,” Dion said. “With
USC, we haven’t beat them since my
sophomore year. So there still are a
couple lingering monkeys, but I have
every confidence we’ll take care of
business down in L. A. ”
The Trojans edged the Ducks 55
53 at McArthur Court on Jan. 25. In
that game, USC freshman forward
Ebony Hoffman scored 19 points
and grabbed 17 rebounds.
Two days later, Oregon took out
its frustrations on the Bruins, beat
ing them 54-43. UCLA had little
chance to beat the Ducks, because
Greco — UCLA’s lone offensive
threat — hit just six of her 29 field
goal attempts.
Runge expects Greco to come out
shooting against the Ducks, and
thinks her team is up to the task of
containing her.
“She’s definitely going to take
'em,” Runge said. “Hopefully
they’ll be pressured shots by us. I
think that was certainly the case in
the last game. I think we can defend
her one-on-one.”
Backup point guard Alissa Ed
wards will start against UCLA, re
placing Kourtney Shreve, who is
shooting just 26 percent from the field
this season. Against the Huskies, Ed
wards and Craighead shot a com
bined 11-21 from the floor.
Runge said she is confident that
her team can win on the road.
“I think their spirits are up,” she
said. “They’re starting to put things
together.”
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