Oregon gets best of USC
but can’t get past Bruins
■ Angelina Wolvert scores 25
points at USC when Jody
Runge lifts her suspension
By Scott Pesznecker
Oregon Daily Emerald
Even after a nationally televised
victory against Southern California
on Sunday afternoon, there wasn’t
much left for the Oregon women’s
basketball team to celebrate.
Never mind that the Ducks (14
11 overall, 7-8 Pacific-10 Confer
ence) didn’t beat the Trojans in
their last three attempts. Never
mind that Oregon had lost its last
six games on the road. Never mind
that the Ducks — a team so fragile
this season when it comes to pro
tecting leads — kept USC (9-15, 4
10) at arm’s length down the
stretch and won, 74-66.
Don’t start thinking that Oregon
is better off now than it was last
week. Because on Friday, Oregon
lost a 70-68 heartbreaker to UCLA
(4-21, 3-11) and virtually de
stroyed its chances of receiving an
eighth-straight NCAA tournament
invite.
“The loss to UCLA hurt us,”
head coach Jody Runge told Fox
Sports Net before Sunday’s game.
“We really have no margin of error
for winning out our last four
games.”
In a torrent season marred by in
juries, illness and frustration, more
tension surrounded Oregon during
the USC game.
On Saturday, Runge announced
that senior forward Angelina
Wolvert wouldn’t play against the
Trojans because Wolvert refused to
shake hands with UCLA players
after Friday’s game.
But with 7 minutes, 47 seconds
left in the first half and USC lead
ing 20-8, Runge gave Wolvert the
nod.
Wolvert scored the Ducks’ next
hoop, sparking an Oregon run that
ended with a Kourtney Shreve
three pointer. About a minute-and
a-half after Wolvert entered the
game, USC’s lead was only two.
Wolvert emerged from the dog
house and played a whale of a
game, notching 25 points, five re
bounds, two assists, a steal, a block
and three turnovers in 23 minutes.
Her final basket was a three-point
er that swished through the net at
the end of regulation.
“We’ve been struggling on the
road all year,” Wolvert said. “The
effort wasn’t there against UCLA. It
was good that our team played
tough.”
Fox Sports Net commentators
indicated that a meeting between
Oregon players and coaches may
have influenced Runge’s decision
to play Wolvert.
“We’ve had some adversity and
we just need to fight through it,”
Runge said on a released state
ment. “Today, we did that.”
Forward Brianne Meharry, who
scored 15 points and grabbed a
season-high 11 rebounds in a ca
reer-high 39 minutes, said it felt
good to finally beat the Trojans.
“This was the last chance to
play them,” Meharry said. “We
just kept on fighting and fighting
and attacking.”
However, Oregon must deal
with the bitter taste of losing to the
lowly Bruins. The Ducks planned
on beating the Bruins by stopping
guard Michelle Greco, the Pac-lO’s
leading scorer.
Well, Greco didn’t play due to a
concussion suffered last week at
Arizona State, but Oregon didn’t
seem prepared to stop anyone else
from scoring. UCLA, the worst
shooting team in the conference,
sank 48 percent of its field goals.
Forward Alyssa Fredrick came
off the bench and scored 13 points
on 6-of-9 shooting. But with three
seconds left, she missed a 15-foot
er that would have tied the game.
The Ducks had another chance
to tie or win the game when the
ball went out of bounds with 2.2
on the clock, but the Bruins picked
off Fredrick’s quick pass to guard
I I
Jamie Craighead.
“It’s probably the worst time that
this could happen as far as our
[NCAA] tournament chances,”
Runge said. “We didn’t defend
anybody. We couldn’t get five peo
ple.”
Oregon faces the Arizona
schools this week at McArthur
Court. Arizona State will be the
second first-place Pac-10 team to
visit The Pit in two weeks.
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