Sports Editor:
Adam Jude
adamjude@dailyemerald.com
Assistant Sports Editor:
Jeff Smith
jeffsmith@dailyemerald.com
Monday, November 26,2001
Best Bet
Monday Night Football:
Tampa Bay at St. Louis,
6 p.m., ABC
. - ; I
Ducks ‘Jam’ home two wins at Rose Garden
■The Oregon men’s team blows out Rick Pitino’s
Cardinals with big defense and a patient offense
Saturday in Portland to improve their record to 4-0
f
By Peter Hockaday
Oregon Daily Emerald
PORTLAND — Louisville is quickly turning into
Loserville for legendary coach Rick Pitino.
The Cardinals’ new leader suffered the first loss of his
Louisville tenure as the Oregon Ducks (4-0 overall) toppled
the Cardinals (1-1) 90-63 in the second game of the Pape
Jam in Portland on Saturday.
Louisville’s players missed 40 shots as the Ducks picked
up their fourth win of the season with tenacious defense
and patience on offense.
“The most impressive thing for us was that our stat sheet
looked identical to our first five games,” Oregon head coach
Ernie Kent said, referring to Oregon’s two preseason wins
and three regular-season blowouts. “It’s encouraging to
play that kind of basketball this early on. ”
Though the teams were billed as fast, up-and-down offen
sive squads, the game was won with defense and big men.
Oregon established its post game early, as 7-foot-2 center
Chris Chistoffersen scored the first four points of the game.
Louisville tied the game with an Erik Brown three-pointer
at the 17:28 mark. Oregon answered with a trey from Luke
Ridnour and a Robert Johnson lay-in. At the 13:43 mark of
the first frame, Ellis Myles converted a free throw for a three
point play, and the Cardinals tied the game at nine. It would
be the last time Louisville would come close to Oregon.
Shortly after Myles’ points, Oregon senior Freddie Jones
converted a three-point play of his own after sinking a jump
shot with three defenders hanging on him. The Ducks took
.Turn to Men’s, page 12
Big men make big
difference in victory
■ Oregon’s post players score a combined 35 points
in their 27-point win over Louisville at the Rose Garden
By Jeff Smith
Oregon Daily Emerald
PORTLAND — A simple rebound and a stare was all it
took for the Chris Christoffersen Project to finally take
shape.
Against Louisville on Dec. 30, 2000, Christoffersen
gained a much-needed confidence boost when he snared
the ball away from a Cardinals player and gave him a look
as if to say, “Don’t even try to challenge me.”
At that moment, a 7-foot-2 center was truly born.
“That was the turning point,” Christoffersen said last
season. “I said, ‘You know what, I can actually play with
these guys.”
Christoffersen became a spark off the bench throughout
the Pacific-10 Conference season and is now a senior
starter for this year’s Ducks.
Against Louisville on Saturday night at Portland’s Rose
Garden, Christoffersen showed die Cardinals glimpses of
what he’s become, as his 13 points helped lead Oregon to a
90-63 victory.
“I feel a lot more comfortable,” Christoffersen said. “We
had more size than they did and they were probably
Turn to Men’s side, page 12
Thomas Patterson Emerald
Oregon senior center Chris Christoffersen scored 13 points and grabbed six
rebounds in the Ducks’ 90-63 win against Louisville.
Junior guard Shaquaia Williams scored a game-high 22 points in Oregon's
75-63 win over Texas Christian at the Pape Jam.
■A 75-63 win over Texas Christian at the annual
Pape Jam gives the Duck women added confidence
heading into a matchup with No. 8 Texas Tech tonight
By Adam Jude
Oregon Daily Emerald
PORTLAND — There’s nothing a little WD-40, super
glue and duct tape can’t fix. Bev Smith must have had
them all handy last week, and she’s hoping the stick does
n’t wear off tonight against No. 8 Texas Tech.
Four days after a 77-73 loss to Portland — the Pilots’ sec
ond win over the Ducks in 18 years — the Oregon
women’s basketball team surprised Texas Christian with
a 75-63 victory Saturday at the Pape Jam.
The Ducks, 2-2 overall this season, are undefeated in
four tries in the annual Jam at Portland’s Rose Garden.
“We have a very unique and dynamic team and we’re
just starting to understand that,” said Smith, Oregon’s first
year coach. “TCU was a highly touted team, but we didn’t
pay attention to that. We kept our focus on our game plan.”
Senior guard Edniesha Curry scored eight points, in
cluding back-to-back three-pointers, in the first three min
utes of the game as Oregon jumped out to a 13-4 lead —
and the Ducks never looked back.
Oregon held the Horned Frogs (2-1 overall) to 25 per
cent shooting in the first half, taking a 34-21 lead into the
locker room. In its first two games against Sam Houston
State and Air Force, Texas Christian averaged 94 points
and more than doubled its opponent’s scoring.
“We were very aware that this was no Sam Houston,”
TCU head coach Jeff Mittie said. “We dug a hole early and
Oregon didn’t let us out of it.”
Particularly, Mittie said he was surprised by the play of
Turn to Women’s, page 12
Three-point success
aids in Oregon win
■Three-point shooting comes alive for Oregon
women’s basketball in a win over Texas Christian
By Hank Hager
Oregon Daily Emerald
PORTLAND — With just a little more than two minutes
left in an Oregon win over Texas Christian on Saturday at
the Rose Garden, junior Alissa Edwards nailed a three from
above the arc, putting the Ducks ahead 68-52.
Edwards’ basket, although helpful, didn’t put Oregon
ahead for good and didn’t take any momentum away from
the Horned Frogs. Instead, it was just a microcosm of the
success the Ducks enjoyed from the three-point line, some
thing that ultimately led them to their second win of the
young season.
“I don’t think it was the key,” junior Shaquala Williams
said. “But the three-pointers helped.”
After shooting only 23.8 percent from beyond the three
point line in their first three games, the Ducks (2-2 overall)
established the long distance portion of their offense early.
Within the first three minutes of the first half, senior Ed
niesha Curry sank one from beyond the NBA three-point
line, and followed that 20 seconds later with another.
Not to be outdone, Williams knocked one in from
downtown a minute after Curry’s second, putting Oregon
Turn to Women’s side, page 12
It’s a stretch, but No. 4 Oregon could still play for national title
■The Ducks are ranked
the highest they’ve ever been,
but need some help in
reaching their ultimate goal
By Adam Jude
Oregon Daily Emerald
Baby steps.
With Nebraska and Oklahoma
both losing over the weekend, the
idle Oregon football team moved
up to No. 4 in the Associated Press
poll released Sunday, the highest
the Ducks have ever been ranked.
But, with the ultimate prize go
ing to the top two teams in the final
Bowl Championship Series rank
ings Dec. 9, Oregon still has a cou
ple more steps to take to reach its
ultimate goal.
And it doesn’t look like it will get
any better today when the weekly
BCS poll is released. According to
the Web site collegebcs.com, Ore
gon will remain No. 5 in the BCS,
with Miami, Florida, Texas and Ne
braska rounding out the top four.
The Ducks (9-1 overall, 6-1 Pa
cific-10 Conference) are already
guaranteed at least a share of the
Pac-10 crown and a trip to Tempe,
Ariz., for the Fiesta Bowl, but need
a win over Oregon State on Satur
day in the Civil War, and some
luck, to get to the Jan. 3 Rose Bowl,
the site of this year’s national
championship.
Assuming they end up in Tempe,
the Ducks’ opponent will be the
winner of the Big 12 championship
game between Texas and Colorado,
if neither team receives a bid to the
Rose Bowl. The Big 12 champi
onship will be broadcast on ABC
before the Civil War game Saturday.
With a 65-7 win over Washing
ton, Miami (10-0 overall) will most
likely move into the top spot in the
BCS with a matchup against Vir
ginia Tech in the regular season fi
nale on Saturday. Florida (9-1 over
all) earns a trip to Pasadena with a
win this week over Tennessee,
ranked fifth by the Associated
Press, and a victory in the SEC
Championship game Dec. 8.
Oregon has not played since the
21-20 win over UCLA in the Rose
Bowl on Nov. 10.
Adam Jude is the sports editor for the
Oregon Daily Emerald. He can be reached
at adamjude@dailyemerald.com.