• Basketball continued from page 9 “If you had told me that both me and Borchardt would have what we had and we would still lose, I would say you’re crazy,” said Ja cobsen, who admitted that he loves playing in Eugene despite being the constant target of the Pit Crew. For Oregon, Luke Jackson poured in 27 and Chris Christoffersen had one of his better games, scoring 16, including 6-of-7 from the foul line. Freddie Jones (12 points), Ridnour (11) and Brian Helquist (10) also contributed to the win. “The biggest key for us was we got off to a great start and stayed pretty much in control of the game,” Kent said. In the first half, Jacobsen was lights out, scoring 22 points, but the Ducks still held the 42-36 halftime advantage. “If Casey didn’t have 22 in the first half, we would have been sucking grapes,” Montgomery said. Oregon jumped out to a 57-48 lead on a Ridnour three with 15:28 to play, but Stanford came back to close the gap to 63-60. The Ducks responded with a 10-3 run to take the 73-63 lead at the 8:27 mark that sent Mac Court into a frenzy. The Cardinal wouldn’t quit, though. Stanford answered with its own 10-1 run that was capped by the second three-pointer made by Borchardt, the 7-foot center. “I was warned about it, but I did n’t quite believe it,” Christoffersen said of his opponent’s shooting ability. The rest of the contest consisted of the two Lukes stepping up and Jacobsen messing up. Trailing by three with 3:16 to play, Jacobsen went to the charity stripe and missed both free throws. Jackson scored four of the Ducks’ next five points, setting up the game’s biggest turnover. With less than a minute remain ing, Oregon leading 83-79, Stan ford’s Chris Hernandez passed the ball to Jacobsen, who fumbled it out of bounds and essentially fumbled away any chance his team had of winning. Ridnour was fouled, made both of his free throws and the long awaited win belonged to Oregon. “That’s what you live for as a player,” Ridnour said of his free throws. And playing games that mean something are what the Ducks live for as a team. A year ago, in a similar matchup with Stanford, Oregon saw its seven-point lead evaporate in the closing minutes as the Cardinal scored 20 of the last 26 points to win. Of course, it wouldn’t matter as the Ducks went a dismal 5-13 in league play and didn’t even make the NIT. But that was way back in 2001, which is treated like ancient histo ry by Oregon. “We don’t talk about last year,” Jones said. “This is a whole new team. Last year is in the past;” And the future is promising. E-mail assistant sports editor Jeff Smith at jeffsmith@dailyemerald.com. Hockaday continued from page 9 of his three-point attempts. He had 22 points in the first half alone. Like a baseball slugger trying des perately to carry his team, he hit home run after home run, shots that were answered with singles and doubles from the other team. Mighty Casey could have, should have, would have extended his Oregon dominance if only he hadn’t, well, struck out. Mighty Casey had a chance to be a hero, a chance he has converted many times before, on Saturday night. With the Cardinal threaten ing to come back from a 10-point deficit at the 8:31 mark, Mighty Casey hit two important free throws with less than two minutes left to make the score 81-79 Oregon. On Stanford’s next possession, with the Cardinal down by four points, freshman guard Chris Hernandez threw a pass to the three-point line on the left side, and ... Mighty Casey booted the ball. He mishandled Hernandez’s pass and the ball went off his hands and out of bounds to Oregon with 45 seconds left. Duck guard Luke Ridnour hit two free throws on the next posses sion to all but seal the Oregon win. Mighty Casey said the loss was the most telling statistic. “I played well offensively, but it would be really hard to say that my best game came in a loss,” Jacobsen said. “I don’t think I would ever say that, I’m not that kind of person.” Mighty Casey was, surely, not responsible for his team’s demise. His 32 points and Curtis Bor chardt’s 29 accounted for 77 per cent of the Stanford scoring. No, the reasons Stanford lost on Satur day night were numbered 22, 24, 25, 00, 01, 05,11, 33 and 42. Those were the jersey numbers of the nine players who saw court time but combined for only 18 points. “We’re starting five guys this year, it’s a new rule,” Stanford coach Mike Montgomery said sar castically after the game. “We can’t stand and watch Casey play.” Mighty Casey couldn’t beat the Oregon team Saturday. He scored points from everywhere on the floor, but the Ducks always found an answer. The auditory result was often comical; the fans would fill Mac Court with cheering, go deathly silent after a Mighty Casey jump shot, then explode once more with a Luke Jackson jumper or a Ridnour trey. Mighty Casey couldn’t overcome Jackson’s 27 points, Chris Christof fersen’s 16, Freddie Jones’s 12, Luke Ridnour’s 11, Brian Helquist’s 10. Mighty Casey, in the end, could n’t single-handedly win the game for the Cardinal, as hard as he tried. To paraphrase the fabled poem “Casey at the Bat”: Oh, somewhere in Califomia land the sun is shining bright. And somewhere the Stanford band is playing, and somewhere hearts are light. And somewhere professors are laughing, and somewhere students shout. But there is no joy at Stanford — Mighty Casey has struck out. E-mail sports reporter Peter Hockaday at peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com. Wrestling continued from page 9 was 7-6 in favor of the Wolverines, but the next two matchups put the meet away for Michigan. At 174 pounds, No. 2 Otto Olson pinned Oregon redshirt freshman Dustin Fisher in the second period. Freshman Elias Soto was then pinned in the 184-pound weight class by No. r 3 Andy Hrovat at 2:53 of the match. Head coach Chuck Kearney said he knew the match would be diffi cult and was pleased with the way his wrestlers fought against them. “Otto Olson is as good as they come,” Kearney said. “Hrovat is an other guy who’s got an outside shot at winning a national title. When you are wrestling a replacement wrestler and a true freshman against that cal iber of people, those are the kind of results that you are going to get. I was pleased with (Fisher and Soto) and Badicke at 157, wrestling against the No. 5 kid in the country. They went out there and they fought. ” Heavyweight Eric Webb came up with the only other win for Oregon in a 4-1 decision over Steve Heleni ack. During the match, Webb showed obvious signs of discomfort when putting weight on his right leg. After the meet, Webb put on a protective boot because of an injury to the soft tissue between the bones in his big toe, Kearney said. Senior No. 9 Shaun Williams, who has been sidelined since the Dec. 20 Reno Tournament of Champions due to an ankle injury, returned to a loss to No. 12 A.J. Grant. Williams was also limping during Friday night’s meet. Despite the loss to Michigan, Kearney was pleased with particu lar aspects of the meet. “We knew they were tough,” he said. “They don’t have any weak spots in their lineup. “We need to meet people of this caliber, because this is what we are aspiring to do to other people. ” The Ducks next compete Jan. 25 against Pacific and Central Wash ington at Mac Court. E-mail sports reporter Chris Cabot at chriscabot@dailyemerald.com. 'Vrr*' in 4 9 % Spirit make it happen Health Education Program • University Health Center • http://healthcenter.uoregon.edu r n WHAT Three-hour CPR Certification class following the American Heart Association protocol. Participants will receive the CPR certification card at the successful completion of the course. Certification lasts two years. 1-p--1 WHEN | _J__ Tuesday, January 22 at 5:00-8:00p.m. j LJ____J n r~ HOW V j Students may register by calling the University Health I Center at346-2770. Space will be limited to the first20 | UO students. I-f I -h-1 WHERE I Cafeteria on the second floor of the UO Health Center. ~1 .J i-_ WHO j Class taught by nursing staff from the UO Health Center. ] L-Zon j_$18, which can be charged to UO account or paid in cash. 1 .J i— fill liill ' : : liiii'im i'" U N I V E R S J T Y HEALTH CENTER We’re a matter of degrees ^