Sports Editor:
Adam Jude
adamjude@dailyemerald.com
Assistant Sports Editor:
Jeff Smith
jeffsmith@dailyemerald.com
Monday, February 11,2002
Oregon women ‘golden’ in victory over Bears
■The Ducks trounce Cal, 76-43, with a solid
defensive effort at McArthur Court on Saturday
By Adam Jude
Oregon Daily Emerald
Three starters, including the team’s leading scorer,
didn’t get off the bench until nearly seven minutes into
the game. Normally, the situation would be cause
for concern.
But not for the Oregon women’s basketball team on
senior night.
With the aid of its four seniors, the Ducks surged to a
13-8 lead in the first half of Saturday’s Pacific-10 Con
ference battle against the California Bears. And when
the regular starters entered the game, everything was,
well, easy. Oregon won 76-43.
“I don’t think Oregon was on top of their game early
on,” Cal head coach Caren Horstmeyer said. “I’m really
at a loss. That was our worst game of the year.”
—. Conversely, it may have been the
Ducks’ best game of the season.
In front of 4,820 fans at McArthur
Court, the Ducks won Saturday with
defense, something they’ve been
pressing all season. Cal went nearly
eight minutes without a field goal in
the first half and shot just 26 percent
from the field — Oregon’s best defen
sive effort of the year. Cal’s 43 points were the fewest
the Ducks have allowed all season.
After the first half, Cal had just 16 points on 6-of-25
shooting (24 percent).
*‘I give our defense credit for that,” said Oregon junior
guard Shaquala Williams. “We know they can score, but
tonight we just had a really stingy defense who wasn’t
going to give them anything easy.”
Senior post Alyssa Fredrick had a game-high 15
points to go along with three rebounds and only
one turnover.
“We wanted to come out with a lot of intensity and
hot let our emotions hinder our performance, and I feel
like we did that,” said senior forward Ndidi Unaka,
who had five points and seven rebounds. “Our defense
kindles our offense because we are a running team. We
need to come out strong on defense and make them
work hard.”
Leading 37-16 at the half, the Ducks pushed the mar
gin to 52-26 on a Cathrine Kraayeveld layin with 13:19
to play. For the game, Oregon shot 53 percent and had
23 assists to Cal’s five.
“I don’t think we won tonight because it was senior
night, but because the seniors stepped on the floor and
performed at standards that go beyond just a basketball
game — playing your best regardless of who you’re
playing against,” Oregon head coach Bev Smith said.
“And tonight, for the first time, we had back-to-back
games where we absolutely did that.”
Oregon’s tenacious defensive effort comes after
Thursday’s 77-72 loss to No. 2 Stanford, a game the
Ducks felt they could have won.
“We didn’t want Stanford to make us bring out our
best effort,” Williams said. “We wanted to get ourselves
up for this game. Tonight we had tremendous team
work.”
Williams, the team’s leading scorer, didn’t start the
game because she violated a team rule, which was not
Turn to Women’s, page 10
BASKETBALL
Adam Amato Emerald
On senior night, senior center Alyssa Fredrick (on floor) scored a game-high 15 points, and senior guard
Edniesha Curry (00) added five steals in Oregon’s 76-43 win over Cal.
Seniors land win in farewell
■The four Oregon seniors
say goodbye to Mac Court
with a blowout of California
By Hank Hager
Oregon Daily Emerald
One by one, history stepped off the
floor at McArthur Court on Saturday.
First came Edniesha Curry. Then it was
Jamie Craighead’s turn. Finally, as a sign of
solidarity, Alyssa Fredrick and Ndidi Una
ka made their way to the Oregon bench.
With just more than a minute left in
the Ducks’ 76-43 win over California, the
four Oregon seniors stood confidently at
their bench knowing they had just end
ed their career at home in true fashion.
“It was just a good experience for all of
us to be on the court one more time to
gether,” Craighead said. “We’ll never get
to play together again, so it was fun.”
Just as Craighead and Unaka did four
years ago in their first game, and Fredrick
a season later, the Ducks dominated in
the win. Only Curry began her Oregon
career with a loss, as the Ducks lost to
Wisconsin-Green Bay to start this season.
“I wanted to go out with a win, and go
out with a win for my mom (who was in
attendance),” Fredrick said. “This is as
sweet as it gets.”
Craighead and Unaka, the two seniors
who spent all four seasons of their colle
giate careers at Oregon, finish 44-11 in
regular season games at Mac Court. How
ever, their only post-season game at the
storied gym resulted in a loss at the hands
of Alabama-Birmingham in 2000,80-79.
It would be wrong to compare this
year’s Oregon four to the group that fin
ished their careers last season, but it
would be unfair as well to cast them
aside. Since Craighead and Unaka first
put on the Oregon green and yellow, the
Ducks have gone 1-3 in the NCAA
Turn to Women’s side, page 12
UO road
struggles
continue
vs. Bears
■The Oregon men’s basketball
team drops into second place after
getting swept in the Bay Area
Online
Freddie Jones
takes blame for
the Cal loss.
www. dailyemerald. com
By Peter Hockaday
Oregon Daily Emerald
BERKELEY, Calif. — Two nights after
a tough overtime loss, the Oregon men’s
basketball team went to two overtimes,
lost their second straight game and
dropped to second in the
Pacific-10 Conference.
Now, the Ducks have only two road
games left to prove they can win away
from McArthur Court.
The number “two” also pops up on
the jersey of Amit Tamir (No. 24), the
California freshman who set a Golden
_ Bear rookie record
by scoring 39 points
against No. 13 Ore
gon (17-7 overall, 9
4 Pac-10) Saturday
night.
Tamir led the
Bears (17-5, 8-4) to a
107-103 double-overtime win that revi
talized a mediocre Cal team and knocked
the Ducks out of the Pac-10 lead, where
they had sat for three previous weeks.
“We had two winnable ball games”
this weekend, Oregon head coach Ernie
Kent said, also referring to Thursday’s
90-87 overtime loss at Stanford. “We
just needed another play or two in
crunch time to get it done. But we did
n’t get it done, so the key thing for us
right now is to go home and re-group.”
Saturday’s game was won at the begin
ning of the second extra period, when
the Golden Bears hit three big shots to
pull away and put away the Ducks.
The first two came from Tamir, who
hit a layup and a three-pointer, both
with two seconds on the shot clock.
Those baskets put Cal up 94-89, and
Golden Bear point guard Shantay
Legans hit a three on the next posses
sion — this time with six ticks on the
shot clock — to put Cal ahead by eight.
Oregon guard Freddie Jones scored 23
points in the game, but said he felt re
sponsible for the defensive lapse at the
beginning of the second overtime.
Turn to Men’s, page 12
UO wrestlers defeat Bakersfield, Fresno State, but fall to Cal Poly
■The Ducks improve their
record to 7-7 after three
weekend meets, including a win
over No. 21 Fresno State
By Chris Cabot
Oregon Daily Emerald
It was an up-and down-weekend
at McArthur Court for the Oregon
wrestling team.
After two wins on Friday against
Cal State-Bakersfield and No. 21
Fresno State, the Ducks dropped a
close match to Pacific-10 Confer
ence rival Cal Poly. Oregon’s record
now stands at 7-7 overall and 3-4 in
the Pac-10.
Oregon’s weekend began with an
afternoon win over Bakersfield,
which dropped its record to 2-6
overall and 0-4 in the Pac-10. The
meet, a 35-9 decision, featured
three forfeits by Bakersfield and
one by Oregon’s Shaun Williams.
The Ducks’ only true loss came in
the 149-pound weight class when
Casey Hunt dropped an overtime
decision to Thomas Juarez.
Freshman Elias Soto picked up
his first major decision victory of
his collegiate career with a 15-6 vic
tory. Also in the Bakersfield meet,
No. 5 Eugene Harris secured a tech
nical fall, winning his 165-pound
match, 21-6.
In the Friday nightcap, Oregon
beat the tough Fresno State team
despite another forfeit in the 125
pound weight class. Williams, who
is 7-4 on the season at 125 pounds,
has had trouble making weight late
ly. In all three of this weekend’s
meets, Williams was just over the
required limit and also missed the
meet against Arizona State on Feb.
2 because he missed weight.
“Shaun is having some prob
lems,” Harris said. “We don’t quite
know what is going on, but it
would be great to have him back
in there.”
Fresno State’s record now stands at
10-7 due in large part to Oregon fresh
man Shane Webster’s battle in the
174-pound class. Heading into Web
ster’s match against Britt Mooney, the
Ducks were ahead 15-12 after consec
utive wins by Tony Overstake and
Harris. Webster came close to pin
ning Mooney at two points in the
match, picking up six total nearfall
points. With 1:20 remaining in the
third period, Webster put Mooney on
his back to earn enough points for a
technical fall win.
Head coach Chuck Kearney
called the Fresno State victory a
“big win,” and was pleased with
Turn to Wrestling, page 12