Sports Editor:
Adam Jude
adamjude@dailyemerald.com
Assistant Sports Editor:
Jeff Smith
jeffsmith@dailyemerald. com
Friday, February 15,2002
Best Bet
Olympics: Hockey,
7:30 p.m., NBC
Senior guard Anthony Lever is hitting 49 percent of his three-point attempts this season, second-best in the Pac-10.
Ducks rested, ready to face Beavers
■The Ducks look to win their seventh straight
against OSU and improve to 14-0 at home
By Jeff Smith
Oregon Daily Emerald
The Oregon men’s basketball team is hoping that
three days of rest and three days of practice this
week will translate into three straight seasons of
sweeping Oregon State.
The Ducks have refreshed their bodies after two
hard-fought overtime defeats in the Bay Area. But
their minds haven’t completely erased the pain of
those losses, and the first step to doing that begins
this weekend.
When Oregon hosts Oregon State at 7 p.m. Sat
urday, the Beavers will have the extra challenge of
facing a Ducks team that will be ready to take out
some frustration.
“They might get a little bit of it,” Freddie Jones
said with a smile.
Oregon (17-7,9-4) has dominated the series with
Oregon State (10-13, 3-10) by winning 16 of 17 dat
ing back to the 1994-95 season.
As for that lone defeat? It serves as added moti
vation to Jones, who can vividly recall being a
freshman and walking out of Gill Coliseum as a 48
45 loser on Jan. 30,1999.
“I still remember that game. It was a tough one,”
Jones said. “You never want to lose to an in-state
Turn to Men’s, page 12
Senior guard Anthony Lever has faced much
adversity, but remains one of the most
consistent players on the Oregon team
By Peter Hockaday
Oregon Daily Emerald
You can’t throw Anthony Lever a
changeup.
He’s like a veteran hitter who’s
seen far too many.
Change is nothing new to Lever, the
elder statesman of the Oregon men’s bas
ketball team. Since high school, Lever
has exchanged uniforms like a
chameleon and seen his role on the Ore
gon team shift more times than a mid
dle-schooler writing his first term paper.
Lever has been through perhaps more
changes than anyone on the Oregon bas
ketball team, but that doesn’t keep him
from being one of the most level-head
ed guys to roam McArthur Court.
“He has a different kind of maturity to
him,” Oregon guard Freddie Jones said
of Lever. “Later on, I see him becoming a
businessman type, because he loves that
kind of stuff, being in charge. ”
Lever was always in charge at Canyon
Del Oro High in Tucson, Ariz., where he
broke Mike Bibby’s single-season state
high school scoring record his senior
year. Lever averaged 29 points per game
in 1996-97, a feat that earned him an
honorable mention for the USA Today
high school All-American team.
But that’s when those changes started
swirling around the shooter. During his
senior season, Lever was recruited by an
Arizona assistant coach who switched
allegiances to Louisiana-Lafayette.
Lever followed, but didn’t stick with the
Ragin’ Cajuns.
“I went there and it was too small,”
Lever said. “I just didn’t like the place. I
sat out a semester and then after that 1
was out of school completely.”
After a year at community college in
Texas, Lever landed at Oregon with fel
low junior-college recruits Bryan
Bracey, Julius Hicks and Ben Lindquist.
He played behind point guard Darius
Wright for that season, then earned a
starting role his junior year.
But this year has been easily the most
interesting of Lever’s basketball career.
The senior changed his last name from
Norwood when he learned that his father
was NBA legend
Lafayette “Fat”
Lever. He broke his
hand before the sea
son started and
watched as five
starters gelled on the
court in the presea
son. He came back
from the injury to
find his minutes re
duced dramatically
from last season.
And through it all, Lever remained a
leader and a teacher when he could have
turned into a moper and a whiner.
“To come off the bench and have that
kind of impact and be that kind of shoot
er, I think that says a lot about his char
acter,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent
said. “Because he could have been a dis
gruntled player, unhappy, but he has not
done that at all.”
In fact, Lever’s production has in
creased in certain areas this season. The
senior is averaging 49 percent from be
yond the arc, good enough for second in
the Pacific-10 Conference and much
higher than his 35 percent clip last sea
son. When he is able to come off the
bench late in games, his insta-treys of
ten spark the Oregon club.
“I still think he’s going to step up and
win some close games for us down the
stretch with his ability to shoot the ball,”
Kent said. “He did it against Cal here at
Mac Court. We were in kind of a slump,
he went out and hit 2-of-3 three-point
ers and got us going again. Same thing
with the Stanford game as well. ”
Turn to Lever, page 10
Oregon expects game to be not so ‘CM’ against OSU in Corvallis
■Oregon women hope
to reclaim their dominance
over Oregon State after their
recent loss to the Beavers
By Hank Hager
' Oregon Daily Emerald
There’s no love lost between the
Ducks and the Beavers.
For eight years, Oregon State
could not figure out the Ducks at
McArthur Court.
Until recently.
Oregon State’s 61-53 win at Mac
Court in January ended an 11-game
Oregon winning streak in the se
ries, and the first time since 1993
the Beavers won in Eugene.
That’s what will be weighing on
the Ducks’ mind when they visit
Gill Coliseum Saturday at 1 p.m.
“Revenge, if anything,” junior
Shaquala Williams said of her moti
vation. “They came and beat us on
our home court and broke that
streak, and the
way they celebrat
ed and acted defi
nitely got under
our skin. It's pay
back and revenge.”
In a game that
was anything but
civil, the Ducks
(13-11 overall, 8-7 Pacific-10
Conference) had their chances
but weren’t able to convert. The
team shot just 27 percent from
the field, its worst performance of
the season.
“I think that even one more solid
screen or offensive rebound would
have made a difference that game,”
Oregon head coach Bev Smith said.
“I just think it was out there for the
taking, and when push came to
shove, they just shoved a bit more
and that was the difference.
“It’s going to be a game of wills
and whoever wants it most will
win it again.”
After their win, the Beavers (12
12, 9-6) celebrated with sparkling
cider, invoking feelings of a cham
pionship celebration. They cele
brated on the Oregon VO” at center
court, and after the game, were visi
bly stirred.
For the first time in their seniors’
careers, the Beavers had beaten the
Ducks. Oregon State senior center
Ericka Cook was so emotional, tears
streaked down her cheek at the
post-game press conference.
This got Oregon’s attention.
“I feel like you should have a cer
tain amount of class when you beat
a team, and you should shake their
hands and then celebrate after
that,” Williams said. “If we win,
we’ll be happy, but I don’t think
we’ll act as they did.”
For the Ducks to win this time,
most believe the team needs to play
Oregon basketball. Intensity will be
key, especially on the road where
the fans can be inhospitable.
“This game is going to be more
intense than the first one,’’
Williams said. “As long as it ends
in good sportsmanship when the
game is oyer, I’ll be happy with it.”
Gill Coliseum may be no differ
ent than Mac Court for the Ducks,
except for the orange and black on
the floor and triangular-shaped
roof. With only 50 miles separating
the two schools, the Ducks expect
to have a rabid fan base.
The distance “benefits us be
cause we usually have more fans
than they do,” Williams said. “I
Turn to Women’s, page 12