Sports Editor:
Adam Jude ,
adamjude@dailyemerald.com
Assistant Sports Editor:
Jeff Smith
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Best Bet
Olympics: Men’s hockey
3 p.m., CNBC
Wednesday, February 20,2002
Wrestlers to take on Vikings
in final dual meet of season
Intheirfinal
match before
the Pacific-10
Conference
Championships,
the Oregon
wrestling team
hosts rival
Portland State at
Mac Court
By Chris Cabot
Oregon Daily Emerald
The Oregon wrestling team will look to
maintain tlie momentum from its 18-14
win over Oregon State last Wednesday
when it hosts the Portland State Vikings
in Oregon’s final dual meet of the season
at McArthur Court at 7:30 tonight.
With one more dual meet before the
Pacific-10 Conference Championships,
head coach Chuck Kearney’s squad is
looking to up its current record, which
now stands at 8-7 overall and 4-4 against
Pac-10 opponents.
Portland State (9-12 overall, 3-5 Pac-10)
is coming off a 1-1 weekend where they
defeated San Francisco State, 25-16, and
lost to Stanford in a 28-9 decision.
In Oregon’s first meet of the season, it
defeated Stanford 29-4, and with a win
today, the Ducks would extend their
winning streak over the Vikings to 20
straight meets.
Following last week’s Civil War,
which figuratively pitted brother against
brother, today’s meet against Portland
State literally pits two brothers against
each other.
Oregon junior Jason Harless (13-5),
who has been wrestling well for the
Ducks lately at 133 pounds, will host his
younger brother, Danny. The younger
Harless is a redshirt
freshman at Portland
State and has com
piled a 12-15 record
this year at the 149
pound weight class.
He will probably not
start against Oregon, as
sophomore Casey Banks (3-12) is listed to
take on Oregon’s Casey Hunt (9-8).
The Vikings are led by senior Jeremy
Wilson, who is ranked No. 19 in the
country at the 184-pound weight class.
Wilson is 29-5 on the season, which in
cludes 8-0 in the Pac-10, but has been
hampered lately by an ailing back. He
will face Oregon’s Elias Soto (2-14), who
has competed against some of the na
tion’s best wrestlers in his weight class
in his freshman year with the Ducks.
The weight classes on either side of
Wilson have also been strong points for
Turn to Wrestling, page 8
Adam Amato Emerald
Oregon junior Casey Hunt (149 pounds) lifts Oregon State’s Jordan Barich in the Ducks’ 18-14 victory
over the Beavers last Wednesday. Oregon hosts Portland State tonight at 7:30.
T can’t be found
in Kourtney Shreve
■ It’s been a rough transition for junior Kourtney Shreve
this season, but she says it’s a team effort
By Adam Jude
Oregon Daily Emerald
About the only thing that has been the same for Kourtney
Shreve this season was a half-court shot against Stanford at
McArthur Court.
In Oregon’s victory over Stanford on Jan. 13, 2001, Shreve
drilled a half-court buzzer beater to give the Ducks momen
tum heading into halftime. Against the Cardinal two weeks
ago, Shreve found herself in the same situa
tion, with the ball on the far end of the court
as the clock faded in the first half. This time,
though, the attempt wasn’t even close.
“When we played them this year, my shot
was completely off, but when I got the ball, I
was like, ‘Oh, replay,’” Shreve said.
So goes Shreve’s season.
You see, Kourtney Shreve is a junior trapped in a fresh
man’s role.
Last year’s starting point guard for the Oregon women’s bas
ketball team is averaging less than nine minutes per game this
season compared to more than 20 minutes per game last year.
Two years ago, Shreve was an honorable mention on the
Pac-lO’s all-freshman team. This year, playing on a squad
with seven guards, Shreve rarely gets honorably mentioned
at Mac Court.
“It’s been a big adjustment,” the Albany native said. “It’s been
harder than I thought with everything being so new this year.
“Although I did have high expectations for myself, I knew
there were some people in front of me,” she added. “When
the opportunity comes, I just try to make the most of that.”
The two points per game this season haven’t fazed Shreve,
who keeps her focus on the good of the team.
“What’s best for the team is what I want,” she said.
Oregon first-year head coach Bev Smith said Shreve has
been a “super role player” this year for the Ducks, who travel
to Washington State on Thursday.
“She’s just a positive athlete, and I know it hurts her not to
play, but she understands that she has to do certain things
and play a certain way to contribute in a game,” Smith said. “I
think Kourtney has done a great job because she’s kept such a
positive approach. She works hard in practices, she makes
practices better and she pushes our starters.”
In the last three games, when the Ducks have played their
Turn to Women’s, page 10
BASKETBALL
Oregon is looking to go 16-0 at home this year, thanks in large part to a raucous McArthur Court crowd.
Adam Amato Emerald
Men shoot for undefeated home season
■Wins against the Washington schools would make
the Ducks 16-0 at Mac Court for first time in 64 years
By Peter Hockaday
Oregon Daily Emerald
The Oregon men’s basketball season is far from its finish
line. The Ducks have four regular-season games left, includ
ing this weekend’s games with Washington State and Wash
ington, a Pacific-10 Conference Tourna
ment and the NCAA Tournament waiting
for them.
Then why does this weekend seem to
have so much closure to it?
For one, this weekend’s games mark
the last home contests for six players and
one student manager. For dhother, the
Ducks (18-7 overall, 10-4 Pac-10) have a
chance to finish a home season 16-0 for the first time since
1938. Finally, Oregon will have a chance to wreak revenge
on a Washington team that edged the Ducks in
Seattle, 97-92.
“There’s a lot of hype surrounding this weekend,” Ore
gon head coach Ernie Kent said at McArthur Court on
Wednesday. “But it’s all positive hype. This building should
be alive for these basketball games.”
That Mac Court atmosphere has led to an unblemished
home record for the Ducks this season. Oregon has gone un
defeated at home only three times, in the 1911-12,1925-26
and 1937-38 seasons. The latter season was the only one
with 16 home games. The Ducks won seven in 1911 and six
in 1926.
“It’s one of the miniature goals we’ve set for ourselves,”
Kent said about going 16-0. “Now that we’re within two
games of that, we’re certainly focusing in on it.”
While the home streak doesn’t come close to rivaling the
sheer magnitude of the football teams’ Autzen Stadium
streak or the recently-ended 53-game home streak of the
Michigan State basketball team, it is impressive in small
terms. The Oregon home streak is currently the longest in
Turn to Men’s, page 9