Sports Editor:
Adam Jude
adamjude@dailyemerald.com
Assistant Sports Editor:
Jeff Smith
jeffsmith@dailyemerald.com
Monday, March 4,2002
Best Bet
Women’s Pac-10 championship:
Arizona State vs. Stanford
7:30 p.m., Fox Sports Net
Ducks earn first outright title since 1939
■The Ducks break an 18-year
drought at Pauley Pavilion with
a 65-62 win over UCLA and
jump to No. 9 in the coaches poll
By Peter Hockaday
Oregon Daily Emerald
Deja vu on the shot: A Freddie
Jones jumper from the right side of
the lane in the waning seconds to
defeat another Southern California
powerhouse, except this one was
wearing the blue and gold of UCLA.
Deja vu on the result: Pacific-10
Conference champions. Except this
time, the Oregon men’s basketball
team ensured that title would be
long only in Eugene.
Of course, the Oregon players
were sole champions before they
took the floor at UCLA’s Pauley
Pavilion on Saturday night, because
of California’s loss at Arizona. But
the 65-62 win over the Bruins only
sweetened the conference champi
onship cake, and also served to
vault the Ducks into the top 10 —
Oregon now sits at No. 9 — of the
ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll.
For Oregon head coach Ernie
Kent, the Pac-10 title is vindication
for the underdog Ducks.
“We heard it all this year,” an
emotional Kent told KUGN after
Saturday’s game. “But this team
never wavered, and that’s why we
were able to persevere.”
The victory also vindicated years
of Oregon futility at Pauley Pavil
ion, where the Ducks hadn’t won
since 1984.
The win, though it didn’t matter
to the final Pac-10 standings, may
matter to the NCAA selection
season with five straight wins and
after beating both USC and UCLA
on the road.
Even if the Ducks falter in next
weekend’s Pac-10 Tournament,
Oregon is now likely staying close
nrs
BASKETBALL
committee next
weekend when it
hands out NCAA
Tournament bids.
Oregon can make
a strong case for a
high West Coast
seed after finish
ing the regular
to home — either Sacramento,
Calif., or Albuquerque, N.M. — for
the first rounds of the Big Dance.
“Anybody who said we had
nothing to play for tonight is just
crazy,” Kent said. “Before the game
there were no speeches about de
fense or offense. We said, ‘Here’s
something for our parents. Let’s
stay in the West.’”
But before the NCAA Tourna
ment, Oregon will head back to Los
Angeles for next weekend’s Pac-10
Tournament. The Ducks, who are
the No. 1 seed, will square off with
Northwest rival Washington in the
tournament’s first game Thursday
at 1:15 p.m. The winner of that
game will go on to face the winner
of No. 4-seed USC and No. 5 Stan
ford on Friday at 6:15 p.m. Both
those games will be televised on
Fox Sports Net.
“We’ve got a long way to go,”
Oregon point guard Luke Ridnour
said. “We’re looking forward to
showing some more people what
we’re capable of.”
Oregon’s final regular-season
win came in typically gut-wrench
ing style. The Ducks led most of
the game, but UCLA kept the
score close and even led late in
the second half. After a timeout
with 42.9 seconds left and Oregon
leading 63-62, the Ducks ran a
play for Jones.
The senior guard drove the left
side of the lane, hobbled the ball,
Turn to Men’s, page 9
Oregon women fall to ASU in Pac-10 semis
■The Ducks defeat Washington State
and Washington in the early rounds;
loss to ASU ends their regular season
By Adam Jude
Oregon Daily Emerald
It was a weekend of adjustments at the in
augural women’s basketball Pacihc-10 Con
ference Tournament at McArthur Court.
Oregon made the adjustments on Friday
and Saturday to earn a trip to the semifinals
against Arizona State on Sunday.
Playing their third game in 36 hours, the
Ducks trailed the Sun Devils by 12 at half
time, but Oregon made the necessary changes
in the second half and at one point led by
eight. Suddenly, a spot in Pac-10 Tournament
championship game
was within reach for
the Ducks, who en
tered the weekend as
the No. 7 seed.
Then Arizona State,
struggling with Ore
gon’s zone defense
throughout the game,
made the proper adjustments and pulled away
for a 64-58 win, propelling the third seeded
Sun Devils into the championship game
against top-seeded Stanford at 6:30 tonight.
Arizona State defeated the Ducks for the
third time this season.
“There was no doubt that we were on the
same court with them for a reason,” Oregon
first year head coach Bev Smith said. “In
the first half, they took some of our
strengths away offensively, but we hung in
there. I thought we kept them guessing
when we were going to come back. ”
The comeback came in the form of a 22-2
run, capped off by a Cathrine Kraayeveld
three-pointer that put the Ducks ahead 43
35 with 10:46 left.
“It is frustrating that we lost because we
played a great game,” Kraayeveld said. “We
couldn’t get much going offensively in the
first half, so I thought that we did a real good
job of turning it around in the second half. ”
As much as the Pac-10 tried to neutralize
McArthur Court — most of the green and
yellow was covered with the Pac-lO’s gray
and blue — Oregon fed off its crowd’s ener
gy to keep the game close in the second half.
But Arizona State was not fazed.
“The No. 1 thing is to not get down like so
many teams have found themselves while
playing here,” Arizona State center Melody
Johnson said. “The crowd shuts up real
quick when there’s a turnaround, and that’s
what we had to do. ”
And that’s what the Devils did.
Me ARTHUR COURT
Turn to Women’s, page 10
;
Arizona State’s Amanda Levens trips over Oregon’s Alissa Edwards in ASU’s 64-58 victory Sunday at McArthur Court.
The Sun Devils face top-seeded Stanford in the Pac-10 championship game tonight at 7:30.
Three Duck
wrestlers
winPac-10
titles at OSU
■ Oregon wrestling finishes
second at the Pac-10 Tournament
with Williams, Overstake
and Harris earning individual titles
By Chris Cabot
Oregon Daily Emeraid
All but two of Oregon’s 10 starting
wrestlers have extended their season
for another two and a half weeks.
Seven Ducks finished in the top-four
at the Pacific-10 Conference champi
onship tournament and one earned a
wild card selection to advance to the
NCAA Tournament in Albany, N.Y.,
which begins March 21.
Shaun Williams, Tony Overstake and
Eugene Harris all wrestled their way
through the conference tournament
bracket to come away with individual
conference titles in their respective
weight classes. As a team, Oregon fin
ished second with 115.5 points, behind
Boise State’s 123.
“We wanted to win it, and we wrestled
hard,” head coach Chuck Kearney said.
“We just didn’t score any bonus points,
and that’s what it came down to. But the
guys went after it, and now they know
what it will take to win a championship.”
Harris, seeded No. 1 in the 165-pound
weight class, rolled by his first round op
ponent, Nathan Ploehn of Boise State 16
7, but had some difficulty with his semi
final match against Nick Frost of Arizona
State. When Frost and Harris last met
Feb. 3, Harris came away with a 3-1 vic
tory. Saturday’s match was even closer
with Harris winning 3-2, which placed
him in the final round match against
Burt Pierson of UC Davis.
One of Harris’ three losses this season
came against Pierson in a 2-1 double
overtime decision Nov. 10. Once again,
the two battled each other in low scor
ing match, but the Oregon senior was
able to better Pierson for a 3-2 decision.
Overstake was a No. 2 seed in the
tournament at 157 pounds and his clos
est match was a 10-7 victory in the final
Turn to Wrestling, page 8