Jackson-Ridnour-Jones trio
leads Oregon into Sweet 16
■Three players score 88
percent of Oregon’s points
in the Ducks’ nail-biting win
over Wake Forest on Saturday
By Peter Hockaday
Oregon Daily Emerald
SACRAMENTO. Calif. — LL
Cool J had a great performance at
Arco Arena on Saturday afternoon.
No, not the rapper. The trio. Luke
Jackson, Luke Ridnour and Freddie
Jones — jokingly dubbed “LL Cool
J” by a major media outlet — car
ried the Oregon team to victory
over Wake Forest in the second
round of the NCAA Tournament.
Jackson tied a career high with 29
points in Saturday’s game. Ridnour
shattered his career high with 28
points on the strength of a career
high seven three-pointers. Jones
chipped in 24 points.
The three players scored 88 per
cent of Oregon’s final point total.
With 13:45 left in the first half,
Chris Christoffersen made a dunk
on a fast break to tie the game at 18.
From then until Robert Johnson’s
free throw with 17 seconds left in
the second half — a span of 33
minutes and 28 seconds of game
time — the trio scored every one of
Oregon’s points.
It was a 71-point run by Jackson,
Ridnour and Jones.
Jackson explained it simply.
“Ridnour started to take over a
little bit,” Jackson said. “Then
there were stretches in the game
when Freddie stepped up. And
when I needed to knock down
shots, when it was my turn, I
stepped up and did that.
“We’re all so competitive, and
Wake Forest played such a great
game, it was important for us
tonight to give everything we had,
and I felt like we did that.”
Had it not been for Johnson’s free
throw and two freebies from An
thony Lever at the end of the game,
the “LL Cool J” trio would have
scored all of the Ducks’ points in
the final 33:45 of game time.
“We would have hoped to get
more production out of the bench,”
Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said.
“But we felt there was just such a
great rhythm to the game.”
The threesome had 81 total
points. Their previous high was 71
points in an overtime loss at Stan
ford in February.
The rest of the team took only 12
field goals to the trio’s 49, and per
haps the “supporting cast” deserves
credit for letting the three hot play
ers take over the game.
“It’s not just us three. The
whole team wants to win so bad,”
Ridnour said.
On the other side of the ball, the
Wake Forest coaches were im
pressed by Oregon’s terrific trio.
“They could have played for the
Kings, never mind Duke,” said
Wake Forest head coach Skip
Prosser, referring to Sacramento’s
NBA team.
Now the trio will be singing
“Mama Said Knock You Out” on
the way to Madison, Wise., where
the Ducks will face Texas in the
Sweet 16 on Friday.
E-mail sports reporter Peter Hockaday
at peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com.
NCAA
continued from page 17
led the Deacons with 20 points de
spite his injury — was missed as the
Ducks went on a 16-9 run and won
the game.
“He’s a great player, and he does
a lot for his team,” Jones said.
“Once he came off the floor, it took
a lot out of them.”
Over the game’s final minutes,
Oregon was tough on defense and
eye-popping on offense. Jones had
two dunks, one on a rebound off a
Jackson miss that made the crowd
“ooh.” Then it was showed on the
replay screen three times, and the
crowd went “ooh” louder each time.
“Coach has been preaching to
me to hit the offensive boards all
year, and that was a time of the
game when I thought it would be
important to crash the offensive
boards.” Jones said of his dunk. “It
got the crowd into the game, and
when you can hear that crowd, it
just gives that little extra push to
do well.”
But despite the high-flying of
fense, the Ducks stressed that their
defense kept them in the game.
“Even though it was high-scor
ing, we got key stops at key times of
the game,” Kent said.
“We needed some stops, and in
the second half we got those stops,”
Jackson said.
After Dawson went out, Wake
Forest went five straight posses
sions without a point. Jones’ re
bound dunk tied the game for the
first time since the 18:15 mark of
the second half.
In the first half, the teams started
slow but soon set the blistering
pace that would describe the rest of
the game. Three minutes into the
contest, Dawson hit a long three
pointer to make the score 7-4, and
the two teams traded baskets on the
next six possessions. By the end of
the first half there had been seven
ties and three lead changes.
Wake Forest “shot the lights out,”
in the words of Jackson, in the first
half. The Demon Deacons shot 55.9
percent from the floor and went 6
for-9 from three-point range.
“Our defense was slacking a little
bit in the first half,” forward Robert
Johnson said. “But we got it togeth
er in the second half.”
In the first half, the Ducks shot
47.1 percent and hit only five of the
14 treys they took.
Jackson tied his career high with
29 points to lead Oregon in scor
ing, while Ridnour had a career
high 28 points. Anthony Lever hit
two free throws at the end of the
game for the Ducks’ only two
points from the bench.
The win propels Oregon into the
Sweet 16, a place it hasn’t been
since 1960. That season, the Ducks
lost to California after beating New
Mexico State and Utah. Oregon
hasn’t been to the Elite Eight since
1939, when the Elite Eight wasn’t
called that because it was actually
the first round of the tournament.
The Ducks won the inaugural
NCAA Tournament that year. Their
first-round victory was over Texas,
by a final score of 56-41.
Oregon will face Texas at the
Kohl Center in Madison on Friday.
E-mail sports reporter Peter Hockaday
at peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com.
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