Sports Editor
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com
Monday, October 14,2002
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Sports
Best bet
MLB Playoffs:
St. Louis at San Francisco
5:20 p.m., FOX
Jeremy Forrest Emerald
Oregon's Onterrio Smith eludes the tacklers of UCIA Smith had his sixth-straight 100-yard rushing game against the Bruins.
Shootin ’ the Rose Bowl lights out
PASADENA, Calif. —
A scruffy man walks
into a saloon.
“Bartender, a bour
bon, please,” the man
says.
“Sure thing, partner.”
They sit in silence for
a while as the man
stares at his drink, i
There is nobody else
in the establishment.
“Say, anything
wrong, partner?” the
bartender asks after
Peter
Hockaday
Two minutes for
crosschecking
he can’t take any more silence.
“It’s this Wild V/est, my good man. It’s
got me down.”
Another pause.
“Why’s that?” the bartender asks.
“Well, there was another shoot-out
Saturday, down here at that dang
nabbed Rose Bowl. And nobody even
took notice. Back East, they don’t care
about all the shoot-outs we have out
here. Dang.”
“Yeah, I guess,” the bartender nods,
hoping the conversation ends there.
“I mean, those kids were trading shots
like they were cattle rustlers sitting
around a camp fire with their flasks.
They were shooting quicker than Billy
the Kid, big long shots that went a great
many miles but still found their mark.”
“Yep, it’s true.”
“Then there was that big shoot-out up
in Husky territory. That Jason Johnson
kid gave it his best, you know, but he fell
in the end.”
The two sit in silence for a while.
“Then there was that shoot-out across
the way from the Rose Bowl, right down
there in Los Angeles. I heard the Cali
fornia team got robbed in that one. They
Turn to Hockaday, page 9
Bruins kick
themselves
as UO wins
For the second straight season, the Ducks pull off
a one-point win thanks to another UCLA misfire
Adam Jude
Senior Sports Reporter
The Ducks, simply, are kicking everything and every
body. The UCLA Bruins are only kicking themselves.
For the second straight season, the fate of the Ore
gon-UCLA match-up was decided, in the end, by the
right foot of Chris Griffith. In 2001, the Bruins’ place
kicker was short and wide right on a 50-yard attempt as
the clock expired, giving the Ducks a 21-20 win.
On Saturday, Griffith had the distance on a 46-yard
attempt, but hooked it left, sending the No. 6 Ducks (6
0 overall, 2-0 Pacific-10 Conference) home with their
third-straight win over the Bruins (4-2,1-1).
Like last season, UCLA head coach Bob Toledo played
conservatively in the
Bruins’ final drive to
give his kicker a
chance to win the
game. But like last
season, Griffith could
not find the uprights.
“I’m disappointed
in several aspects of
the kicking game,”
Toledo told reporters
after the game.
What Griffith
couidn t do, Oregon s Jared Siegel did — at a record-set
ting pace.
Siegel, Oregon’s sophomore placekicker, booted a
school-record 59-yard field goal, tying the Pac-10
record for a conference game, as time expired in the
first half.
“Fifty-nine yards is the very end of my range,” Siegel
said. “It took a while for the coach to decide to give it a
go. I just kept my mechanics in line, and it went.”
Heading into Saturday’s match-up in Pasadena, Siegel
was ranked No. 2 in the country in field-goal efficiency.
He has converted 12-of-13 attempts this season.
“We needed a little boost, and I thought that it would
help fire us up for the second half,” Bellotti said of
Siegel’s boot, which sent the Ducks into the locker
Turn to Kicking, page 9
"We needed a little
boost, and I thought
that it would help
fire us up for the
second half"
Mike Bellotti
Head football coach
Ducks hope to ‘WNIT’ all again
Just three weeks remain before the
women’s basketball Ducks take the
court forthe first time this year
Women’s Basketball
Hank Hager
Sports Reporter
The last time you saw them, in April,
they were celebrating their WNIT Cham
pionship at McArthur Court.
So for the nine returning letterwinners
on the Oregon women’s basketball team,
Friday’s media day was a reunion of sorts.
Gone were graduates Jamie Craighead,
Alyssa Fredrick, Edniesha Curry and
Ndidi Unaka. But back to visit in their
first official gathering of the year — at
least for outsiders to the program — were
senior starters Shaquala Williams and
Alissa Edwards, as well as junior
Cathrine Kraayeveld and sophomore An
drea Bills.
And although the team has been prac
ticing for almost two months, Friday was
their first chance to strut their stuff and
talk up what they plan to do this season.
“I’m looking forward to having fun and
winning as many games as we can,”
Williams said. “I think we had a great
ending to last year in winning the WNIT,
but our goals are a lot bigger this year,
and we can achieve a lot more.”
If last season’s 22-13 campaign was a
rollercoaster — with plenty of ups and
downs, dips and turns — then this sea
son is shaping up to be a smooth ride.
Gone is the pressure of extending an
eight-year NCAA Tournament streak,
though the Ducks made a case that it
should have been nine straight by win
ning five straight in the WNIT. Also gone
is the Jody Runge situation, a controver
sial topic last season that was often the
focus of the media after games and prac
tices.
But, most importantly, the Ducks’ core
group of players has had a year to adjust
to head coach Bev Smith’s system and a
chance to test its intricacies.
“I think it was hard sometimes,”
Kraayeveld said of last season. “We ex
pected to win in certain games, and we
ended up just not playing well when we
lost. I think that it hurt our confidence a
little bit. I think we have a load of talent
on this team, and we should be able to
string a couple more games together this
season.
“We just have to have the right mind
set coming into each game.”
Kraayeveld was the MVP of the WNIT
— coming through with the game-win
ning shot against Houston for the cham
pionship — and will need help in the
frontcourt, as the group is young and in
experienced.
Along with Kraayeveld, the Ducks list
five full-time forwards on their roster —
including Bills, who is shaping up to be a
focus of the Oregon offense. Of those five,
only Bills and Kraayeveld have seen sig
nificant action.
Enter freshman Carolyn Ganes. The 6
foot-3 center from Saskatoon,
Saskatchewan is an imposing figure and
must grow up quickly to lend support off
the bench.
“I’m a little bit nervous, just because
you can’t help but not be a little bit, but I
think it will be a lot of fun, and I’ll just go
in there and play hard and see what hap
pens,” Ganes said when asked about her
transition to the college game.
Coupled with Yadili Okwumabua, an
other freshman from Canada, Ganes’ ad
justment will be key this season.
“I think the coaches are aware that
they’re freshmen and don’t know as
much, but they did play with Bev and
Turn to Basketball, page 8
Adam Amato Emerald
The Oregon women's basketball team wants to be NCAA-bound.