Sports Editor
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com
Monday, December 9,2002
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Sports
Best bet
Fiesta Bowl:
Ohio State v. Miami
5 p.m. Friday, Jan. 3, ABC
Adam Amato Emerald
Luke Ridnour celebrates with the crowd after hitting the game-clinching three-pointer
with 1:2\ remaining in the Ducks'win over Kansas. The trey put Oregon ahead 83-76.
Ducks topple ’Hawks
in Elite grudge match
With an 84-78 win, No. 7
Oregon avenges its Elite
Eight loss to Kansas in front
of a record crowd in Portland
Men’s basketball
Adam Jude
Senior Sports Reporter
PORTLAND — The largest
crowd in state history witnessed
what may be remembered as the
greatest game in state history.
No. 7 Oregon (5-0) won its
grudge match Saturday with an
84-78 win over No. 14 Kansas (3
3), the team that ended the
Ducks’ season in the Elite Eight of
the NCAA Tournament in March.
The sellout crowd of 20,762 at the
Rose Garden for the nationally
televised Pape Jam was the largest
ever for a college basketball game
in Oregon.
For the Ducks, the win was
more than redemption. It gives
them weight to support their top
10 ranking, Oregon’s highest ever.
“I’d like to call it a statement
game,” Oregon head coach Ernie
Kent said. “We are a very good
basketball team. This gives us the
opportunity to feel good about
where we’re at.”
With the shot clock winding
down, Luke Ridnour hit a three
pointer with 1:21 remaining to
give the Ducks a 83-76 lead and
halt a late Kansas charge.
“This was just like a March
game,” said Ridnour, who fin
ished with 25 points, seven re
bounds and nine assists to count
er a nine-point, seven-turnover
performance in the Midwest Re
gional final loss to Kansas last sea
son. “They did put us out last
year, and that sticks with you all
summer. This is a huge win for
this program.”
Down by as much as 11 in the
second half, the Jay hawks, who
entered the season ranked No. 2,
tied the game at 74 on a Keith
Langford jumper with 3:41 left.
Oregon had gone nearly five
minutes vfithout a field goal be
fore Jay Anderson hit a jumper
at the 4:30 mark.
But in a game that the Ducks
never trailed, Luke Jackson
grabbed a rebound, hit the put
back and was fouled with three
minutes remaining as Oregon
took the lead for good.
“I think this was the best col
lege basketball game of the pre
season,” Kent said.
Oregon’s success started and
ended on the boards. Out-re
bounded 63-34 by Kansas last
March, the Ducks set the tone
early by grabbing three-straight
defensive rebounds to open the
game. Ridnour put the exclama
tion point on the win by running
down a Langford missed three
point attempt in the closing sec
onds and then chucking the ball
downcourt in celebration.
Kansas won the rebounding
battle, 49-43, but Oregon was sat
isfied with the improvement.
“Me and the rest of the big
guys put it on ourselves to hit
’em harder and crash the
boards,” Johnson said.
Johnson recorded his sixth ca
reer double-double (12 points, 10
rebounds), while Jackson led the
Ducks with 26 points and added
nine rebounds.
“We had a sour taste in our
mouth from last year’s loss,” Jack
son said. “And for our big guys to
dominate from the beginning was
big for us.”
Kansas senior center Nick Col
lison, who had 25 points and 15
rebounds in his first meeting
with the Ducks, was held to sev
en points and eight boards
Turn to Men's, page 20A
Ridnour shines brightly in Pape Jam spotlight
Luke Ridnour leads the Ducks
in every way during their big
win over Kansas on Saturday
Peter Hockaday
Sports Editor
PORTLAND — When Luke Ridnour was
in high school, he was small. He was skinny.
He was talented. But he wasn’t going to be a
top-level player for a top-level team.
Or so Roy Williams thought.
Williams, the head coach at Kansas, passed
on Ridnour, and on Saturday, Ridnour passed
back, dishing out nine assists in Oregon’s win
over Kansas. He also shot in bunches, scoring
25 points, including the game-clinching three
pointer with less than a minute remaining.
And as the Ducks made a statement in
front of a national CBS television audience
about the legitimacy of their No. 7 ranking,
Ridnour also made a statement.
Perhaps Williams could best describe it.
“That kid has made himself into a big
time, big time player,” Williams said.
Luke Jackson led all scorers with 26
points Saturday, but Ridnour’s baskets were
a mirror for the Ducks’ progress. When he
was hpt, the Ducks were hot. When he fal
tered, the Ducks slipped. And in the end, it
was Ridnour who hit the biggest shots when
they mattered most.
It wasn’t just the three-pointer that Rid
nour hit. It was the fast-break layup he
made seconds before that. And the play with
three minutes left, when Ridnour snuck up
on Kansas guard Kirk Hinrich and blocked
Hinrich’s jumper from behind. Ridnour
missed a three-pointer on the ensuing fast
break, but Jackson tipped in the rebound.
And the play served to rattle Hinrich, who,
after scoring 24 points in the first 37 min
utes of game time, went the last three with
out a point.
“There are some intangibles there that
you look at, outside of his playing ability,
with his character, that have just given this
basketball team an opportunity to grow and
get to another level,” Oregon head coach
Ernie Kent said about Ridnour.
After the game, Kent kept trying to deflect
questions about Ridnour’s effort into answers
about the Ducks as a team, but it was Ridnour
who ran the team like a general all afternoon.
He started with four assists in the game’s first
seven minutes, the last on one of the most
bizarre plays of the game — or any game.
With the Ducks setting up a play on the
offensive end of the floor, forward Ian Gross
white was frantically tying his shoe on the
other end. He motioned to Kent to call a
timeout, but Kent instead called a play. Rid
nour waited for Crosswhite, who finally
jogged up the floor, hung out at the top of
the key, waited for the pass from Ridnour,
and promptly drained a three-pointer to put
Oregon ahead 17-8.
Then Ridnour started getting in on the
scoring act, hitting back-to-back three
pointers to increase Oregon’s lead to 14, the
Ducks’ largest lead of the game, with 5:09
left in the first half.
Williams said Ridnour has come a long
way from the scrawny high school phenom
he once was.
“He’s stronger, but he still has that same
quickness that I saw in high school,” Williams
said. “He’s a classic gym rat. I don’t think I
could picture anybody being a bigger gym rat
Turn to Ridnour, page 20A
Ducks surge past BYU for victory
Women’s basketball
Oregon records Its fifth straight win
in the annual Pape Jam in Portland
Hank Hager
Sports Reporter
PORTLAND — If only they could’ve
played the Pap € Jam at McArthur Court.
What a game that would have been, if for
no other reason than that the Ducks would
have had an opportunity to celebrate their
come-from-behind, 80-77 victory Satur
day over No. 19 Brigham Young on the
Oregon “O” at center court instead of on
the Portland Trail Blazers logo.
Still, the victory couldn’t have tasted
any sweeter.
“It feels really good,” senior Kourtney
Shrevesaid. *‘£BYU) wasa good team.”
uregon, wnicn reu oenina enter
ing halftime, used an offense that Duck
fans are not used to seeing. With senior
Shaquala Williams suspended and Ore
gon’s perimeter shooting cold, the Ducks
pounded the ball inside.
Junior Gathrine Kraayeveld led Ore
gon with 26 points, while freshman Car
olyn Ganes, in a breakout performance,
had 25. Together, the duo combined for
51 of the Ducks’ 80 points.
But it wasn’t what the Ducks were do
ing on the court that fueled them to vic
tory. According to Ganes, it was a desire
to just have fun and take advantage of the
excitement afforded them by the Jam.
“I think we all came together and de
cided we’re a team and wanted to have
fun,” Ganes said. “Everybody was out
there having a good time.”
That is,* of course, true for everyone
out tne uougars. byu neia a os-4o leaa
with 13 minutes left in the second half
and seemed to be in control of the game.
However, the Oregon offense jumped
into gear, chipping away at the BYU lead
until the Ducks were within two at the
five-minute mark, 70-68.
The game remained a see-saw battle
until the final minutes of the contest.
After BYLTs Erin Thom connected on
two free-throws to tie the score at 74 deep
in the second half, Ganes answered back
with her final two points of the night.
But the Cougars were not done, as
Danielle Cheesman knocked down a
three-pointer as the clock struck 1:58,
putting Oregon’s comeback in peril.
Oregon’s never-say-die attitude
showed in junior Kayla Steen’s game-win
ning layup on an inbound pass from Shreve
Tu rn to Women's, page 18A
Adam Amato Emerald
Cathrine Kraayeveld had 26 points in Oregon's comeback victory.
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