Sports Editor
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com
Tuesday, January 21,2003
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Sports
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Men return to form with Civil War victory
Jeremy Forrest Emerald
Luke Ridnour (bottom) 'had his hand in just about every pla/down the stretch, according to Beaver coach Jay John.
The Ducks struggle in the first half,
but find their rhythm in the second
to handle the Beavers at home
Men’s basketball
Peter Hockaday
Sports Editor
Baby steps.
The No. 23 Oregon men’s basketball
team, in need of a Pacific-10 Confer
ence win after dropping three of its first
four Pac-10 games, took steps back to
ward greatness with a 79-68 win over
Oregon State in front of a sold-out
crowd at McArthur Court on Saturday.
But the steps were small.
The Ducks, wearing their different
yellow “lightning” jerseys, came out
and played the same — downright slop
pily — as they played in their two loss
es in the Bay Area last weekend. Ore
gon committed 11 turnovers in the first
frame and went into the locker room
leading 34-31.
“We talked about (the sloppiness) at
halftime, and I did not have a problem
with that at all,” Duck head coach
Ernie Kent said. “They were hustle
mistakes; they were mistakes trying to
do too much; they were not because of
lack of effort.”
“We came out aggressive, but that’s
what we needed to do in this game,”
said guard Luke Ridnour, who scored
28 points in the game to lead all scor
ers. “We set the tone, and we finally
got them to break in the second half a
little bit.”
Ridnour simply took over the game
in the second frame, leading the Ducks
on a charge that was reminiscent of the
preseason runs they used to blow out
teams like Kansas and Minnesota.
“If there was a way for me to get the
ball out of Luke Ridnour’s hands...”
mused Oregon State coach Jay John,
when asked what he would have done
differently in the second half. “He
probably had his hands in about every
basket in the last six, seven, eight min
utes of the game. It seemed like he was
either feeding, shooting or shooting
free throws.”
Ridnour’s play helped the Ducks go
on an 11-4 run midway through the
second half to put Oregon ahead by 10
points with 7:07 remaining. The
Beavers never got within eight points
over the rest of the contest as the
Ducks put the game away.
Luke Jackson scored 19 points but
went 6-for-19, or 32 percent, from the
field and 2-for-5 from three-point land.
But Jackson had six rebounds, a block
and two steals, and Kent was pleased
with his effort.
“The two Lukes jumped back into
their rhythm again, they got back on
their game,” Kent said.
Without Jackson, the Ducks may not
have been in the game at all in the first
half. The junior forward opened the
game with a three, then hit a fadeaway
jumper and an alley-oop dunk from
Ridnour for Oregon’s first seven points
of the contest.
“People kind of labeled us as not
playing hard, and that’s not our team;
we don’t want to be labeled as not be
ing competitive,” Jackson said. “So we
just came out and tried to be the ag
gressor on both ends.”
Oregon State forward Phillip Ricci
led the Beavers with 24 points. But
Oregon was able to shut down forward
Turn to Men's, page 10
JNot so Civil: Beavers blow away women in War
I he Oregon womens
basketball team falls to 2-5
in Pac-10 play with the loss
to Oregon State on Saturday
Women’s basketball
Hank Hager
Sports Reporter
CORVALLIS—It was shaping up to
be a traditional Civil War contest be
tween Oregon and Oregon State.
All it took to break that tradition was
a freshman from Stayton.
Casey Bunn scored a career-high
20 points and junior Brina Chaney
tied an OSU single-game record with
eight blocks as the Beavers defeated
Oregon, 67-51, Saturday in front of
4,572 at Gill Coliseum.
The win is the Beavers’ first victory
against the Ducks at Gill since 1996. It
was also just the second game since
1998 in which the winner came out on
top by atleast 15 points.
“Growing up, this is the kind of
game you want to be in,” Bunn said.
“It’s always good to beat the Ducks.”
Bunn, who came into the game av
eraging 5.7 points per game in Pacific
10 Conference play, was the driving
force behind a 20-2 Oregon State run
that lasted just under 10 minutes mid
way through the second half.
The scoring run vaulted the Beavers
to an insurmountable 55-41 lead.
“It’s kind of hard to get back on de
fense when your offense is strug
gling,” Oregon sophomore Brandi
Davis said. “We were struggling at
both ends tonight.”
Struggling, perhaps, because of
the play of Chaney and Oregon
State’s post players.
Chaney, who came into the game as
the Pac-lO’s leading shot blocker with
35 on the season, turned away five
Oregon (6-10 overall, 2-5 Pac-10)
shots in the first half alone. Although
she played just eight minutes in the
second half, she victimized the Ducks
for three more.
“I was just playing kind of smart, the
first half especially,” Chaney said. “Re
ally trying to slide my feet, stay in front
of the offensive player. I knew they
wanted to turn and shoot. Sometimes,
they’re shooting kind of right into me,
so I didn’t really have to stretch for it.”
Oregon State (9-7,3-4) held Oregon
to just 14 points in the paint, including
two in the second half.
With the Ducks’ post players neu
tralized by the more athletic Oregon
State forwards, Oregon had to turn to
its outside shooting. It wasn’t there.
“We just got a little anxious and a
little bit outside of our offense in
stead of running our offense,” Ore
gon senior Alissa Edwards said.
“We’ve got to stick to being disci
plined, because we got away from
that on offense and defense.”
The Ducks continually forced poor
shots in the second half, especially
during Oregon State’s run. So much,
in fact, that the Ducks shot just 25
Turn to Women's, page 12
Ducks take down Stanford,
UC Davis with enthusiasm
Six Ducks win both their
matchups Friday en route
to two dual meet wins for
Oregon at McArthur Court
Wrestling
Mindi Rice
Freelance Sports Reporter
After a month away from their
home on the floor of McArthur
Court, the Ducks (5-4 overall, 4-0
Pacific-10 Conference) returned
Friday to wrestle Stanford and
Califomia-Davis, coming away
with two big conference wins.
Senior Casey Hunt, wrestling at
141, had the day’s top perform
ance, managing to pin both of his
opponents in the Ducks’ 32-6 win
over Stanford and their 28-9 win
over UC Davis.
Against Stanford’s Brendon
Fox, Hunt had a 4-1 lead on two
takedowns before pinning Fox at
the 2:23 mark in the first period.
Friday evening, Hunt battled
Aggie Gris Brines and ended the
first period with both wresders still
scoreless. In the second period,
Brines started down. Hunt held
him and got the pin after 1:23.
“He’s one of those kids that is
dangerous, and he likes to pin
people,” head coach Chuck
Kearney said.
Freshman Tony Rolen, who
started the day with a 1-3 record,
won both his matches at 184 in
the third period, improving to 3
3. In a 5-2 decision over Stan
ford’s Harold Penson, Rolen
earned all of his points in the
third period.
Against Aggie Ronnie Silva,
Rolen had a takedown halfway
through the first period with Silva
managing an escape. Starting the
third period down, Silva had a re
versal and Rolen earned an es
cape to tie the score at three with
just more than one minute left.
Looking like it would go into
overtime, Rolen pulled out the
Turn to Wrestling, page 10
Tony Rolen (right) won both his matches at the 184 weight class as Oregon swept both Stanford
and UC-Davis at McArthur Court on Friday. Rolen was one of six Ducks to sweep their matches.