Sports Editor
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com
Friday, February 7,2003
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Sports
Best bet
International soccer:
Argentina vs. United States
9 a.m. Saturday, ESPN2
Adam Amato Emerald
Luke Ridnour bowled over Stanford with 23 second-half points.
Ridnour torches Stanford
The junior point guard scores all
of his 23 points in the second half
as Oregon avenges January’s
blowout road loss to Stanford
Men’s basketball
Adam Jude
Senior Sports Reporter
Luke Ridnour doesn’t get mad of
ten, but he was pissed off Thursday
night. And he took his aggression out
on Stanford.
After picking up his second foul in the
first two minutes of the game, Ridnour
was relegated to the bench for the final
18 minutes of the first half, having not
taken a shot. So the Oregon star point
guard sat — and steamed.
“We know he’s on the bench mad,
and when he’s mad, he plays at a
whole ’nother level,” Oregon forward
Robert Johnson said. “We wanted him
to get mad and go out there and ex
plode. And that’s what he did in the
second half.”
Like a ticking bomb, Ridnour blew
up on No. 25 Stanford for 23 points
while playing all 20 minutes of the sec
ond half to lead Oregon to a 79-64 vic
tory before a sold-out crowd at
McArthur Court. Ridnour connected
on all six of his free-throw attempts to
set the school record with 43-straight
free throws. The previous school
record for consecutive free throws
made was 41; the Pacific-10 Confer
ence record is 49.
“I was fired up and wanted to play
pretty bad,” said Ridnour, who fin
ished with zero assists for the first
time in his career. “I think it’s just nat
ural for someone to get frustrated
when they can’t play. I made some stu
pid fouls, and I knew I probably would
n’t go in (in the first half).”
With the win, the Ducks (16-5 over
all, 6-4 Pac-10), who beat the Cardinal
(16-6, 7-3) for just the second time in
15 games, avenged an 81-57 loss at
Stanford on Jan. 11. Oregon, playing
perhaps its best defensive game of the
conference season, had a 38-37 re
bounding edge Thursday after Stan
ford had a 45-26 rebounding advan
tage in its win three weeks ago.
“We did a better job of matching
their work ethic and intensity,” Ore
gon head coach Ernie Kent said.
And this wasn’t even Oregon at it’s
best.
“We can play better basketball,”
Kent said. “We’re playing at about 70
percent of productivity as far as
everybody being on the same page
right now.”
Oregon led 36-27 at halftime, but
Stanford cut the lead to 50-46 with
10:57 remaining. Then the Ducks
went on a decisive 19-9 run to take a
69-55 lead, and closed the game out by
hitting their final 10 free throws.
With Ridnour on the bench, fresh
man Brandon Lincoln gave the Ducks
15 quality minutes in the first half. Re
serve guard Andre Joseph scored 15 of
his 17 points in the first half, while
Jackson and Ian Crosswhite each
added 14 points for the Ducks. Julius
Barnes led Stanford with 17 points,
while Josh Childress had 15 points
and 13 rebounds.
Former Oregon star Freddie Jones, in
his first season with the NBA’s Indiana
Pacers, made his first appearance of the
season at Mac Court and was greeted by
The Pit Crew’s chat of “Freddie, Freddie,
Freddie.” He sat in the front row behind
the Oregon bench.
Johnson (four points, 11 rebounds)
and Crosswhite (14 points, five re
bounds) overcame a dismal perform
ance Sunday in a loss to USC and out
played Stanford’s big men. It was the
first time this season that Oregon won
when its post players combined for
less than 22 points.
“I feel like we did our job,” Johnson
said. “When we play (well), we win.
When we don’t, we don’t. We just got
ta be more consistent.”
“Our big guys were challenged by
some of the stuff that was written
about them and they responded by
boxing out better and rebounding,”
Kent said.
Redshirt freshman Matt Short made
his second start of the season (both
have been against Stanford) and fin
ished with three rebounds and two
blocks in 15 minutes. Crosswhite may
have started, but was late for Oregon’s
shoot-around earlier in the day.
“We just felt like Matt deserved an
Turn to Men's, page 9
btamord s young players surprised bv The Pit
Cardinal head coach Mike
Montgomery can’t place why
his team struggles Thursday
Peter Hockaday
Sports Editor
This week, the talk was about Stanford as
the surprise team of the Pacific-10*Confer
ence at the season’s midpoint.
Surprise.
Stanford is still young and still susceptible
to the ebbs and flows of a season, the two rea
sons the Pac-10 media tabbed Stanford to fin
ish seventh when the season began. Coming
off two big wins against then-No. 1 Arizona
and Arizona State in Arizona, the Cardinal
came into McArthur Court and were too flus
tered to come back when they got in a hole
against the Ducks.
“I’m sure there was some element of ‘now
we’ve got it figured out,”’ Stanford coach Mike
Montgomery said, in reference to Stanford’s
recent success. “We never did get back to
where we were in control of this game.”
Stanford was led by a veteran and a young
player — senior Julius Barnes and sopho
more Josh Childress — who combined for 32
points. But young players like sophomores
Nick Robinson and Rob Little looked lost in
the sea of yellow at McArthur Court.
The Cardinal shot just 32.8 percent from
the field in the game.
“In the first half we had a lot of point-blank
looks that we didn’t make,” Montgomery
said. “At some point we became frustrated
and started taking bad shots.”
But the Ducks labeled their foes as “tough,”
and said Stanford put up a fight underneath the
basket. That fight may have illuminated more
about the future of the Ducks’ season than the
future for the Cardinal.
“Stanford is a hard-nosed team, and we
had to go out there and be intense, and we
were,” forward Robert Johnson said.
Oregon shut down Stanford’s big men. Rob
Little and Nick Robinson — who combined
for 22 points and 20 rebounds against the
Ducks in Oregon’s loss in Palo Alto — had
just six points and seven rebounds Thursday.
Justin Davis, who was injured in the first
game, had seven points and three rebounds.
Little, Robinson and Davis combined for
more fouls, 12, than rebounds, 10.
“We knew we needed to step up,” Johnson
said, speaking for his fellow big men. “Every
body just contributed.”
McArthur Court may have been the sixth
man on the floor for Thursday’s game, as the
Cardinal spoke of being flustered in the game.
“For our freshmen, McArthur Court may
have had a little bit of an affect on them,”
Montgomery said.
“When we went down there, (Stanford and
California) have good environments and they
were fired up to play us,” Oregon head coach
Ernie Kent said. “We wanted to turn that
around when they came up here. We play
with high energy, high intensity when we’re
on our home floor.”
Oregon guard Luke Ridnour, who scored
all 23 of his points in the second half, said the
reaction is only normal.
“Any time you play a team on their home
court, they’re going to play a little better,”
Ridnour said. “But Stanford kept battling.
They’re a good team and it shows how tough
this conference is.”
Stanford will find out just how hard the
conference is in upcoming weeks. The Car
dinal head to Corvallis to take on the hot
Oregon State Beavers on Saturday, then
face Washington on Thursday. The Huskies
nearly knocked off Arizona in Seattle on
Thursday night.
Stanford fell two games behind second
place California on Thursday night, as the
Bears knocked off the Beavers in Corvallis.
That Cal win also shut Oregon out of the con
ference’s top two spots for the week. But the
Ducks could move into the third spot if Stan
ford falls to Oregon State.
Contact the sports editor
at peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com.
Cardinal women dominate UO
The Oregon womens basketball team is
handed its eighth conference loss in a
blowout at Stanford
Women’s basketball
Jesse Thomas
Sports Reporter
Maples Pavilion is a place no basketball team
wants to visit.
And for the Oregon women’s basketball team, the
scene was all too familiar, as the Ducks have not beat
Stanford in its arena since 1987.
Oregon walked off the court Thursday night after
suffering a 31-point loss to the Cardinal, 85-54.
After a thriller against Stanford on Jan. 11, when
the Cardinal squeaked by with a one-point victory,
Oregon wasn’t able to repeat the performance away
from McArthur Court.
Oregon (8-13,4-8 Pac-10) started the night strong
with a determination to seek revenge from a month
ago, but halfway through the first half Stanford (18
2,10-1) proved to have the upper hand.
The Ducks jumped to a 9-4 lead within the first
five minutes of play and appeared revived from its
recent home loss to Arizona. But as Stanford junior
Nicole Powell and sophomore T’Nae Thiel began to
find rhythm, Oregon found it tougher to hang with
the No. 6-ranked team.
“We started the game well and did some things
very well offensively and execution defensively,”
Oregon head coach Bev Smith told KSCR-AM. “We
Turn to Women's, page 8
Jeremy Forrest Emerald
Andrea Bills (on floor) and the Ducks fell hard at Stanford on Thusday night, 85-54.