Sports Editor
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com
Friday, March 7,2003
Oregon Daily Emerald
Sports
Best bet
NBA: Philadelphia at Seattle
7:30 p.m., ESPN
Oregon cools off in the desert
Second-half letdown likely
means the Ducks will finish fifth
in the Pac-10 after loss to ASU
Men’s basketball
Adam Jude
Senior Sports Reporter
As hard as he tried, Luke Ridnour
couldn’t be a monster. He couldn’t be
Ike Diogu.
The Arizona State Sun Devils like Ike,
their beast, for a reason.
The 6-foot-8, 250-pound freshman
bruised Oregon’s best shot at a fourth
place finish in the Pacific-10 Conference
as he posted 17 points and 14 rebounds
Thursday in Arizona State’s 91-77 win
at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe, Ariz.
The Ducks (20-8 overall, 10-7 Pac
10) fell to 3-5 on the road in league
play, and must win at No. 1 Arizona
on Saturday to secure fourth place in
the conference.
Now tied for fourth, Oregon and ASU
will meet again next Thursday in the
first round of the Pac-10 Tournament at
the Staples Center in Los Angeles, re
gardless of what happens in the regular
season finale Saturday.
If the tournament game is as good as
Thursday night’s contest — which was
closer than the final score indicates —
it should be a dandy.
“This was a hard-fought basketball
game,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent
told KUGN-radio after the game. “It was
a good battle. But we’ve got to regroup.
You have to put it behind you.”
After blazing through the first half
with 20 points, Ridnour was held in
check in the second half. He fouled out
with 1:02 left (and had three offensive
fouls), and finished with 26 points,
seven rebounds, six assists, but seven
turnovers.
“It was a very good first half for us,”
Kent said of the Ducks’ 45-41 lead at the
break. “In the second half, though, they
became the aggressor and we went away
from our game plan.”
Diogu tipped in his own miss to cap
off a 12-0 run early in the second half to
give the Sun Devils (18-10, 10-7) a 55
47 lead. Ridnour hit a three-pointer
with 7:16 to play to cut Arizona State’s
lead to 69-66, but that’s as close as the
Ducks would get the rest of the way.
ASU responded with an 11-1 run, which
included a Diogu layin and a Tommy
Smith dunk.
Ridnour tried to spark the Ducks dur
ing the Sun Devils’ run, but was called
for a controversial charging foul. One of
ficial had called a blocking foul on Ari
zona State’s Kyle Dodd, another the
charge on Ridnour. After conferring, the
call went to the Sun Devils.
“When one team becomes the ag
gressor, the calls tend to go their way,”
Mark McCambridge Emerald
Luke Ridnour had 20 points at halftime, but was held to just six points in the second half in
Oregon's 91-77 loss to Arizona State on Thursday. Ridnour had seven turnovers to six assists.
Kent said.
ASlFs Curtis Miliage hit all eight of his
free throw attempts in the final 1:31.
Diogu, a contender for the Pac-10
Player of the Year award, put the stamp
on the win by blocking a Ridnour layin
attempt with about two minutes to play.
“Diogu was a load in there,” Kent said.
Luke Jackson had 20 points for the
Ducks, but didn’t score his first points
of the second half until the final
92 seconds.
The Sun Devils, needing the win to
secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament,
got 27 points from Miliage while Smith
added 24.
“Arizona State was in a must-win sit
uation, and they got it done,” Kent said.
Ridnour connected on four threes
and hit 7-of-ll of his shots to lead
Oregon to 51.5 percent shooting. In
the second half, though, the Ducks
shot just 31 percent.
Jackson scored Oregon’s first seven
points and had 12 first-half points, but
sat the final 8:36 of the opening period
after picking up his second foul.
The Ducks travel to Tucson to face
top-ranked Arizona at 1 p.m. Saturday.
The game will be broadcast on CBS.
Contact the senior sports reporter
at adamjude@dailyemerald.com
Ducks begin
‘must win’
tournament
Oregon will miss the postseason for the first time
in 10 years if it fails win the Pac-10 Tournament
Women’s basketball
Hank Hager
Sports Reporter
SAN JOSE, Calif. — This is where the real season begins for
the Oregon women’s basketball team.
After a Pacific-10 Conference regular season that netted eight
victories, Oregon must be hungry for more. The Ducks must win
the Pac-10 Tournament, held at the HP Pavilion, to avoid missing
the postseason for the first time since the 1992-93 season.
The WNIT is out. So is the NCAA Tournament, unless, well,
you get the picture.
And you couldn’t blame the Ducks if they had a sense of
dej& vu heading into their first game Saturday, set to tip off
at 7:15 p.m.
Losers in the team’s final contest, 54-52 to UCLA, Oregon
(12-15 overall, 8-10 Pac-10) now takes on the fourth-seeded
Bruins. The Ducks are ranked fifth in the tournament.
“I think that both teams kind of know each other by now,”
senior Alissa Edwards said. “We just, at the end of the game,
we gave it away and didn’t play as hard as we should have. I
think we’re going to take that into our next game, play hard
and not give up.”
Oregon and UCLA (17-10, 12-6) have a storied history
throughout existence, and have produced some intense battles.
Before this season, Oregon had won six straight against their
Southern California foes. This year, UCLA took both games,
one in convincing fashion, 93-68.
Overall, the Ducks lead the career series, 19-18. But throw the
records and the scores out the window. With a tournament that is
packed into just four overall days, numbers can get distorted.
“You just never take anything for granted,” head coach Bev
Smith said. “You never assume. Just forget about the past. The
next game is the future, and just believe, and I think that’s what
we did in the WNIT last year.”
The Ducks have a short, but impressive history against Pac
10 teams in the postseason. That postseason, of course, is re
flected in last year’s conference tournament and WNIT.
Oregon defeated Washington State and Washington before
succumbing to eventual Pac-10 Tournament champion
Arizona State.
The Ducks then added victories over Washington again and
Oregon State en route to the WNIT Championship.
That championship came with a full bench that had yet to go
through the adversity Oregon has this year. The Ducks are now
down to nine players after junior Kayla Steen tore her ACL late
in the game against UCLA last week.
Junior Cathrine Kraayeveld is looking to get back to full
strength, although she is still below 100 percent. Edwards has
battled bumps and bruises all season, and it seems, since a Dec.
19 contest against Montana, sophomore Kedzie Gunderson has
a permanent broken nose. Maybe, it just seems that way be
cause she’s been hit there so often.
It’s a blessing for Oregon that it was able to finish in the top
six in the Pac-10. That gave the Ducks the opportunity to open
the tournament Saturday instead of Friday.
“Without even thinking of that, it is important for us,” Smith
said. “We do have a shorter bench. There’s no doubt about it.”
If Oregon is able to defeat the Bruins, the Ducks will play
Turn to Women's, page 8
No. 23 Oregon softball to wrap up tournament play
The Ducks look to win their
fifth tournament of the
preseason at the National
Invitational in San Jose, Calif.
Softball
Mindi Rice
Freelance Sports Reporter
The Oregon softball team travels
to San Jose, Calif., this weekend for
its last preseason tournament.
The No. 23 Ducks (12-5 overall)
will face Georgia Tech and San Jose
State today in the National Invita
tional Softball Tournament, while
three games Saturday and Sunday
will be determined by today’s results.
Fellow Pacific-10 Conference
teams Arizona State, Oregon State
and California will also compete in
the tournament.
Oregon received an unexpected
vacation when the Feb. 28 Red
Desert Classic was canceled due to
inclement weather. The Ducks
were scheduled to play five games
and are trying to schedule some of
those teams to play in Eugene at a
later date.
The last time the Ducks saw ac
tion was on Feb. 23 when Oregon
won its fourth tournament title in
five preseason tournaments. The
Ducks finished the Houston Invita
tional with a 3-1 record, after rains
canceled the first two games of the
six Oregon was supposed to play.
While each player on Oregon’s
roster has played in at least one
game, freshman shortstop Breanne
Sabol is the only Duck to have start
ed all 17 games. Sabol is also the
only Oregon player to have started
the same position in each start.
Every player, with the exceptions of
freshman pitcher Amy Harris and
junior pitcher Anissa Meashintubby,
has at least one hit on the season.
Oregon has stolen 18 bases in 21
attempts this season, after stealing
only 20 bases during the entire 2002
season. Senior outfielder Alyssa
Laux leads the squad with five, while
senior outfielder Amber Hutchison
is a perfect four for four.
The Ducks are ranked in the
NFGA top 25 for the second consec
utive week at No. 23. Before the
Ducks earned their first ranking of
the season on Jan. 29, they had not
been ranked in the top 25 since
March 8,2001. On Feb. 25, the Ama
teur Softball Association released
the first-ever ESPN.com/USA Soft
ball Collegiate Top 25 poll. Oregon
premiered at No. 22, but fell to No.
23 in this week’s poll.
All eight Pac-10 teams are ranked
in both polls, with No. 1 UCLA lead
ing and Oregon bringing up the rear.
After the National Invitational, the
Ducks return home for a double
header against Portland State on
Thursday afternoon at Howe Field.
Mindi Rice is a freelance writer
for the Emerald.