Sports Editor
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemeraId.com
Monday, March 10,2003
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Sports
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WCC Men'sTournament Final:
Gonzaga v. San Diego
9p.mv ESPN
Mark McCambridge Emerald
Andrea Bills scored 15 points, but the Ducks lost to UCLA and ended their season early.
Women end season
at Pac-10 tourney
Oregon misses the postseason for the first
time in 10 years as its season ends with a
loss to UCLA in the Pac-10 Tournament
Women’s basketball
Hank Hager
Sports Reporter
SAN JOSE, Calif. —Just like that, they’re done.
Oregon, facing a must-win situation Saturday
against UCLA, headed into the game with the hope of
winning the Pacific-10 Conference Tournament.
The Bruins convincingly dashed that possibility.
UCLA freshman Nikki Blue scored 30 points, had a
tournament record eight steals and grabbed five re
bounds as the Bruins upended Oregon, 71-58, in
front of 4,188 fans in Silicon Valley.
The loss ends Oregon’s (12-16 overall) season and
ensures the Ducks will miss the postseason for the
first time in nine years.
“Certainly, a disappointing and frustrating way to
end the season,” Oregon head coach Bev Smith said.
Sophomore Andrea Bills had 15 points to lead the
Ducks, who lost for the third time this season against
the tournament’s fourth-ranked team. It’s the first
time the Ducks have lost three times in a season to a
Pac-10 squad.
The loss capped off Oregon’s worst season —
record-wise — since the 1992-93 season, a year be
fore former head coach Jody Runge took over the
team. That was also the last time the Ducks missed
the postseason.
The loss also ended a year that was abound in tur
moil, from Shaquala Williams’ dismissal, to junior
Cathrine Kraayeveld’s staph infection that kept her
Turn to Women's, page 10
UO softball falls,
6-0, to No. 8 Cal
in tourney final
Oregon went undefeated on the weekend before
losing to the defending national champion
Golden Bears in the NIST championship game
Softball
Mindi Rice
Freelance Sports Reporter
In its first battle against a Pacific-10 Conference oppo
nent this season, the Oregon softball team lost to defend
ing national champion California, 6-0, on Sunday.
No. 23 Oregon (16-6) faced the No. 8 Golden Bears (19
6) in the title game of the National Invitational Softball
Tournament. Cal won the College World Series last year
and is currently the fourth-highest-ranked Pacific-10 Con
ference team in the country.
The Bears scored once in the second inning, twice in the
fifth and added three runs in the seventh. Oregon was held
to three hits — singles by freshmen Beth Boskovich and
Jackie Eliades and a hit by senior Lynsey Haij.
Sophomore Lindsey Kontra was named to the all-tour
nament team. Kontra went 2-0, allowing two runs in nine
innings and striking out nine batters. In a win against Santa
Clara, Kontra struck out a career-best seven batters.
“I’m proud of the way we played in this tournament,”
head coach Kathy Arendsen said. “Lindsey pitched well,
and I’m happy that she received the honor. Obviously we
would have liked to finish undefeated, but sometimes
things don’t go your way.”
Oregon opened the tournament Friday with a 2-1 win
over Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets scored their lone
run in the third, but the Ducks answered with one run in
the fifth and one in the sixth.
Freshman Amy Harris pitched a complete game, giving
up one hit and striking out 11 batters.
“This is the best pitching performance we’ve had all sea
son,” Arendsen said. “Amy did a nice job with her change
up and was really just on all day. I’m also pleased with what
a team effort the win was.”
The Ducks faced tournament-host San Jose State in
their second game on Friday. Three Oregon pitchers
combined to hold the Spartans scoreless, giving up only
four hits in a 3-0 win.
Senior Alyssa Laux and freshman Breanne Sabol each
stole a base during the Ducks’ win. The two stolen bases
give Oregon 21 on the season, one more than the team had
during the entire 2002 season.
In the third inning, Laux hit her first home run of the
season, scoring Sabol and giving Oregon the lead.
“I thought our pitching was very solid in the second
game and we had some nice offensive efforts from Alyssa
and Breanne,” Arendsen said Friday.
The Ducks opened against No. 24 Minnesota on Satur
day. The game began as a pitchers’ duel and ended in extra
innings, with Oregon pulling out a 3-2 victory.
Harris struck out 10 in six innings, but Kontra finished
Turn to Softball, page 12
UA beats up Ridnour, beats UO
The No. 1 Wildcats put away the
final regular-season game for both
teams with a second-half run
Men’s basketball
Peter Hockaday
Sports Editor
If you can’t beat ‘em...
Beat ‘em up.
That was Arizona’s philosophy Satur
day afternoon in Tucson, where the No.
1 Wildcats played physical defense on
Oregon star Luke Ridnour in the second
half and eventually beat up the Ducks,
88-80, in front of 14,589 fans at the
McKale Center.
The Wildcats converted on Oregon’s
only sloppy stretch of the game, a four
minute run midway through the second
half that lifted the Wildcats to the win. A
hounded Ridnour missed shots and
couldn’t generate any offense for his
teammates during the critical stretch.
“They beat the crap out of Ridnour
out there,” Kent told KUGN-AM after
the game.
By Sunday, Kent had settled down and
said bumping and shoving are things Rid
nour “will have to get used to.”
“Both (Arizona games) were very
physical basketball games,” Kent said.
“Their game plan in both of these games
was similar to Washington’s game plan,
which was to bump (Ridnour) every
where he goes without the ball so he has
a hard time cutting, and crowd him when
he has the ball to take away his drives.
“But as physical as the games were, he
still scored points and carried us at times
in those games and didn’t lose his cool.
Which I wouldn’t blame him if he did.”
The loss leaves Oregon with 20 wins
on the regular season, which should still
put the Ducks in the NCAA Tournament,
though a win Saturday in the opening
round of the Pacific-10 Conference Tour
nament would strengthen Oregon’s posi
tion. And Saturday’s loss didn’t do much
to hurt Oregon’s March Madness seed,
because the Ducks were able to hang
with Arizona for most of the contest.
Oregon (20-9, 10-8 Pac-10) held the
lead as late as 9:30 into the second half.
But Arizona (25-2,17-1) went on a run
— as top-ranked teams tend to do — to
effectively put Oregon away. The Wild
cats’ run was 17-2 before Oregon’s Ian
Crosswhite hit two free throws to make
the score 69-58 in Arizona’s favor with
6:29 left. Wildcats Salim Stoudamire
and Jason Gardner hit their free throws
down the stretch to keep Oregon from
Adam Amato Emerald
Jason Gardner, seen shooting over Andre Joseph in January, scored 27 points in Saturday's win.
getting any closer than the final margin
of eight points.
“We did everything right in this game, I
thought,” Kent said. “We had four guys in
double figures; we out-rebounded them; I
thought it was a great defensive effort on
our part. But the game got away.”
Before Arizona’s run, the Ducks had
the Wildcats on the proverbial ropes be
hind Ridnour’s leadership.
The junior guard broke Oregon’s sin
gle-season assists record with his third
assist of the game, which gave him 185
on the season. He fouled out, but ended
the game with seven assists and a team
high 26 points.
On Arizona’s Senior Night, Gardner, a
senior who has played the most minutes
of any Wildcat ever, spearheaded the Ari
zona attack. He bested Ridnour with 27
points, and several of those points came
in the key 17-2 run. His long three with
11:10 remaining was the second basket
in the run, tied the game at 54, and
tipped off the crowd that the Wildcats
were ready to streak. The crowd re
sponded accordingly, and two minutes
Turn to Men's, page 12