Sports Editor:
Hank Hager
hank hager@dailyemerald.com
Monday, January 5, 2004
Oregon Daily Emerald
SPORTS
Best bet
NCAA basketball:
Kansas vs. Colorado
6 p.m., ESPN
Parker ensures
place in books
in Oregon loss
Receiver Sarnie Parker broke numerous
Oregon and Sun Bowl records on Wednesday,
giving him 77 receptions for the season
By Hank Hager
Sports Editor
EL PASO, Texas — In the 50th and final game of his career,
Samie Parker had his best game as a Duck.
Parker caught 16 passes for 200 yards
and two touchdowns in Oregon's 31-30
loss to Minnesota on Wednesday at the
Sun Bowl. His performance cemented
him as one of the most prolific players in
Oregon's history.
"You always want to go out the right way," comerback Steven
Moore said. "He's one of the best receivers I've ever seen. Hope
fully he'll get an opportunity at the national level and do it up
there. I wish him nothing but the best."
If Parker can impress NFL scouts like he did the fans at Sun
Bowl Stadium, he will become a power player in the profes
sional league.
Parker's 16 receptions set an Oregon single-game record. The
total gave him 77 on the season, also an Oregon record.
The accolades don't stop there. Parker ended his career with
178 receptions, good for best in the program's history. Finally,
the 200 yards places him seventh all-time on Oregon's single
game list.
That's a long list of accomplishments.
"It was a pretty good performance, but it wasn't good enough
because we didn't come up with a 'W,'" Parker said.
Parker scored his first touchdown of the game with 8:45 left
Turn to PARKER, page 10
duck:
FOOTBALL
Adam Amato Photo Editor
Samie Parker caught 16 passes against Minnesota, setting a single-game record for Oregon.
Fife ends career with Ducks as receiver
A late injury to Kyle Weatherspoon
forced Jason Fife into the role
of third-string receiver on Wednesday
By Hank Hager
Sports Editor
EL PASO, Texas — It was the last pass of his
Oregon career, and ironically, he didn't even
get the chance to take the snap on the play.
In the final seconds of the first half, Kellen
Clemens took the snap from center Dan
Weaver and quickiy threw a bullet to Jason Fife,
who was stationed as a receiver to the left.
Because it was a lateral, Fife immediately
took the ball and threw it back to Clemens,
who was beginning to streak down the right
side of the field. He ran for 13 yards to the Min
nesota 13, where Jared Siegel kicked a 30-yard
field goal as time expired.
Such is the ending of Fife's career with Ore
gon. The quarterback/wide receiver leaves the
Ducks after two seasons as a prominent offen
sive player.
It just so happened that in the final game of
his career, he was Oregon's third-string receiver.
"I felt fast, I felt quick," he said. "I was open a
couple of times. (Clemens) just couldn't get it
to me. I had fun nonetheless."
Fife saw about a dozen plays at receiver against
Minnesota and, aside from his pass to Clemens,
did not figure into the game statistically.
He was, however, key in the Oregon offense.
A couple of times in the first half, he was open,
but Clemens, because of pressure by the Gold
en Gopher defense, could not find the senior
from Lake Elsinore, Calif.
Late in the fourth quarter, Eli Ward stepped in
front of a pass intended for Fife that would have
put the Ducks up by six. Ward didn't intercept the
pass, but it helped cool down the Oregon series
that resulted in a Siegel field goal.
"At first, I kind of thought we were going to
use me as a decoy, but more and more, they ac
tually started putting me in at crucial situations
where I was going to have to catch the ball,"
Fife said.
Moore expected back
At first glance, it would seem that the Ducks
are set to lose three-fourths of their starting de
fensive secondary.
Starters Marley Tucker, Keith Lewis and
Steven Moore are all listed on Oregon's roster
as seniors. Moore, however, is in a different sit
uation than the former two.
Turn to FIFE, page 10
Adam Amato Photo Editor
Junior center Andrea Bills finished with 10 points
and nine rebounds Sunday.
Bruins come back from 14,
stun Ducks to 0-4 in Pac-10
Oregon fails to hold on to the win after
UCLA forces turnovers in a full-court
set; Ducks have lost five straight
By Mindi Rice
Senior Sports Reporter
Oregon neutralized one of the problems UCLA
brought into McArthur Court on Sunday.
The Ducks held All-Padfic
10 Conference sophomore
Nikki Blue to nine points after
she worked them for 63 in
three meetings last season.
"Nikki Blue didn't have the
best game, Oregon point guard Corrie Mizusawa
said. "They showed that they're not just the Nikki Blue
WOMEN’S
BASKETBALL
show at UCLA.."
A problem Oregon (8-6 overall, 0-4 Pac-10) could
n't neutralize was the full-court press that UCLA used
to shake up the Ducks in the second half, eventually
grabbing the 63-57 victory.
"We weren't as composed as we were in practice,"
center Andrea Bills said. "We weren't looking past the
pressure and it hurt us."
The Ducks came into the second half expecting to
see the press since UCLA (6-6,1-2) shot 25 percent in
the first half.
What Oregon wasn't expecting was the amount of
frustration the press caused them.
"We just didn't handle their pressure," Oregon head
coach Bev Smith said. "You have to keep that focus. We
need to be ready to handle it and we didn't."
Turn to BRUINS, page 12
Hank Hager
Behind the dish
Hard loss
hits Ducks
inclose
final game
EL PASO, Texas — The loss will un
doubtedly sting a bit.
In a game where two teams are so even
ly matched, as Minnesota and Oregon
were, the Ducks can't help but feel hurt.
They can't help but wonder: What if the
wind was just a little bit stronger, or that
hand or forearm — as they claim — had
gotten a bigger piece of the ball?
It will hurt because of a field goal, a play
that 90 percent of the time reflects little in
the final score. Even on the statistical sheet
from the Sun Bowl, it resides as a blip, a
smudge, an afterthought.
Except, well, it wasn't.
It appeared throughout the game that
the team that controlled the ball last
would be the one to ultimately take the
win. That was the case. Rhys Lloyd's field
goal was the dagger through Oregon's
heart. It came at just the right time for
Minnesota and seared through the mo
mentum the Ducks were so hoping to
keep in the fourth quarter.
That dagger will be deep and will be
come a reminder of an 8-5 season that al
most went awry.
The dagger that went through the Ducks
on Wednesday was a dull version of one
that was ever so sharp in consecutive loss
es to Washington State, Utah and Arizona
State. And it was the one that briefly made
an appearance in Seattle before three im
pressive wins pulled the Ducks back from
the dead.
The Ducks grabbed that dagger against
those final three teams, but it was sharp
ened in El Paso as Laurence Maroney,
Thomas Tapeh and Marion Barber III
showed that no matter how good the
Ducks' defensive pass rush was, it wasn't
going to make a difference.
"We did not play as well at the line of
scrimmage as we needed to," Oregon head
coach Mike Bellotti said.
Oregon could defend against the Pacif
ic- 10 Conference, a set of 10 teams that
tends to use more of an aerial attack. The
running game on the West Coast is an af
terthought.
Granted, the Ducks did stop the big
Michigan machine and Chris Perry, but
that was more of a case of the Wolverines
being stubborn. Michigan proved in the
fourth quarter of that game it could ex
ploit Oregon's defense.
If the Wolverines had only started earlier...
Against the Minnesota trio, the Ducks
found out the Big Ten Conference is full of
smash-mouth, incredibly deep offensive
teams. When Barber III proved to be gain
ing little ground early on, the Golden Go
phers went to Maroney, who had 131
yards rushing.
When they needed that 1-yard burst,
they went to Tapeh. He scored three
touchdowns in the game, two of which
came from the 1-yard line.
Turn to HAGER, page 8