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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 16, 2004)
Sports Editor: Hank Hager hankhager@dailyemerald.com Friday, January 16,2004 -Oregon Daily Emerald SPORTS Best bet NBA: Minnesota vs. Houston 12: 30 p.m. Saturday, ABC Hank Hager Behind the dish AD job would be choice fit for Moos How ironic it is, that one day before Bar bara Hedges leaves her post as athletics di rector at Washington, the 1 luskies came into McArthur Court. The attention, of course, was not neces sarily focused on the Ducks and I luskies. Instead, thoughts went to Oregon athlet ics director Bill Moos, who, rumor has it, could potentially be a prime choice to re place Hedges. Moos stopped short of saying he would jump at the chance to lead the Washington programs, but did say "I'm a Northwest kind of guy. I've been fortunate to stay in the Northwest." Bom in Eastern Washington, Moos is an institution in the state. A Pacific-8 all-confer ence offensive lineman in 1972, Moos came back to the Cougar program in 1982 as an assistant athletics director. He left for Montana in 1990 to assume the role of the Grizzlies' athletics director, then came to Oregon in 1995. Since then, he's been a Husky and Cougar killer, establishing a program in Eugene that has grown substantially in the past eight years. The program has become the pride of the Pacific-10 Conference and is the bench mark for other schools. So it comes t»s no surprise that Washing ton would have interest in him, even though the point where the Huskies can even hire someone is still far away. The Seattle Times floated the idea of Moos coming to Seattle, but also said a hiring probably wouldn't even be considered until July, at the earliest. Turn to HAGER, page 9 Adam Amato Senior Photographer Luke Jackson led all scorers with 24 points and is averaging more than 23 points a game this season. Coming home, Oregon rallies against Huskies Oregon learns to execute amid Washington’s tough pressure defense and gets its second Pac-10 win of the season; Washington State visits Saturday By Jesse Thomas Sports Reporter It was a matchup of who would tire out first. Washington applied the full-court press for most of the game _ and both teams are known for their m, im sr** m high-powered run-and-gun type of of IWilEIMrS fense. BASKETBALL 1 lus^y defense forced Oregon into _ 21 turnovers, but in the end Oregon pre vailed for an 84-74 victory in front of 9,087 at McArthur Court. It was Oregon's first game at McArthur Court in 29 days, the longest streak in seven years. It was good to be back home. "I think some guys and even myself felt a little bit of nerve not having played here in so long," Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said. "And that crowd comes back so it took them a little bit of time to settle down and get into the rhythm." Oregon (7-4 overall, 2-2 Pac-10) found its rhythm again in many areas. The Ducks played unselfish basketball and earned 19 assists on 26 baskets. Oregon crashed the boards and outrebounded the Huskies 33 to 23. It was the Ducks' second-largest rebounding margin of the season and best in a Pacific-10 Conference game. Washington (5-8, 0-5) gave Oregon trouble from the begin ning with the full-court defense. "They play high-pressure defense and got up the lanes and made us run our offense a little further out," forward Ian Cross white said. "It took us a while to get used to their offense and how to stop it." The Ducks jumped out to an early 10-8 lead before the Huskies' defense began to cause Oregon problems. After a timeout, Washington had three straight steals and earned four straight baskets. Then Oregon began to do what Oregon does best. And senior guard lames Davis began to do what lames Davis does best — make three-point field goals. Oregon's next five possessions were all scores from beyond the three-point line. Davis got hot and hit three straight, sen ior guard Andre Joseph drained one and then Davis hit again. It became a three-point shootout as the I Iuskies were able to keep it close and answer with threes of their own. At the 7:50 mark in the first half, Oregon led by one, 27-26. "We give the Ducks a lot of credit," Washington head coach Lorenzo Romar said. "Their ability to hit the three-point shot just continued to put the pressure on us." Turn to RALLY, page 10 Ducks sent to fifth Pac-10 loss as Huskies dominate in Seattle The 45-point loss proves Oregon's third worst in the history of the program By Jon Roetman Sports Reporter SEATTLE — Oregon and Wash ington entered Thursday's game at Bank of America Arena as basketball teams fac ing similar circum stances. After 40 minutes of basketball, however, the Ducks and Huskies looked like teams heading in opposite directions. With each team looking to re bound from a rough start to Pacific 10 Conference play, Washington de molished Oregon, 95-50, in front of 3,940 fans. The 45-point loss was the WOMEN’S BASKETBALL third-worst in school history. Oregon lost to Oregon State by 65 and West ern Washington in 50, both in 1975. "I think (the loss was) very frus trating and certainly in the first half very embarrassing," Oregon head coach Bev Smith said. "1 don't think we competed. There's a level of con fidence with our team right now that is struggling. But I think you overcome that by competing and playing hard." The Ducks (9-7 overall, 1-5 Pac 10) jumped out to an early lead af ter a three-pointer by Chelsea Wag ner made the score 5-0. The Huskies (9-7, 2-5) quickly turned things around by scoring 14 consecutive points, igniting a 24-5 run. During the run, which lasted nearly nine minutes, Ore gon was held to 1 of 11 shooting, including a five minute, 40 second scoreless drought. After Oregon forward Eleanor Haring broke the Washington run with consecutive baskets, the Huskies closed the half on a 23-3 run to remove any doubt. "I think it was huge," Washington guard Giuliana Mendiola said of the win. "It showed we have confidence in one another and we still believe in one another. The season's far from over and there's a lot of basketball left. Our intensity was really high, es pecially defensively to start the game and it just rolled from there." The Ducks struggled with every facet of the game, but their most glaring problem was a lack of re bounding. Washington out-re bounded Oregon 56-32 and grabbed 22 offensive boards. Husky redshirt freshman Jill Bell was the Ducks' main nemesis on the boards. The 6-foot forward grabbed 13 rebounds — eight offensive *— and routinely out-hustled Oregon Turn to LOSS, page 12 Corrie Mizusawa scored just two points and had four assists in 27 minutes of playing during Oregon's 45-point loss. Oregon fell to 1-5 in the Pac-10 this season after suffering its third-worst loss in program history. The Ducks play against Washington State on Saturday. * Adam Amato Senior Photographer
