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