Sports Editor
Hank Hager
hankhager@dailyemerald.com
Friday, January 23,2004
-Oregon Daily Emerald
SPORTS
Best bet
NCAA basketball:
Louisville vs. Tennessee
4 p.m. Sunday, ESPN
Oregon
takes first
win at ASU
since 2000
Oregon pulls out the 83-76
victory against Arizona State
in Tempe with five Ducks racking
up double figures in the win
By Jesse Thomas
Sports Reporter
Oregon seniors Luke Jackson, James
Davis and Jay Anderson finally got what
they have been
WIEN'S
BASKETBALL
waiting for the past
three years; a win in
Arizona State's
Wells Fargo Arena.
Oregon (9-4
overall, 4-2 Pacific-10 Conference) pulled
out the 83-76 victory over the Sun Devils
for its first win on the road in Tempe since
the 1999-2000 season.
The Ducks did everything they needed
to from the very beginning and held off
the Sun Devils when they made a strong
run later.
"It was a huge win to come down here
where we haven't had a lot of success,"
Oregon head coach Ernie Kent told KUGN
(590 AM) radio after the game. "They exe
cuted perfectly in this ball game."
Oregon's game plan was to contain Ari
zona State's Ike Diogu, who entered the
game as the conference's leading scorer
with 23.1 points per game.
In the first seven minutes, Oregon dou
bled down on Diogu whenever he touched
the ball and forced him to play defense.
Diogu got two fouls early and had to sit on
the bench for almost three minutes.
It wasn't until the 6:30 mark in the first
half that Diogu got his first two points. By
that time, freshman Mitch Platt, who fin
ished with a career-high 13 points, had his
game going and Oregon led 28-16.
It looked as if Oregon was going to pull
away at one point, but Diogu managed to
get his shots to fall.
Alter 20 minutes, Oregon had a 34-28
lead and Jackson looked to be on his way
to his third triple-double of his career with
10 points, nine assists and five rebounds.
"In the first half we were outstanding,"
Kent said.
In the second half, the teams matched
points throughout as Arizona State made
its mn. The Sun Devils had managed to
pull off a win in the second half after over
coming a 14-point deficit for the 100-85
win against USC Saturday.
Jackson came out scoring eight of Ore
gon's 12 points to start the half. He fin
ished the game with 21 points, seven re
bounds and a career-high 12 assists.
Davis then got hot, scoring Oregon's
next eight points with two three-pointers,
pushing Oregon to the 54-50 lead. Davis
finished the game with 15 points and
three assists.
Arizona State just kept coming. Junior
guard Steve Moore hit back-to-back three
pointers — one being a four-point play off
a foul — for the Sun Devils to give them a
60-56 lead.
It was the Sun Devils' first lead since be
ing ahead by one point in the first few
minutes of the game.
Senior guard Andre Joseph came on
when he had to. After having a rough
game with few looks, Joseph got hot and
hit two clutch threes. His second three
pointer was under the three-minute mark
and put Oregon up, 75-70.
Turn to WIN, page 6
Late run gives
'Cats another
win over Ducks
The Ducks nearly upset the Wildcats but are
done in by missed opportunities down the
stretch; Oregon loses its sixth Pac-10 game
For the second straight season, a talented Arizona team re
ceived all it could handle during its trip to Eugene.
at McArthur Court Thursday.
Oregon (10-8, 2-6) led by as many as six down the stretch,
but the Wildcats grabbed the lead for good when a rebound
basket by center Shawntinice Polk put Arizona ahead 66-65
with 43 seconds remaining.
The basket was Polk's only field goal of the second half.
Hampered all night by double teams and foul trouble, last sea
son's Pac-10 Freshman of the Year was held to seven points on
3 of 8 shooting in 23 minutes.
"They were running people at me all night," Polk said. "But
the thing I don't understand is people think that if they shut
me down, they shut the Arizona team down. As you can tell, I
sat out most of the game and we still pulled out the victory."
The Ducks had plenty of chances down the stretch to put
the game away, but missed free throws and hesitant offensive
play led to their doom. Oregon shot 2 of 7 from the line and
By Jon Roetman
Sports Reporter
WOMEN'S
BASKETBALL
And for the second straight season,
Oregon came up just short.
Arizona (15-4 overall, 7-1 Pacific-10
Conference) used an 11-1 run over the
game's final 4:38 to pull out a 70-66
win over Oregon in front of 3,633 fans
Turn to RUN, page 6
Danielle Hickey Photo Editor
Andrea Bills had 16 points and nine rebounds in Oregon’s fourth straight loss to Arizona.
Oregon ready for first home action of year
The Oregon men and women look
forward to hosting the start of the
dual match season this weekend
By Alex Tam
Freelance Reporter
After successful play last weekend, capped off
by transfer Markus Schiller's tournament win, the
Oregon men want to see
their competition carry
over to the home opener
of the dual match season.
_ The Ducks will match
up against Santa Clara at
the Student Tennis Center on Sunday starting
at noon.
DUCK
TENNIS
Schiller, in only his second collegiate season, de
feated all six of his opponents at the Corvallis John
and Phil's Tournament in straight sets. The Ducks
will look to him to provide quality depth on a
young squad that has just one senior, Chris King.
Santa Clara is considered the opposite of
Oregon in terms of experience. The Broncos
can boast three seniors, led by Gernot Fischer,
who holds a 13-3 overall record and will play
at the No. 1 dual position. All three returning
seniors were named to the All-West Coast Con
ference team last season.
Second-year Broncos head coach George Flu
sack said he wants to improve on last year's 9-15
overall record and he feels his team is confident
enough to do it.
"We have a solid mix of players who believe
they can accomplish a lot this season," Husack
said. "It's an exciting time and we're ready to get
things rolling."
After an 8-5 nonconference record last year,
Russell said the Ducks will only improve by get
ting as much experience possible.
"Anytime you get a chance to play matches, you
improve individually and as a team," Russell said.
"Hopefully by the time we open on Sunday, we'll
be chomping at the bit (and) ready to go."
Women host opener
The Oregon women will take the court for the
first time since junior Daria Panova's third
straight Pac-10 Conference singles title last week
end as they host No. 55 Sacramento State, start
ing at 10 a m. on Saturday.
The Hornets came in first place in the Big Sky
Conference last year and are led by 45th
ranked Margarita Karnaukhova and No. 53
Anna Erikson.
Oregon head coach Nils Schyllander is aware
that their upcoming opponent, who has earned
two bids to the NCAA Tournament in as many
seasons, will be a difficult challenge.
"We are extremely excited to start our dual sea
son," Schyllander said. "At this point our main
focus is to get healthy and be as prepared as we
possibly can be. Sacramento State is a program
on the rise with some very talented players on
their roster."
The Ducks will host Nevada later in the day
at 6 p.m.
Alex Tam is a freelance writer for the Emerald.
Oregon back at Mac for first time in month
The Ducks hope the return
to McArthur Court will help swing
momentum their way this weekend
By Scott Archer
Freelance Reporter
Some home cooking may serve the Ducks well
this weekend.
It has to be something that can only help the
Ducks as they head into their first home weekend
wrestling matches in more than a month.
Oregon enters Friday's
contest against Fresno
State and Sunday's con
test against No. 21 Cal
State-Bakersfield with
DUCK
WRESTLING
some momentum.
"We probably had our best performance on
the year," Oregon head coach Chuck Kearney
said about the Duck's performance in the Aggie
Open a week ago. "We were taking chances be
cause we were having fun."
Oregon isn't coming off a recent win. It has
only done that once this year, against Army. Ore
gon proceeded to drop its next two matches after
its first win of the season.
In all fairness, though, Oregon hasn't really
wrestled at home. One could count the match
against No. 1 Oklahoma State as a home match,
but that was against an exceptional team early in
the season.
The Ducks haven't used many excuses this
year. They could have. They are 1-7 overall and 0
3 in Pacific-10 Conference play, which has them
searching for that first league win.
Injuries and the redshirting of key contribu
tors from a year ago have limited the team's
progress and made it nearly impossible to see it
at its full strength. Yet the Ducks never dwell on
or acknowledge those very facts. It's all about the
performance on the mat.
This time the performances will be in front of
family and friends at McArthur Court, friendly to
all who call it home.
"What we want to have happen is we want
what happened (in the Aggie Open) to spill into
competition in practice and into this week
end," Kearney said. "We will need to have our
'A' game to compete with Fresno State and Cal
State-Bakersfield."
Scott Archer is a freelance reporter for the Emerald.