Oregon daily emerald., January 28, 2005, Image 7

• BASKETBALL EXTRA ®
Oregon Daily Emerald
Friday, January 28, 2005
“I think I even saw Bev jump once.
Oregon guard Brandi Davis on head coach Bev Smith showing
emotion during Thursday’s win against UCLA.
Maarty Leunen
The Mac Court experience:
“It’s awesome. From playing in
all these places, Mac Court is my
favorite place to play, having all
that history and tradition. ”
with no
SENIORS
By Danielle Hickey I Photo editor
Goal:
Heralded as one of the University’s best recruiting
classes, the 100th year of men’s basketball at Oregon is
dominated by its youngest players.
Freshman Maarty Leunen is the thirdplayer in a five-part
photo series providing a closer look at Oregon’s newest recruits.
Nickname: Maarty—Maarten is his real name
Favorite NBA player; Shaquille O’Neal
Mentor: “I remember going to Redmond High School
basketball games and idolizing them.”
“aSiSSSP-* #10 • Forward • 6-9 • 210
Nicole Barker | Photographer
Oregon guard Brandi Davis scored a career-high 28
points against UCLA Thursday.
■ Women's basketball
Davis leads Oregon in UCLA win
BY JON ROETMAN
SENIOR SPORTS REPORTER
Brandi Davis announced to her teammates
that she was going to score 30 points before
Thursday’s game against UCLA.
TUms out she wasn’t far off.
The 6 foot guard dropped a career-high 28
points as the Ducks beat the Bruins 78-71 at
McArthur Court.
The senior connected on 10 of 19 field goal at
tempts, including 6 of 13 from three-point range.
“Brandi is a real hard worker,” Oregon center
Andrea Bills said. “Whenever she comes in and
makes plays it get us going. ”
Things didn’t start off well for Davis, however.
She missed her first six field goal attempts before
burying a 15-foot jump shot with three minutes
and 13 seconds remaining in the first half. After
her initial basket, Davis closed out the half with
three consecutive three-pointers.
“As we came into a time out, my teammates
just kept telling me to keep shooting it,” Davis
said. “I’m really happy with the support I had
from my teammates tonight. Even though I was
missing some shots, they still had the faith in me
to knock them down. ”
Davis’ sharp-shooting gave the Ducks (13-6
overall, 6-4 Pacific-10 Conference) the spark
they needed to hold off a late Bruin come
back. After Oregon built a 70-60 lead with less
than four minutes remaining, UCLA (12-7, 6
4) turned up its defensive pressure with a full
court press. After creating several turnovers,
the Bruins cut the Duck lead to four less than
a minute later.
UCLA got no closer, however, as Oregon start
ed making better passes down the stretch.
“We’re confident with what we do at the end
of games, especially when teams press us,” said
Oregon point guard Corrie Mizusawa, who fin
ished with 11 points and nine assists. “We’re an
experienced group of girls. We made some mis
takes, but (we didn’t let things get out of hand).”
The Ducks also held a huge advantage on the
boards — outrebounding the Bruins 50-30.
Cathrine Kraayeveld grabbed a game-high 11 re
bounds for Oregon, while Eleanor Haring
snatched eight.
While Oregon was the better team in the sec
ond half, it appeared UCLA was going to take
over the game midway through the first. Behind
the perimeter shooting of guard Nikki Blue and
forward Lisa Willis, the Bruins built a 27-18 lead
with seven minutes remaining in the half. Davis
caught fire shortly after, however, and the mo
mentum Oregon gained was too much for UCLA
to handle.
“I wasn’t just pumping myself up, (I was) get
ting the bench into it, getting the crowd into it
and getting the coaches into it,” Davis said. “I
think I even saw Bev (Smith) jump. ”
Willis led UCLA with 24 points on 7 of 17
shooting and Blue added 15 points, playing the
entire 40 minutes.
Haring and Bills each finished with nine
points for Oregon, while Kraayeveld and Kris
ten Forristall each added eight points.
jonroetman @ dailyememld.com