■ Men's basketball
Erik R. Bishoff | Photographer
Oregon head coach Ernie Kent, seen here at a game against Arizona State, said he will
have to examine the cause of the Ducks' troubles on their recc. .1 three-game losing streak.
Oregon continues
losing streak after
65-62 upset at Cal
Another early deficit proves costly for the Ducks,
who were unable to score in the game's final seconds
BY CLAYTON JONES
SPORTS EDITOR
The Oregon men’s basketball
team’s ship is sinking quickly as the
Ducks once again couldn’t recover
from another early deficit and fell to
California 65-62 at the Haas Pavilion
in Berkeley, Calif., Thursday night.
The Ducks (11-6 overall, 3-5 Pacif
ic-10 Conference) trailed by as many
as 12 points in the second half but
cut the Golden Bears (10-8, 3-5) lead
to one with less than two minutes in
the game. Oregon couldn’t execute
down the stretch as Aaron Brooks
missed a deep three-pointer and Jor
dan Kent missed two — including an
air ball.
“The problem is that we are put
ting ourselves in too big of a hole
and we had to fight like crazy to
come back, and we couldn’t quite
do it,” Oregon head coach Ernie
Kent said. “That was a tough three
for Aaron to take, because Ian was
open in the lane."
Two problems plagued Oregon for
most of the game — turnovers and
an inability to keep California off
the boards.
Oregon committed 18 turnovers in
the game, which translated to 26
points for the Golden Bears.
California grabbed 14 offensive re
bounds and collected 17 second
chance points.
The Bears also shot uncharacteris
tically well from the free-throw line.
California came into the game shoot
ing 60 percent from the line but went
17 of 20 against the Ducks.
Cal guard Marquise Kately, who
scored 15 points and had six re
bounds, came into Thursday night’s
matchup shooting 44 percent from
the free-throw line but turned
around to give a 7 of 7 performance
against Oregon.
“I thought they were going to miss
more of them,” Kent said of Cal’s
free-throw shooting. “That doesn’t
matter. We gave them too much of a
cushion, and we couldn’t come back
and get it done.”
Oregon was led offensively by
freshman Malik Hairston, who had
15 points and went 2 of 3 from be
hind the arc. Brooks didn’t score his
first bucket until the second half but
still finished with 11 points and
seven assists.
Forward lan Crosswhite was once
again inserted in the Ducks’ starting
lineup and responded with six points
and 10 rebounds.
Oregon started the game leading
8-5, but had trouble combating the
inside game of Cal’s 6-foot-10 for
ward Rod Benson. The San Diego na
tive scored 10 of his 15 points and hit
his first six free throws in the first
half, helping Cal to a lead it wouldn’t
relinquish.Hairston hit back-to-back
three-pointers early in the second half
to cut the lead to sue points. After an
alley-oop from Cal's Martin Smith to
Dominic McGuire, Oregon's Brooks
hit a three to start a 7-0 run that cut
the Bears lead to three.
California countered with another
alley-oop to Benson to ignite a 10-0
run for the Bears, giving them enough
of a cushion to stave off any more
Duck comeback attempts.
“We weren’t executing our game
plan tonight,” Kent said. “Now we
have to look at what and who is caus
ing this to happen and figure it out.”
The Ducks will play at Maples
Pavilion Saturday against a Stanford
team that is fresh off a 69-65 victory
over Oregon State.
claytonjones@dailyemerald. com
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