Oregon Daily Emerald
Monday, March 7, 2005
“Everyone says a loss will help. We’ll find out.
Illinois men’s basketball coach Bruce Weber after Ohio State
ended his team’s perfect season Sunday
■ In my opinion
BRIAN SMITH
LEFTY SPECIALIST
UO couldn't
hang on,
but learned
its lesson
SAN JOSE, Calif. — When the momentum
swung against the Oregon women’s basketball
team Sunday, everything it had done so well in
the first 35 minutes of the game suddenly went
out the window.
The fact that Arizona State missed 15 of its first
16 shots in the second half became irrelevant.
The eight-point lead the Ducks held
with 13:19 left in the second half was just a
happy memory.
Oregon’s continued presence in the Pacific-10
Conference Women’s Tournament became a
five-minute game of “hang on. ”
So when Arizona State’s Aubree Johnson hit
a right-handed, eight-foot floater from behind
the backboard to give the Sun Devils a 49-47
lead with 47 ~econds left in the game, “hang
on” was no longer good enough.
Oregon knew it. Arizona State knew it.
Actually, Arizona State knew it before John
son’s floater. The Sun Devils had called a
30-second timeout with just over a minute to go
and, according to Arizona State forward Emily
Westerberg, that’s when they knew.
“We came out of our timeout and (head coach
Charli Tlimer Thome) said, ‘We’re going to win,”’
Westerberg said. “It’s that confidence that she has
in us, and at that moment, we realized we
weren’t going to let this slip out of our hands. ”
Unfortunately, Oregon senior Cathrine
Kraayeveld’s jumper with 5:07 left marked the
final field goal the Ducks would make. In the
last five minutes, the Ducks committed five
turnovers and scored only two points on a pair
of free throws by freshman Kristen Forristall.
“They’re really aggressive,” Oregon senior
Andrea Bills said. “We handled it well until
there was five minutes left, and then we started
making mental mistakes. We had a few
turnovers that really hurt us, and we have to
play up to and past their intensity throughout
the whole game.”
i nere were many reasons wny uregon lost.
It wasn’t the Ducks’ 17-1 record (until
Sunday) when leading at halftime.
It wasn’t the karma of being undefeated in
their white uniforms.
Part of it was the fact that Oregon connected
on a season low 1 of 8 from three-point range.
Another part was the fact that the Ducks
were outrebounded 39-32 and gave up seven
more offensive rebounds.
Mainly, it was one of those games where no
matter what you try and do to get momentum
back, the shots that were falling start missing,
the turnovers that weren’t happening start
happening, and a “victory” could still occur if
a team breaks out the books and an abacus
and learns.
“That’s what tournament basketball is all
about,” Oregon head coach Bev Smith said.
“It’s staying tight, staying focused and looking
after the ball at the end of the game. It’s a tough
loss because our team really competed well. I
think we learned a lot from this game and it will
help us in the postseason.”
The good news is the Ducks are likely to be
in the NCAA Tournament, and what they learn
from this loss, they can apply to wherever the
SMITH, page 10
■ Women's basketball
Sun Devils deny Ducks again
Tim Bobosky | Photographer
Andrea Bills, shown earlier this year, scored 11 points during Oregon's 5447 loss to
Arizona State on Sunday during the Pac-10 Women’s Tournament in San Jose, Calif.
For the second time in four
years, ASU beats Oregon in the
Pac-10 Tournament semifinals
BY STEPHEN MILLER
SPORTS REPORTER
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Senior forward
Cathrine Kraayeveld made Oregon’s final field
goal of the Pacific-10 Conference Women's
Tournament with 5:07 left in the second half.
With 20 seconds left and the Ducks down by
four points, Kraayeveld then made the mistake
of passing the ball to Arizona State’s Aubree
Johnson instead of to her own teammate.
That costly turnover allowed the Sun Dev
ils to finish with a 54-47 victory Sunday at HP
Pavilion in front of 3,521 fans. With the semi
final win, Arizona State advances to today’s
championship game to face Stanford.
“I cannot be more proud of our team’s
toughness,” Arizona State head coach Charli
Tlrrner Thorne said. “We scored when we
needed to score ... and as usual we’re getting
it from different people on different days. ”
The Sun Devils (22-8) denied Oregon’s
entry into the Pac-10 Tournament champi
onship for the second time in four years.
The Ducks (20-9) reached the end of the
road after committing five turnovers and
missing their last five shots during the final
five minutes of play.
“It was a disappointing loss,” Oregon head
coach Bev Smith said. “Particularly the way
we battled, both in the first half and deep in
the second half.”
Despite the loss, the Ducks will likely re
ceive an invitation to the NCAA Tournament.
Arizona State’s Emily Westerberg made
two consecutive layups to tie the game at
47 with 1:29 remaining.
“When we let our defense work instead
of our offense, we’re great,” said Wester
berg, who finished with 12 points and
a game-high eight boards. “We got a
few stops and became clutch with some
buckets and I think that’s what turned the
momentum around.”
After one of Oregon’s several turnovers in
the closing minutes, Johnson hopped over
the leg of Oregon’s Andrea Bills near the left
WOMEN, page 10
■ Women's lacrosse
UC Davis inches past Oregon
The Aggies used a 7-0 run to build an early lead, then
held off a late Duck surge to seal an 11 -9 victory
BY BEAU HASTES
DAILY EMERALD FREELANCE REPORTER
The Oregon women’s lacrosse
team was literally inches away from
its first victory.
In Sunday’s 11-9 home loss to
Mountain Pacific Sports Federation ri
val UC Davis (2-1 overall, 2-1 MPSF),
the Ducks (0-4,0-3) twice hit the cross
bar on shot attempts and had one po
tential score stopped centimeters short.
“We battled and clawed for every
second of (the game),” head coach
Jen Larsen said. “I wish we had five
more minutes, it probably would
have made a difference.”
The Ducks trailed 7-3 at the half be
fore starting a furious rally late in the
second. Behind 10-5 with 13:39 left in
the game, freshman attacker Lindsay
Pittard scored, igniting the Ducks’ run.
TWelve seconds later, reserve midfield
er Kate Fleming struck again for Ore
gon, shrinking the Aggie lead to three.
Fleming, playing with a broken
nose, shot once at Aggie goalkeeper
Kristen Braasch, got the rebound and
put in her second chance. But the
freshman from Cardiff, Calif., wasn’t
done: The 5-foot-5 spark plug lit up the
scoreboard again at the 8:57 mark,
shrinking the UC Davis lead to two.
The Aggies, who finished third last
year in the MPSF, killed the Ducks’
momentum, however, and put the
game away when sophomore All
American Katie McMahon scored her
fourth goal of the game with just 5:08
left to play, giving UC Davis an 11-8
lead. Oregon freshman midfielder Jen
May added a late goal in the 28th
minute for the final score of the game.
May and Fleming led Oregon with
two goals apiece, while McMahon
led all players with four goals.
“We put everything out there, it
just didn’t quite work out,” a visibly
upset Fleming said.
A source of contention for Oregon
throughout the game was penalties.
—— ,7Trr, aa
Kau. Horton | Photographer
Freshman midfielder Theresa Waldron
chases UC Davis goalkeeper Kristen
Braasch in the closing minutes of the
Ducks' 11-9 loss Sunday.
Larsen’s squad committed 32 fouls
and drew three yellow cards and one
red card in the game. The coach spent
several minutes after the contest con
ferring with officials about the amount
of defensive fouls called.
“We are an energetic and feisty
group, so we want to make sure we
contain ourselves to the point where
(the officials are) thinking it’s good
defense,” Larsen said.
GAME TIME
Sun. Mar. 6
Tues. Mar. 8
Women’s golf
Oregon @ Pinehurst
Challenge, Pinehurst, N.C.
Wed. Mar. 9
Softball
Oregon vs. Portland State,
3 p.m.
Fri. Mar. 11
Sat Mar. 12
Indoor Track
NCM Indoor Championship,
Fayetteville, Ark.
Sat. Mar. 12
Men’s tennis
Oregon @ Pacific, noon
Lacrosse
Oregon vs. Colgate, 4 p.m.
Sun. Mar. 13
Men’s tennis
Oregon @ Santa Clara, noon
Women’s tennis
Oregon vs. Princeton, noon
GAME
SCORES
Fri. Mar. 4
Softball
Long Beach State 4,
Oregon 0
Sat. Mar. 5
Men’s basketball
UCLA 73, Oregon 61
UO: Brooks 18 pts, 5 ast
UCLA: Shipp 20 pts, 6 reb
UCLA: Fey, 15 pts, 11 reb
Women's basketball
Pac-10 Tournament
Oregon 64, Washington 50
UO: Kraayeveld 20 pts,
10 reb,
UO: Bills 18 pts, 10 reb
UW: Hicks 17 pts, 6 reb
Softball
Oregon 4, Drake 3
Women’s tennis
Oregon 5, Boise State 2
Sun. Mar. 6
Lacrosse
UC Davis 11, Oregon 9
UO: May 2 goals
UCD: McMahon 4 goals
Women’s basketball
Arizona State 54, Oregon 47
UO: Kraayeveld 14 pts
ASU: Westerburg 12 pts,
8reb
PAC-10
SCORES
Men
USC 78, Oregon State 68
Anzona 70, Arizona State 68
Stanford 77, Washington 67
California 63, Washington 57
Women’s Pac-10
Tournament
Sunday
Stanford 73, USC 69
Saturday
USC 74, Arizona 66
Stanford 80, California 41
Arizona State 73, UCLA 71