USC embarrasses Stanford
STANFORD, Calif. (KRT) — Stanford had little trouble with USC’s pressure defense Thursday night, but it had no answers for the rest of the Trojans’ arsenal.
USC broke open a close game early in the second half and handed Stanford its worst home loss in nine years, a 77-58 defeat so thorough that fans headed to the Maples Pavilion exits with seven minutes remaining.
With a stifling half-court defense and sizzling shooting, the Trojans scored the first 10 points of the second half and grabbed a 15-point advantage with 13 minutes remaining. They carved up Stanford with the precision and poise Stanford used to win three consecutive league titles (1999-01).
Stunned, the Cardinal had no response. The last time it lost this badly at home: an 86-61 loss to Cal in 1992-93, the season Stanford won just seven games.
The loss snapped Stanford’s four-game winning streak and dropped the Cardinal (17-7, 10-5) one game behind Oregon and USC with three remaining.
“There are six teams that have a chance to win the conference right now,” Cardinal head coach Mike Montgomery said Tuesday. “We would like to finish on top, but one game will not be the downfall. The important thing now is to get enough wins to ensure a spot in the NCAA Tournament, and then win the conference tournament.”
— Jon Wilner
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Track teams begin
indoor championships
The Oregon men’s and women’s track and field teams begin their championship season this weekend, traveling to the Mountain Pacific Championships, in Flagstaff, Ariz.
The Ducks will match up against many of the best teams from the Pacific-10 Conference and Big West Conferences in the University of Northern Arizona’s Skydome.
Tentative Duck men’s entries include sprinters Allan Amundson, Cory Gray, Brandon Holliday and Samie Parker, hurdlers Micah Harris and Terry Ellis, middle distance runners Simon Kimata and Ross Krempley, high jumpers Jason Boness, Kyley Johnson and Jake Horner, horizontal jumpers Foluso Akinradewo and Derek Strubel, pole vaulters Trevor Woods, Cody Howell and Jason Slye, and throwers Rian Ingrim, Adam Kriz and James March.
The Duck women will also enter a quartet of pole vaulters to compete in a who’s who of collegiate pole vaulting, as the top three entries — Arizona’s Amy Linnen (4.52m, 14-10), UCLA’s Tracy O’Hara (4.36m, 14-3 1/2) and Washington State’s Tamara Diles (4.35m, 14-3 1/4) — have each led the nation at some point this season.
A pair of Ducks — juniors Becky Holliday and Niki Reed and their season bests of 13-9 3/4 — fill out a group of six likely entries in this weekend’s meet that are ranked among the top eight nationally. Sophomore Kirsten Riley, hopes to improve her NCAA provisional mark and personal best of 12-10 to join her Duck teammates who are already NCAA automatic qualifiers in the NCAA Championships two weekends away in Fayetteville, Ark.
— from staff and wire reports
