An emphatic fist pump and a hard clap was Ernie Kent’s immediate reaction when the final buzzer sounded.
He then quickly composed himself, walked over to Stanford head coach Mike Montgomery, and shook his former boss’s hand.
Oregon’s message-sending 87-79 victory over No. 14 Stanford on Saturday at McArthur Court not only meant a lot to the Ducks after ending a 10-game losing skid to the Cardinal — it also represented a personal hurdle that Kent finally cleared.
Kent was an assistant coach under Montgomery at Stanford for the 1990 and ’91 seasons. But since taking over Oregon in ’97, his team hadn’t been able to conquer Stanford under his guidance.
So after the roar of the sold-out crowd of 9,087 helped push the Ducks to the win, there was indeed obvious happiness for Kent. But more so, he said in his postgame press conference, the satisfaction came in finally seeing his team reach that next level.
“For me and for my staff, it’s great that we finally beat Stanford because they’ve been such an elite program and we’ve been playing catch-up for so long,” Kent said. “But more importantly for me, the joy is for our guys.
“They have worked so hard and they’re seeing the results.”
Right now, the results can be seen in the Pacific-10 Conference standings.
Southern California tops the league at 5-0, but Oregon is second with a 5-1 league record.
It’s still early, but the Ducks (12-4 overall) know that the league is up for grabs. Winning at the Pit will be key and protecting their home court against the Cardinal is the kind of game that can give them the momentum to run off a string of victories.
“This is the biggest win I think this program’s had in a long time,” point guard Luke Ridnour said. “We’re starting to prove ourselves. This is huge.”
The difference in Saturday’s game was balance of scoring with five Ducks scoring in double figures versus just two for the Cardinal.
While Stanford’s Casey Jacobsen and Curtis Borchardt each tallied career-highs with 32 and 29 points, respectively, the other nine Cardinal players combined for just 18 points.
“If you had told me that both me and Borchardt would have what we had and we would still lose, I would say you’re crazy,” said Jacobsen, who admitted that he loves playing in Eugene despite being the constant target of the Pit Crew.
For Oregon, Luke Jackson poured in 27 and Chris Christoffersen had one of his better games, scoring 16, including 6-of-7 from the foul line. Freddie Jones (12 points), Ridnour (11) and Brian Helquist (10) also contributed to the win.
“The biggest key for us was we got off to a great start and stayed pretty much in control of the game,” Kent said.
In the first half, Jacobsen was lights out, scoring 22 points, but the Ducks still held the 42-36 halftime advantage.
“If Casey didn’t have 22 in the first half, we would have been sucking grapes,” Montgomery said.
Oregon jumped out to a 57-48 lead on a Ridnour three with 15:28 to play, but Stanford came back to close the gap to 63-60. The Ducks responded with a 10-3 run to take the 73-63 lead at the 8:27 mark that sent Mac Court into a frenzy.
The Cardinal wouldn’t quit, though. Stanford answered with its own 10-1 run that was capped by the second three-pointer made by Borchardt, the 7-foot center.
“I was warned about it, but I didn’t quite believe it,” Christoffersen said of his opponent’s shooting ability.
The rest of the contest consisted of the two Lukes stepping up and Jacobsen messing up.
Trailing by three with 3:16 to play, Jacobsen went to the charity stripe and missed both free throws. Jackson scored four of the Ducks’ next five points, setting up the game’s biggest turnover.
With less than a minute remaining, Oregon leading 83-79, Stanford’s Chris Hernandez passed the ball to Jacobsen, who fumbled it out of bounds and essentially fumbled away any chance his team had of winning.
Ridnour was fouled, made both of his free throws and the long-awaited win belonged to Oregon.
“That’s what you live for as a player,” Ridnour said of his free throws.
And playing games that mean something are what the Ducks live for as a team. A year ago, in a similar matchup with Stanford, Oregon saw its seven-point lead evaporate in the closing minutes as the Cardinal scored 20 of the last 26 points to win. Of course, it wouldn’t matter as the Ducks went a dismal 5-13 in league play and didn’t even make the NIT.
But that was way back in 2001, which is treated like ancient history by Oregon.
“We don’t talk about last year,” Jones said. “This is a whole new team. Last year is in the past.”
And the future is promising.
E-mail assistant sports editor Jeff Smith
at [email protected].