STANFORD, Calif. — A ball, launched by Justin Davis into the rafters after Stanford’s defeat of Oregon …
Casey Jacobsen streaking down the court like a banshee, not caring that the smile on his face gave him the look of a third-grader playing recess kickball …
These are images from the end of a basketball game; an epic, with pictures that were never seen on television here or in Eugene. Images from a basketball game that, no matter the result, will always be remembered by those who saw it.
This was the essence of amateur sport, Justin Davis throwing this ball into the air. This is why you watch hours of blowouts, weeks of games that fizzle like fireworks in a shower. All those roundball remnants for this, for Casey Jacobsen streaking down the court, even if he does wear the red and white of Stanford.
Because this was a spine-tingling thriller any way you dice it. This was 29 lead changes. This was Tony Giovacchini, who didn’t make a basket all game long, making a leaning three-pointer with two defenders and four ticks on the clock to send an already-epic game into a legendary overtime.
But then it was Luke Jackson, taking an inbounds pass, seeming to drive the length of a football field instead of a basketball court, and launching a pretty jump shot that took a chunk out of the rim, icing the trip to overtime.

It was the Ducks, with men fouling out by the handful, staying tough in the extra period and hitting key shots when they had no business even taking them. A Luke Ridnour floater from the right side of the hoop. A Ridnour two-pointer that would have been three if not for a few inches of paint underneath his left foot.
This was Stanford, like a great army, riding out the free-throw stalemate until the very end.
This was Ridnour, falling to the court in obvious agony with seconds slipping away. Robert Johnson launching a desperate attempt. Stanford’s Justin Davis taking the same ball with the buzzer and crowd sounding around him, launching it, sealing the classic game.
This was one of those games where you just sat back and watched the beauty unfold. Some people like Picasso. Others enjoy college basketball.
To sit on the floor Thursday night was to truly enjoy the sensory overload of an artistic masterpiece. The bouncing of the Maples Pavilion court, like a California quake had just struck with full Richter magnitude. The sounds of the Stanford student section clapping in rhythm like so much gunfire.
The two generals — Oregon’s Ernie Kent and Stanford’s Mike Montgomery — barking like Patton and McArthur.
“Dammit Tony, move your feet,” Montgomery screams at Giovacchini after the point guard makes a costly foul late in regulation.
“Push, Luke, push,” Kent tells Ridnour, who then sends the ball in to Robert Johnson, which flattens the defense, so Johnson can send it back out to Jackson, who makes an open three-pointer.
To see the expressions of the players is to know the true meaning of competition. Ridnour’s sly little smile after Freddie Jones’s biggest dunk of the season over two Cardinal defenders. Jacobsen’s fist pump and loud “Yes!” after a key trey late in the game.
In the end, the Ducks lost. They still hold on to first place in the Pacific-10 Conference and surely proved their ability to play well on the road, even if they couldn’t win.
So that’s why it’s so easy to remember this game for its excitement rather than its result.
It couldn’t have ended better than Justin Davis hurling the ball skyward, as if asking heaven to remember this perfect game.