Valentine’s Day was 14 days ago, but there was a whole lotta love at McArthur Court on Thursday night.
There was love for USC head coach Henry Bibby (one sign asked Bibby “Will you marry me?”), love for Luke Ridnour (fans chanted “One more year” at the possible NBA draftee) and, finally, love for the Ducks as a team. In a rousing effort, Oregon toppled USC 79-66 in front of a sold-out Mac Court crowd. The win gave Oregon 19 victories on the season, and took the Ducks one step closer to the March Madness golden number of 20.
And they couldn’t have done without the love of the fans.
“It was awesome out there,” Ridnour said with a smile after the game. “The fans just gave us that extra boost to get going.”
That boost came late in the first half, after Oregon went down early to a USC squad that came out firing. Trojan junior Desmon Farmer connected on four-straight three-pointers to start the game, and USC played aggressive defense on Oregon to keep the lead throughout the first 14 minutes.
But with 5:58 left and the score 39-27, Luke Jackson hit a lay-up to cut the Trojan lead to 10. Robert Johnson added a put-back lay-in on a miss. On the next possession, Ridnour led a fast break and found Jackson, who threw down a thunderous dunk to bring the crowd to its feet for the first time in
a while.
“That’s the kind of basketball I love to play,” Jackson said. “Physical, up and down the floor, and shooting a lot of shots.”
Soon after Jackson’s dunk, Ridnour led another fast break, but this time the junior guard pulled up and hit a three-pointer to tie the score at 42. Ridnour was visibly pumped as he ran back on defense, and the Pit Crew broke into the “One more year” chant.
“We gotta show emotion, get everyone going, because we need these games more than anything,” Ridnour said. “If it’s yelling after you hit the shot, whatever it is, we just need to get the team going to get it done.”
That run was enough to give Oregon the momentum and, eventually, the game. The teams battled early in the second half, and USC held leads at 56-54 and 58-56, but the Ducks used another emotional run like the one in the first half to put the Trojans away midway through the second frame.
Ridnour led all scorers with 23 points and Jackson followed with 22. Oregon’s two seniors played well — Robert Johnson had 12 points and seven rebounds while Brian Helquist added six boards — and the Ducks adequately made up for the absence of suspended guard Andre Joseph.
Ridnour matched USC’s physical game play with his own brand of tough-guy basketball, hitting the floor often for loose balls and flying through Trojan double-teams.
“He’s be the first guy in the cold whirlpool tonight,” head coach Ernie Kent said.
Ridnour set the tone with only three turnovers in the game. The Ducks, who committed 26 turnovers in their 91-76 loss at USC on Feb. 2, had only 11 Thursday.
But, with the end of the season and the NCAA Tournament looming, the most important statistic for Oregon on Thursday night was the little “x” in the win column.
“It was just a tremendous victory,” Jackson said.
The Ducks moved into a tie for fourth in the Pac-10 with Arizona State, which lost at Stanford on Thursday night. Neither team can mathematically catch Stanford for third, while Oregon State and USC are too far behind. So the Ducks and Sun Devils will finish fourth and fifth in the conference, meaning they will face each other in the Pac-10 Tournament. They will also square off in Tempe, Ariz., on Thursday.
Kent and the Ducks hope they don’t need to win that game to get to 20 wins on the season. They want No. 20 against UCLA on Saturday.
“Saturday’s game becomes a lot of thing, to get to 20 wins, to get these seniors out with a win, to get one more win in this great old building,” Kent said. “So much is at stake.”
The Ducks and Bruins will tip off at 1 p.m. on Saturday. The game will be televised on CBS.