Another 10 Game Winning Streak Snapped

Another conference road game, another loss. And, again the opposing team's fans storm the court to celebrate a long-awaited victory over Stanford. The Ducks prevail, 87-79.

Casey Jacobsen and Curtis Borchardt both had new career highs in a tough
87-79 loss against Oregon at Mac Court.  It was Ernie Kent's first win
against Stanford, and was Oregon's first win over Stanford in ten games.

After Jacobsen and Borchardt, the next highest scorer would be Josh Childress
with five points.  Leading the scoring for the Ducks was Luke Jackson with
27.  However, the most eye-catching stat was the bench scoring.  Usually a
strength of the Cardinal in the last few years, the reserves were outscored 18-7 by
Oregon.    

There was a reason why Oregon was three point favorites.  They had recently
swept Arizona.  One of the victories was a 30-point rout in Eugene.
Today, they showed the rest of the conference that they are indeed for real
against Stanford.  Both teams played overall pretty decent ball games, but
the Ducks were able to pull it out in the end with more balanced scoring.

In the first half, only one other player besides Borchardt or Jacobsen scored a field goal.  That player, Tony Giovacchini had a single basket before the break and had a total of four points for the game.

Oregon led 42-36 at halftime and maintained an advantage that hovered around
six for the first part of the second half before Montgomery decided to give
both Borchardt and Jacobsen a rest.  Bad idea! Before either player could grab a cup of Gatorade and take a seat, the Ducks stretched their lead to nine. Oregon pushed the lead to ten with 8:37 to go before Stanford seemed poised to make a slow but inexorable comeback with less then ten minutes to go.

Borchardt hit a three-pointer to pull within one at 74-73 before the teams began to trade baskets back and forth.  Down by three at 78-75, Jacobsen stepped to the free throw line, only to miss both attempts. Then, trailing by five with less then a minute to go, Casey had trouble with a pass from Chris Hernandez and the ball went out of bounds.

Looking back, this loss is probably not as bad as it appears.  Oregon will at least make a decent run at the conference crown.  However, I have a hard time finding "moral victories" so the result of the game is still disappointing.  It's time to sweep the Washington schools!