Jan. 15, 2000
By LANDON HALL
Associated Press Writer
EUGENE, Ore. - Oregon stayed close against Stanford most of the way,but only until the Cardinal's shooters found their touch.
Jarron Collins had 19 points and 13 rebounds, and No. 3 Stanford used timely3-point shooting in the second half to fend off Oregon 85-71 Saturday night.
"Getting a sweep on this road trip is huge," said Stanford coach MikeMontgomery, whose team routed Oregon State by 28 Thursday night. "We hit bigbaskets when we needed to, and our free throws when we had to down thestretch."
David Moseley scored 14 of his 20 points in the second half and was 4-of-6from 3-point range for the Cardinal (13-1, 3-1 Pac-10), who won their seventhstraight over the Ducks.
"David Moseley almost single-handedly blew open the game for us," saidteammate Casey Jacobsen, who scored 12 points and hit all four 3-pointers,breaking the Stanford freshman record of 30 set by Dion Cross during the1992-93 season.
Alex Scales scored 21 points and A.D. Smith had 13 for Oregon (11-3, 2-1).
"I felt like we did an awesome job of battling them," Ducks coach ErnieKent said. "They came away with the victory, but the thing I'm telling ourguys is how much they stood up to them."
Stanford didn't earn its sweep of the Oregon teams until late in the game.
Three free throws by Collins, followed by Moseley's 3-pointer, put theCardinal up 68-56 with 4:23 remaining. But the Ducks ran off seven straightpoints, and a 3-pointer by Scales cut the lead to 68-63 with 2:51 to play.
The Ducks got no closer, and a 3-pointer by Michael McDonald with 1:49 leftpushed the lead to 73-63.
"Mike's 3-pointer was huge. It was significant and it provided a niceturn," Montgomery said. "If we had rattled a little bit and cracked, I'mafraid they might have come back and got us."
Stanford was 14-of-14 at the line in the final 2:20.
Oregon was outsized by Stanford's front line of Mark Madsen, Collins and hisbrother Jason, and the Ducks weren't helped by the absence of 6-foot-8 backupcenter Julius Hicks, who injured his back late in Thursday's victory over Cal.
But Oregon got a surprising number of layups from Smith, Frederick Jones andcenter Flo Hartenstein. Stanford had been holding opponents to under 32 percentthis season, but the Ducks shot 45 percent.
"If we're at full strength, maybe we can battle them a little bit better,"Kent said. "But I just thought the war in the paint was won by them, and thenthe war in the perimeter was eventually won by them, too. We needed to win oneof those battles, if possible, to be in a position to win."
Oregon trailed by eight with 17:41 to go, but Bryan Bracey completed an 8-2run by the Ducks with a reverse layup to cut it to 46-44. Three free throws byMcDonald and a tough 3-pointer in the corner by Jacobsen made it 52-46.
"Stanford has a lot of players who have been through it before, and theyknow how to win down the stretch," Oregon's Darius Wright said.
Madsen was held scoreless in the first half because of foul trouble, but wasproductive in the second half, hitting two free throws and a layup before theDucks made their final run.
Oregon clung to a slim lead in the first half until Moseley hit a 3-pointerto put the Cardinal ahead 21-20. Stanford pushed the lead to nine before theDucks hit a couple of jumpers to pull within 39-34 at the half.
Smith became the 10th player in Oregon history to reach 1,000 career pointsand 500 rebounds. He has 1,011 points and 510 boards.