By
Keith Carmona
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Arizona synchronized, waiting for Cardinal
The formula for Arizona's 104-65 thumping of Oregon Saturday night was simple.
One part vengeance, one part anticipation.
The UO basketball team was definitely the wrong team playing at the wrong place at the most inopportune of times.
Not only did the Ducks enter McKale Center on senior night, just five days before UA faces No. 1 Stanford, but they came to Tucson as one of three Pacific 10 Conference teams to win over the Wildcats.
Now that's an unlucky combination.
"It was emotional because we lost to this team earlier, and they were the ones that really knocked us out of the Pac-10 race and took things out of our hands," junior forward Richard Jefferson said. "So, I guess we were venting our frustration over that."
And vent they did.
All five starters scored in the double figures, while every player on the UA roster logged a significant amount of minutes. All the while, Arizona shot 60 percent from the field en route to its largest victory since defeating St. Mary's by 60 points on Dec. 2.
Senior center Loren Woods emerged from his recent funk by scoring 17 points on 8-for-10 shooting while grabbing seven rebounds and handing out four assists in a mere 25 minutes of play.
To say it was a recovery from Woods' four-point Thursday outing against Oregon State would be an understatement.
The 7-foot-1-inch center even buried a three-pointer from the top of the key in his Saturday rejuvenation.
However, Woods' on-court luster did not carry over to his postgame self-evaluation.
"I seem more lucky today," he said. "Two weeks ago, I'm 1-for-10, and today, I'm 8-for-10, it's luck. My teammates are the ones that are doing everything. I just throw shots up there - sometimes they go in, sometimes they don't."
UA head coach Lute Olson disagreed with Woods' evaluation.
"Loren came out with a positive attitude, and he was aggressive right from the start," Olson said. "He did a great job of taking the ball right to the basket."
Even Oregon head coach Ernie Kent recognized that his team came to Tucson at a bad time.
"The Arizona seniors took this game to another level tonight," he said. "They were emotional and ready to play their last game at home. They played with such intensity and brought everyone else on (their team) to their level - everything they did was outstanding."
Saturday was a far cry from UA's 79-67 loss on Feb. 1 in Eugene, Ore., where the Wildcats shot a season-low 35 percent from the field and committed 18 turnovers.
"We didn't play too well up there, so this was a good way to pay them back," junior forward Michael Wright, who finished with 18 points and six rebounds, said. "Their crowd in Oregon made a difference, but we came out tonight a lot more focused. It's getting closer to tournament time, so we've just got to put our heads together and win games."
A second-half Jefferson slam dunk put to rest any doubts that Arizona is both ready for its trip to the Bay Area this week and the NCAA Tournament in two weeks.
Sprinting from the top of the key, Jefferson leaped over Oregon's 6-foot-9 center Flo Hartenstein to grab an inbounds pass with one hand and throw it down.
"All that was from the frustration of getting dunked on in the first half," said Jefferson, who finished with 13 points. "Freddie Jones is a good friend of mine, and he got me pretty good, so I told the guys, 'Listen, I am going to get something in this half that is going to help erase a little bit of that dunk.'"
UA's defense seemed as faultless as the Wildcats' offense Saturday.
Arizona forced 26 Oregon turnovers and limited UO forward Bryan Bracey - the Pac-10's second-leading scorer - to just seven points.
"We know that Bracey is an excellent offensive player, tonight I was just making sure that he didn't did get as many shots," Woods said. "I wanted to keep him from getting good looks, and luckily for us, he didn't get a lot of shots."
Though senior forward Gene Edgerson was playing his final game in McKale Center Saturday, he said that he wouldn't have minded playing another 40 minutes with the way Arizona's team chemistry was coming together.
"We just want to keep playing while we're hot," he said. "We are unstoppable. Not many teams can stop us when we are executing offensively and defensively. This is by far the best that we've played all year."
Though Stanford clinched the Pac-10 title by defeating UCLA Saturday, Arizona would prefer to boost its NCAA Tournament seed by knocking off the unanimous No. 1 Cardinal themselves.
"We are a completely different team than the last time we played Stanford," Jefferson said. "Stanford is still probably the best team in the country, so it is going to take a lot to get them. But right now, we have the kind of confidence that we'll need to beat them."
