Oregon Finally Solves Stanford

During his five years as Oregon’s coach, Ernie Kent has tried to model the program after Arizona’s, and especially after the one run by his former boss, Stanford’s Mike Montgomery.

The Ducks trounced Arizona twice this season, but Kent’s team had never quite solved the Cardinal. Until Saturday.

Luke Jackson scored 27 points and Chris Christoffersen had 16 as Oregon defeated No. 14 Stanford, 87-79, at Eugene, Ore., to end a 10-game losing streak against the Cardinal.

“They gave us a blueprint,” Kent, who was an assistant to Montgomery during the 1989-90 and 1990-91 seasons, said of Arizona and Stanford. “For us to get to the level where we can play Stanford and Arizona like we did this year, that shows the growth and development of our program,”

Frederick Jones had 12 points for the Ducks (12-4, 5-1), who improved to 10-0--including 4-0 in the conference--at home. Oregon was 3-6 against Pac-10 teams at McArthur Court last year.

Casey Jacobsen scored a career-high 32 points to lead Stanford (9-4, 2-2), but he made some key mistakes late in the game.

“I just felt good today, but it doesn’t matter,” Jacobsen said. “I could care less how many points I scored.”

Jacobsen’s previous high was 28 points last Dec. 22, in an 81-76 loss to Brigham Young.

Center Curtis Borchardt, who had a career-high 29 points, cut Stanford’s deficit from 10 to one with some rare long-range shooting proficiency. But with the Cardinal trailing, 78-75, Jacobsen missed two free throws. Then, with under a minute left and the lead at five, Jacobsen fumbled the ball out of bounds in the frontcourt.

At the other end, Oregon’s Luke Ridnour was fouled and made both free throws to ice it at 85-78 with 38 seconds left.

No. 20 Arizona 74, Washington 69--Jason Gardner scored 16 of his 21 points in the second half and had six assists to lead the Wildcats (11-4, 4-2) over the Huskies (7-9, 1-5) at Seattle.

Gardner made a three-point basket with 2:45 left to make it 70-64. Grant Leep’s three-pointer from the right wing with 30.7 seconds to go pulled Washington within 71-69.

Gardner made a free throw, Washington’s Curtis Allen missed a three-pointer that would have tied it, and Salim Stoudamire made two free throws for the Wildcats with 16.3 seconds left.

Doug Wrenn had his third consecutive 20-point game for the Huskies, scoring 25 points. He has scored 77 points in his last three games and is the first Washington player to have three consecutive games with 20 or more since Todd MacCulloch in 1999.

Arizona State 81, Washington State 71--Curtis Millage had a career-high 24 points and Tommy Smith tied a season-high with 19 points and nine rebounds to lead the Sun Devils at Pullman, Wash.

The Sun Devils (10-5, 3-3) used a 20-9 run in the first half to pull away from the Cougars (4-10, 0-6), whose losing streak reached eight.

Marcus Moore led the Cougars with 23 points and made a school record 16 of 16 free throws.

California 61, Oregon State 53--Joe Shipp scored 14 points, and A.J. Diggs hit the clinching shot with 25 seconds left as the Golden Bears won at Corvallis, Ore.

Dennis Gates and Brian Wethers had 10 points each as California (11-3, 2-2) won on the road for the first time this season.

Brian Jackson scored 16 points and Jimmie Haywood had 13 for the Beavers (8-8, 1-5), who have lost four consecutive and seven in a row to the Bears.