Victory Lane for Oregon
One shot saved the day, saved his team, redeemed his soul. Frederick Jones stuck in a leaning runner over Deginald Erskin with 2.8 seconds left to give No. 2-seeded Oregon a 72-70 victory over No. 6 Texas on Friday night in an NCAA Midwest Regional semifinal game at the Kohl Center.
Until that basket, only his second of the game, Jones had done nothing of much importance, nor had he been of much help to his teammates for the first 39 minutes 57 seconds. But when it mattered, when it seemed the Ducks (26-8) had wasted for good what had once been a 13-point second-half lead, Jones took the ball and set his mind on one thing.
“I had to score,” Jones said. “I owed my guys.”
Just as he had against USC on Feb. 28, Jones went straight into the lane, leaned into his defender and scored the winning basket. Erskin fell onto his back partly from the force of Jones and partly in the desperate hope of drawing a charging foul.
“When we needed him, Freddie came up big,” Oregon point guard Luke Ridnour said.
Texas freshman T.J. Ford almost came up bigger. The 5-10 point guard took a pass in the backcourt, dribbled up the floor, skidded to a stop in the lane and arched a jumper over 7-foot-2 Chris Christoffersen.
All in 2.8 seconds.
“I thought for a minute it was going in,” Ford said. “But then, deep down, I knew it was too hard. It was kind of tough, shooting over a guy who’s 7-2. I knew I had to arch it high.”
The celebrating Ducks had to take baby steps over the prostrate bodies of disconsolate Longhorn players. “It seemed like it took [Ford’s] shot forever to bounce around,” Ridnour said. “I held my breath. It was scary close.”
Ridnour, a sophomore, had been fantastic all game, floating around the perimeter and shooting leaners, arching shots, little hanging bank shots and scoring 20 points for the Ducks. Luke Jackson, Oregon’s curly haired forward, had taken aim from everywhere and done his work both inside and outside, layups and three-pointers, while scoring 25 points. He also had eight assists. The Lukes gave Oregon its working lead. Then Jones saved them from blowing it.
But until the last three seconds Jones, a Wooden Award finalist, Oregon’s leading scorer, the acrobatic catalyst of the Ducks’ fast-paced offense, had gotten two quick fouls, spent much of the first half on the bench and most of the second half committing turnovers or being beaten on defense.
“My overall game was terrible,” said Jones, who had scored in double figures in 27 consecutive games. “I played terrible. Coming down the stretch I knew we were going to need a big play and I just hoped I had it in me to be in the position to make one finally. I needed to redeem myself.”
Oregon led, 41-28, at halftime because Jackson nailed a three-pointer with 0.3 of a second left. “We felt pretty good to have that lead,” Jackson said, “without having Freddie on the floor most of the time.”
But the Longhorns (22-12) capped an 11-0 second-half run when Brian Boddicker made his third three-pointer in the streak to tie the score, 51-51, with 12:09 left. The Longhorns helped get themselves back into the game by getting 14 of the first 17 available rebounds in the second half.
“That was just about working hard,” Texas Coach Rick Barnes said. “Our effort to start the second half was great.”
After the 51-51 tie, the Ducks scored the next seven points, Texas seven of the next eight and the battle was engaged for good with 4:56 left. Royal Ivey made two free throws to bring Texas within 66-64. Ford pulled Texas even with two free throws with 1:20 left.
This is Oregon’s first regional final since 1960 and the Ducks will play top-seeded Kansas on Sunday for a trip to the Final Four. Oregon has already won its first Pac-10 title since 1945.
“The Pac-10 did a great job of getting us ready for this,” Christoffersen said. “The Pac-10 has really made us strong, playing against a lot of really tough teams and so many close games. We had to grind it out all season and we never got flustered tonight. We just kept grinding it out.”
Oregon hasn’t won this many games in a single NCAA tournament since winning the title in 1939. “We are really close to something special,” Ridnour said. “And I love playing with these guys. This is fun.”
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Three for the Money
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