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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Just how tremendous is Oregon's
high-scoring trio of Luke Jackson, Luke Ridnour and Frederick
Jones?
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The Pac-10 regular season champ Oregon Ducks had to rely on the free throw line to win this one -- and they came up big from the charity stripe when they needed to. Ernie Kent's kids knocked down 22 of 24 free throws down the stretch in a clutch performance. The two Lukes had equally big nights -- with Jackson tallying 29 and Ridnour 28. Frederick Jones put up 24 of his own, as the "Big Three" finished with 81 of the Ducks' 92 total points.
Wake Forest suffered a tough blow when Craig Dawson went out in the second half with a shoulder injury. The Deamon Decons got a strong performance from Darius Songaila with 19 points and 13 boards, but they really missed Dawson down the stretch. The Ducks and their high-flying offense gave the folks in Eugene plenty to be happy about Saturday.
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Good enough to beat hot-shooting Wake Forest in what seemed like
a game of 5-on-3 -- and maybe good enough to go a whole lot further
in the NCAA Tournament.
Jackson matched his career high with 29 points, Ridnour scored a
career-high 28, and Jones had 24 as second-seeded Oregon survived a
strong challenge from the Demon Deacons, winning 92-87 Saturday to
advance to the Midwest Regional semifinals.
Jackson, Jones and Ridnour, who carried Oregon (25-8) to its
first Pac-10 Conference title since 1939, accounted for all but 11
of the Ducks' points as they held off the Demon Deacons (21-13) in
a thrilling, end-to-end game with little defense but plenty of
fireworks.
"We all expect this out of each one of us," Jones said
afterward while looking at his two teammates. "We have a lot of
confidence in each other. We don't think it's anything new."
Oregon's three stars scored all of the Ducks' points in the
second half until three free throws by their teammates in the final
17 seconds.
"It was a great rhythm to the game," Oregon coach Ernie Kent
said. "That's the exact way we've played in 30 or 31 other games --
running up and down the floor. Those three guys have stepped up the
entire year."
The Ducks, just two days removed from their first tournament
victory since 1960, advanced to next week's regional final in
Madison, Wis., to face the winner of Texas' meeting with
Mississippi State in Dallas on Sunday.
Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser, who said his team lost one of
its more satisfying games, compared Oregon's trio to the
high-flying NBA team that usually holds court at Sacramento's Arco
Arena.
"Those three kids -- we couldn't find a way to even slow them
down, much less stop them," Prosser said. "Today, they probably
could have played for the Kings."
Wake Forest shot 55 percent for most of the game and made
11-of-19 3-pointers, but its chances evaporated when Craig Dawson,
who scored 20 points, left with a dislocated shoulder with 7:45 to
play.
|  | | Outside the Big Three, Chris Christoffersen was the only Duck with more than two points (he had seven). |
Fans in the decidedly pro-Ducks crowd chanted, "Sweet
Sixteen!" in the final seconds. During the first half of Indiana's
game against UNC Wilmington, Jackson and Ridnour climbed into the
stands to hug family members and shake hands with fans.
They had plenty to cheer about: Each member of the Ducks' trio
was spectacular in his own way.
Jackson made all 10 of his free throws, including four in the
final seconds, while Jones had six rebounds, five assists and two
roof-raising dunks. But most thought the best game was played by
Ridnour, who made 7-of-11 3-pointers -- one short of a school record -- and ran the team efficiently from the point.
"He's like Leonard Bernstein out there conducting a symphony,"
Prosser said. "He was terrific."
Dawson's outside shot opened up the paint for Darius Songaila,
who had 19 points and 13 rebounds, and Antwan Scott. But Dawson
watched the final minutes on the bench, wearing his warmups and a
sling, after a collision with Jones.
"With Craig leaving, it cost us an outside shooter," guard
Taron Downey said. "It changed the way the game was going."
Still, first-year coach Prosser's team got within a few
possessions of its first trip to a regional semifinal since Tim
Duncan's junior season.
After Wake Forest led for more than 20 minutes, Oregon tied it
at 78-78 on Jones' thunderous rebound dunk with 5:58 left. After
Ridnour hit a 3-pointer with 3:32 left, neither team got another
field goal until the final second.
"I want to go home and watch the game," Kent said. "What a
great, entertaining game. I hope people will see that and want to
play for us. We let them go and watch them grow."
Appropriately for a meeting between two of the NCAA's eight
highest-scoring teams, the game began at a thrilling offensive pace
it never lost. Wake Forest shot better than 63 percent for much of
the first half, while Ridnour and Jackson fired away from outside
to keep Oregon close.
But the Demon Deacons got only sporadic playing time from
second-leading scorer Josh Howard, who has a sprained ankle. In
addition, Broderick Hicks missed most of the first half after
running face-first into Oregon center Chris Christoffersen's elbow
in the opening minutes.
"I think in certain games, you run out of time," Prosser said.
"Today, to a degree, we ran out of guys." | 
