ORTLAND, Ore. - It was a breakout night for Monty
Mack, a career night for Micah Brand - and for the
University of Massachusetts men's basketball team,
another deflating defeat.
ORTLAND, Ore. - It was a breakout night for Monty
Mack, a career night for Micah Brand - and for the
University of Massachusetts men's basketball team,
another deflating defeat.
 Frederick Jones drives on Shannon Crooks. |
"It's frustrating, because I thought we'd played pretty good, and you look up and we still lost by 15,'' said UMass coach Bruiser Flint, whose team is home against Providence Thursday. "But you can't miss 15 foul shots on the road. If you go to the line 37 times, you've got to make them pay.''
Instead, it was UMass that paid the price at the line. Oregon (5-0) went 35 for 46 at the line, while UMass was 22 of 37. There were 59 fouls in the game, with 34 called against UMass, which was also outrebounded 34-26 - the fourth straight game in which the Minutemen have lost the boards.
Those number nullified a 26-point night by Mack, who hit three 3-pointers and tied Carmelo Travieso with 245 career threes. Mack did it in 99 games to Travieso's 130, but last night he scored only six points after halftime, when he shot 1 for 7.
Brand, a sophomore, picked up the second-half scoring and finished with a career-high 19 points, along with nine rebounds. "It wasn't really their defense that stopped me,'' Mack said. "We just had to go inside.
But according to Oregon coach Ernie Kent, giving Brand two-pointers was better than leaving Mack open for 3's.
"We made some adjustments at halftime, which did free up the inside,'' Kent said. "But we thought their key guys were Mack and (point guard) Shannon Crooks.''
Oregon led 50-40 at halftime. Combining the second half of the previous game against Holy Cross, and the first half against the Ducks, UMass was outscored 100-69.
But the Minutemen crept back to within 58-52 when two crucial calls went against them. After Brand missed a baseline jumper, forward Jackie Rogers was called for trying to trip an Oregon player with 9:54 left, giving the Ducks two free throws and the ball. Freddie Jones (23 points on 7-for-11 shooting, and nine rebounds) hit both foul shots, and before Oregon could throw the ball in-bounds, UMass forward Eric Williams was hit with a technical for throwing an elbow at an Oregon player.
Williams later denied that he had done so, but Anthony Norwood hit two free throws off the technical, and Jones made a jumper on the possession that followed. The sequence made it 64-52, and though UMass came back to within 67-62, they couldn't make up the rest.
"I didn't see anything, so I really can't say anything,'' Flint said. "But it did push their lead back up by six points. I was more upset at that than at all the other fouls they called, because they called it both ways.
Senior forward Bryan Bracey led Oregon, which shot 52.9 percent, with a career-high 24 points. The Ducks also forced UMass into a season-high 21 turnovers.
Brand was better from the floor (6 for 8) than from the line (7 for 12), But the 6-11 center showed his potential for the first time this season.
"The coaches had told me I was a better player than I''ve shown,'' said Brand, who had scored only nine points over his first three games. "I played hard and aggressive, and things happened.''
Mack's 20 first-half points came on 5-for-8 shooting after the 6-3 senior had made only 8 of 30 shots in his first two games.
"We had the same game plan on him in the second half, but I think it was more personal that we didn't want him to have a monster game,'' Jones said. "We tried to deny him the ball.''
"I was just happy that Monty was patient and didn't try to force shots,'' said Flint, who felt the offense did its best job this season of getting the ball to the right people, and was rewarded with 49-percent shooting and its highest point total of the year.
But after an 18-6 surge gave Oregon a 34-26 first-half lead, the Ducks never looked back. It hasn't helped that UMass' last two opponents, Holy Cross and Oregon, are a combined 70 for 91 from the line.
"If we give this sort of effort every night and make some adjustments, and Micah steps up like this, we can still be a tough team to beat,'' Flint said. That remains the hope for a team that keeps searching for answers in a season whose crisis point may come much sooner that the Minutemen had hoped.
NOTES: Dale Menendez, a walk-on guard who never played in a UMass game, has left the team. He plans to transfer to another school, possibly in Division II, in which he'll get playing time. The sophomore sat out last year after transferring from Long Island-C.W. Post. Former Amherst Regional guard Dwayne Killings, another walk-on, has been assigned a uniform ... Tickets remain for the UMass-UConn game in Hartford Dec. 12, and may be purchased at the UMass box office.
ORTLAND � The second game in the Pap� Jam
wasn�t exactly a masterpiece, but Oregon�s men�s
basketball fans had no qualms with the result.
 Ronell Blizzard tries to stop Luke Jackson's shot. |
A total of 59 fouls were called in the game � 34 against UMass � which made it difficult for either team to establish a cohesive flow.
�It�s not going to be pretty every night, but our heart takes over,� said Jones, who scored 16 points in the second half and led the Ducks with nine rebounds.
�As long as we get the W that�s all right.�
Oregon is off to its best start in Ernie Kent�s four-year coaching career with the Ducks.
The Ducks led 50-40 at halftime behind Bracey�s 11 points. Monty Mack kept the Minutemen of the Atlantic 10 close with 20 of his game-high 26 points in the first half.
UMass cut the lead to 56-52 at the 11:23 mark, but Jones scored six points during an 8-0 run as the Ducks regained control.
Anthony Norwood added 12 points for the Ducks, who hit 35 of 46 free throws, and outrebounded UMass 34-26.
Oregon will be off this week for final exams. The Ducks next game is Dec. 12 at home against Illinois-Chicago.
ORTLAND -- In head coach Ernie Kent's eyes, all is right in the world.
His Oregon basketball team is 5-0 after beating Massachusetts 91-76 Saturday in the third annual Pap� Jam.
 Can I help you? No thanks, just looking. Blizzard gets schooled by the Ducks' Bryan Bracey. |
And his bench play is putting in decent numbers from a different set of players each night.
But while Saturday's win did mark Oregon's best start since the 1996-97 team that opened at 10-0 and its second-best opening in 23 years, it did little to make a convincing statement as to what kind of team this is.
The Ducks again outlasted their opponent in a sluggish, foul-plagued game that stretched late into Saturday night. The two teams combined shot 83 free throws, committed a total of 59 fouls and turned the ball over 40 times.
UMass head coach Bruiser Flint was not particularly pleased with his team's 22 of 37 showing from the charity stripe.
"You can't miss 15 foul shots on the road," Flint said.
Kent, however, dismissed the whistle-happy referees and preferred to focus on the game itself, which he seemed to view as poetry in motion.
"[It] had all of the ingredients that would force a team to grow and we certainly were able to do that tonight," Kent said. "We got a lot of out of this game. I was pretty pleased with their response to the challenge that was put forth tonight and the type of job that they did.
"That was a good basketball game for us to play."
UMass entered the half trailing 50-40 after Monty Mack hit three free throws. He was fouled by Anthony Norwood while attempting a three with less than a second remaining in the first session. The Minutemen (1-3) hung in there for the first part of the second half and closed to 56-52 with 11:23 remaining.
But then the tide shifted Oregon's way for good.
In one crazy possession, Jones drove in for a basket, missed and rebounded his own shot, only to miss again. He then jumped up and again snared his own board, and while falling down, flung up the bank shot that dropped down, much to the pleasure of the crowd.
Then, the Minutemen's Jackie Rogers was whistled for an intentional foul on Jones, who converted both free throws at the 9:54 mark. Before the clock could resume play, UMass again gave the Ducks free points when Norwood drained two free throws from a technical foul called on Eric Williams, who elbowed Norwood. The ball remained in Oregon's possession, and Jones made UMass pay by knocking down a jumper for the 64-52 lead.
Oregon never let the Minutemen get closer than five for the rest of the game and started to break away in the final six minutes. Twelve of the Ducks' last 18 points came on free throws, but Jones made sure to provide the exclamation point. He received a pass from Bracey and slammed it home with just 10.9 ticks of the clock to provide the final 91-76 margin.
"We were all on the same page and we just played our hearts out," said Bracey, who shared co-MVP honors of the game with Jones. "That's what we have to do every night to be the team that we want to be."
UMass was led in scoring by Mack's game-high 26 points, but only six of those points came in the second half -- a stat that didn't escape Jones' eye.
"It was more of a personal thing to shut him down," Jones said. "We didn't want him to have that monster game on us. He's a great player and a really good shooter and he got a lot of open looks early. We just tried to take the ball out of his hands in the second half."
Oregon's Ben Lindquist contributed a solid 25 minutes of play, in which he scored seven points. Lindquist admits that he loves playing in the Rose Garden, where he also scored 13 points and was named MVP in last season's Oregon win against Minnesota.
"I don't know what it is, I like playing here and I like the energy of the crowd," Lindquist said. "It felt good to be back here and I got a chance to enjoy the game again."
The Ducks will turn their attention toward getting through finals week, as they don't play until Dec. 12 at home against Illinois-Chicago.
"This is a great time for us and a great position for us," Kent said. "We'll take the hype and excitement of this win and let it carry us. This is where we start to grow as a team."
ORTLAND, Ore. - The
University of Massachusetts men's
basketball team overcame the offensive
struggles that plagued it during the
season's first three games, but defensive
problems showed up instead, and the
Minutemen wound up falling to Oregon,
91-76, Saturday night at the Rose
Garden.
A year ago, UMass was 13-2 whenever it scored more than 70 points, but on Saturday Oregon rode 24 points from Bryan Bracey and 35 points from the free-throw line to break down the Minuteman defense.
Monty Mack shook his early-season scoring woes and led all scorers with 26, while sophomore big man Micah Brand delivered his best effort of the season had 19 points and nine boards for UMass (1-3).
But rebounding and free-throw shooting hurt the Minutemen again. Despite being significantly smaller, Oregon (5-0) won the board battle, 34-26. It was the fourth time UMass has been outrebounded in as many games. The Minutemen shot 22-37 from the line. UMass also turned the ball over 21 times, including 14 in the second half.
UMass plays host to Providence Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Mullins Center.
After trailing 50-40 at halftime, the Minutemen used a 12-6 run to claw to within four, 56-52, with 11:23 to go. UMass had a chance to reduce the deficit to two, but Brand missed two free throws.
The Minutemen's season-long rebounding woes were captured in Oregon's next possession. The Ducks got three offensive rebounds before Freddie Jones scored on a layup inside to boost Oregon's lead to six.
Things eroded from there. UMass' Jackie Rogers, who suffered from foul trouble all day, was called for a intentional foul for sticking out his foot to trip Jones to stop a fast break.
After Jones made the two ensuing free throws, Eric Williams was called for a technical for elbowing Oregon's Julius Hicks as they walked back down the court. Williams denied any contact occurred.
"(The ref) said I pushed him," Williams said. "If we made contact at all, it wasn't on purpose. I didn't feel anything. I didn't push him."
Anthony Norwood hit the two free throws and Jones scored on the next possession, giving the Ducks a back-breaking 8-0 run in less that a minute. That run stretched a four-point lead to 12, 64-52, with 9:41 left.
UMass coach Bruiser Flint said the spurt finished off his team.
"We got back in, then they called the two technicals (sic) and the lead went from four to 10 and that was it," Flint said. "We never recovered from that."
Mack kept the game from getting out of hand in the first half, scoring 20 of his 26 points prior to intermission.
UMass led, 20-18, with 10:45 left in the half, but its offense went cold and the Ducks were up, 50-40, at intermission.
While frustrated with the result, Flint thought his team made progress.
"We still have a long way to go," he said. "But if we get this type of effort every night, we'll be a tough team to beat."
ORTLAND, Ore. - His play had left members
of the University of Massachusetts coaching staff scratching their heads. In
two exhibition games and three regular-season games, sophomore center
Micah Brand had drifted and lacked aggressiveness.
After the fans and media predicted a breakout season for him, he'd been flat coming out of the gate.
But if there was a silver lining in UMass' 91-76 loss to Oregon Saturday, it was the play of Brand, who snapped out of his early-season funk. He scored a career-high 19 points to go along with nine rebounds, one shy of a career high.
"I wasn't happy with my first three games, and the coaching staff thought I could be better," Brand said. "I came out, played hard and things happened."
Minuteman coach Bruiser Flint said Brand's confidence needed the boost.
"He needed a game like this," Flint said. "He hadn't played well in any of the games, even the exhibition games. But he played great tonight."
* * *
FOUL TROUBLE: UMass continued to struggle to adjust to the NCAA's tighter officiating. Senior center Kitwana Rhymer and junior power forward Jackie Rogers each spent most of the game on the bench due to foul trouble. Both played just 14 minutes. Rogers was scoreless, while Rhymer scored seven.
* * *
MARK FOR MACK: Monty Mack's three 3-pointers tied him with Carmelo Travieso with 245 career made shots from long distance.
The game marked the 37th time Mack has scored 20 or more points in a game.
* * *
MENENDEZ LEAVING: Walk-on guard Dale Menendez has decided to transfer, probably to a Division 2 school, in hopes of getting some playing time. Menendez, who sat out all of last year after transferring from Division 2 C.W. Post, didn't play in three games for the Minutemen.
His departure means that former Amherst Regional standout Dwayne Killings joined the team's traveling roster.
Killings walked on to the team this year. He made his first overnight road trip for this game.
* * *
MISCELLANEOUS: Giving up 50 points in the first half gave the Minutemen the dubious distinction of breaking the half-century mark in two consecutive halves. Holy Cross scored 50 in the second half against UMass last Saturday. This is UMass' third 1-3 start in five years under Flint.
ORTLAND - In the quiet city of Portland, where cleanliness is the norm and crime
is low, the Oregon Ducks played against their city's image by trashing the
Massachusetts men's basketball team out of the Rose Garden last Saturday night
by a score of 91-76.
It was the usual game for the Minutemen, in which they seemed unable to hit a free throw, going 22-for-37 in the contest, were completely out rebounded by a smaller team, 34-to-26, and made enough mental and physical mistakes to bury themselves against the Ducks.
Oregon, on the other hand, took advantage of the fact that the referees were whistle happy by drilling 35 of 46 free throw attempts, amongst the 59 total fouls called throughout the contest.
"It is frustrating," UMass Head Coach James "Bruiser" Flint said. "I thought we played pretty well, but on the road you can't turn the ball over and miss free throws."
Despite the fact that the Maroon and White did not play the way it is capable of playing, it took a monumental turn of events to really turn the tide toward the Ducks and end any reasonable chance of a Minuteman comeback.
Midway through the second frame, Micah Brand drilled a pair of shots from the line to close the gap to 56-52, after UMass had been down by as many as 13 in the first half. On the ensuing possession, however, Oregon was able to get a score to push the lead back up to six, and a few seconds later, Jackie Rogers was called for an intentional foul for tripping Ducks forward Frederick Jones.
Jones was able to hit both free throws for two of the 23 points he would muster on the night. The onslaught did not end there, though. Before Oregon could even throw in the ball, Massachusetts forward Eric Williams was called for a technical foul for elbowing Anthony Norwood, who then also was able to swish a pair from the line. This time when the Ducks inbounded the ball, Jones stuck a mid-range jumper to push the lead to 12.
Even though the Minutemen eventually closed the gap to 67-62 a few minutes later, they were unable to get any closer, and the two consecutive technicals, for all intent and purposes, ended any hope of a UMass comeback.
"When we got that technical it was really tough," Flint said. "I don't understand why they called the (second) technical. Everyone was just walking to the line. We never recovered from there."
While the second half was ugly for both teams, the first half had a much better flow to it. The Minutemen fell behind early, but were able to come back when Monty Mack reverted to the form that made him the favorite for Atlantic 10 player of the year.
In the early going, he drilled a step-back three from the left elbow in the face of Oregon defender Luke Ridnour, and on the next possession, swished one from the same spot. Later on in the half, he canned another long-range bomb from behind the arc, on his way to picking up 20 first half points.
"At times we couldn't guard Mack even though we knew exactly where he was going to be on the floor," Ducks Head Coach Ernie Kent said.
Midway through the first half, Oregon began to pull away from the Maroon and White when the entire UMass frontcourt got into foul trouble. Rogers, Williams, Brand and Kitwana Rhymer all picked up two quick fouls, forcing the Minutemen to go with an incredibly small lineup. This allowed Jones and Bryan Bracey (a career high 24 points on the evening) to slash through the Minuteman defense at will.
Of course, it was not only good offensive play by the Ducks that allowed them to score 50 points in the first frame. With the Oregon lead at seven, Bracey took an entry pass at the baseline and promptly spun by the lead-footed Ronell Blizzard like he was standing still - which he was. Later on in the half, Oregon center Julius Hicks took an inbounds pass and laid it into the hoop while Williams was daydreaming with his back to the basket.
The Minutemen were able to close the gap to 50-40 at the half, however, when the Ducks committed a horrible defensive play by fouling Mack while he was shooting a three with 0.7 seconds left. The UMass sharpshooter then drilled all three freebies, as he was the only Massachusetts player who was able to deliver from the line with any consistency, going 11-for-14 on the game.
"I was just taking my time and taking what they gave me," Mack said. "As far as my shooting, I had been spending a lot of time in the gym lately."
Besides Mack, the other bright spot for the Maroon and White was Brand. He was able to score 19 points on the game on 6-for-8 shooting and was the beneficiary of an assortment of good passes from guard Shannon Crooks. Brand also was able to haul down a team-high nine rebounds.
"I just went out, played hard, played aggressive, and tired to make things happen," Brand said.
In the second half, Mack was unable to continue his hot hand and only scored a single field goal in that frame, for a grand total of 26 points. Throughout the last 20 minutes of the game, Mack was unable to get any good looks at the basket, and really wasn't even involved in the offense.
"We felt the key guys in the game were Crooks and Mack," Kent said. "We made some adjustments at halftime, and in the second half the reason they were able to score inside was because we had to do some things to lock up Mack."
Without Mack carrying the bulk of the offensive load, the Minutemen were forced to jump on Brand's shoulders and hope that he could carry the team by himself. This was a monumental task to ask of a player that was not used to carrying the bulk of the offensive load, and the Ducks gradually pulled away toward their 15-point victory.
By defeating UMass, Oregon was able to improve to 5-0 on the season and will have a nice layover before it heads back to its home court for a Dec. 12 clash with Illinois-Chicago.
The Maroon and White, on the other hand, fell to 1-3 with the loss, and will be back in action Thursday when it hosts Providence. This will be a pivotal game for the team, considering that the road ahead will not be easy, as UConn, Ohio State, Boston College and North Carolina are all making appearances on the Minuteman schedule in the near future.
ORTLAND - Maybe Massachusetts men's basketball coach James "Bruiser" Flint
should have taken a page from the Hoosiers book in preparing his team for its
showdown with Oregon.
Flint could have brought his troops onto the floor of the Rose Garden long before the Pape Jam kicked off, and had them measure the distance from the foul line to the backline. They would have seen that it was indeed 18-feet 10-inches, the regulation length.
Because by the time the game was over, that line must have felt as far away as a win was for the Minutemen: miles and miles.
The men in maroon didn't fly 3,000 miles to have their fate decided at the charity stripe. They have been victimized throughout this young season by revamped regulations and aggressive refereeing, and Saturday's contest may have been the height of frustration for Flint and company.
The Minutemen committed 34 fouls, sending the Ducks to the line for a season-high 46 free throws. Not that the whistles were only blowing one way; Oregon earned 25 personals that set UMass up for 37 foul shots of its own.
The difference? The Ducks knocked down 35-of-46, while their counterparts could put only 22-of-37 through the twine.
"The bottom line is that you can't miss 15 foul shots on the road and expect to win," Flint said. "You get 37 shots, you've got to make the other team pay. We didn't."
The calls themselves ranged from justifiable to downright absurd. UMass forward Jackie Rogers was taken right out of the game when, within the first two minutes of action, he incurred two personals in one second.
"A lot of those calls were just bad calls," Oregon forward Bryan Bracey said. "All they did was slow the game down and get people in foul trouble."
The Minutemen actually benefited from a few early whistles, as guard Shannon Crooks slashed through the Duck D and laid the ball down perfectly for Micah Brand, who got the hoop and the hack to put his team up 14-12.
But the run-and-gun Ducks began winning the war of the whistle shortly thereafter, attacking the plodding UMass defense and getting calls seemingly at will.
"We talked all day yesterday, today and even at halftime about how the rule changes benefit our team," Oregon coach Ernie Kent said. "UMass is a half court slugfest team, that uses a more east coast physical style of play. We're a running team, so it puts us at an advantage."
None seemed happier to fly by the Minutemen than Bracey, who stuck 6-of-8 freebies en route to a career-high 24 points. Bracey staked his team to its first double-digit lead, 43-33, by blasting past UMass' Ronell Blizzard on the right baseline for an easy layup and foul.
Oregon's Frederick Jones was equally effective at capitalizing on the new rules, missing only once in 10 trips to the stripe while amassing 23 points.
"They're going to call it like that all year," Jones said. "If you want to be a good team, you're just going to have to adapt."
UMass had its share of difficulty on the other end of the floor as well, as its players would often get great positioning inside but fail to convert their chances. Brand had the paint all to himself on a second-half feed from Crooks, but went up in slow motion allowing Duck guard Anthony Norwood to collapse on him and commit the foul.
Brand subsequently missed both free throws.
The sophomore pivot had a chance for redemption less than two minutes later, when he spun to the hoop with defender Flo Hartenstein completely out of position on his left shoulder. But Brand's dunk attempt rattled harmlessly out, and a Hartensten hack became a mere footnote when Brand again bricked his two foul shots.
"If you're playing us, that's what you do," Flint said. "You don't let guys get the two, you just hack them. You let them beat themselves."
The biggest calls of the night came with 9:54 to go in the game and UMass trailing 58-52. Jones fell flat on a Duck breakaway and Rogers was whistled for an intentional foul for allegedly tripping the Oregon forward, who canned both his foul shots. Then, before the Ducks could even inbound the ball on the ensuing possession, UMass' Eric Williams was tagged with a technical for elbowing Norwood.
"I don't understand why they called a technical on a dead ball," Flint said. "The referee that called it was talking to me when it happened. At first I thought he called it on me."
Two more free throws and a Jones jumper later, the Oregon lead was 64-52. The play didn't get any cleaner, and the end result didn't bode well for the visitors' immediate roundball future.
"A lot of fouls are going to be called out there until the officials settle down, much like we need to settle down, and get used to the new style of play," Kent said.
| Massachusetts Minutemen | 76 |
| Oregon Ducks | 91 |
| at the Rose Garden, Portland OR | |
MASSACHUSETTS (76)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Rogers 14 0-2 0-1 0-2 0 5 0
Smith 25 3-4 0-0 2-3 1 4 7
Rhymer 14 3-3 1-2 1-3 0 5 7
Mack 39 6-15 11-14 0-0 0 4 26
Crooks 33 4-9 0-0 0-2 3 3 8
Depina 18 0-2 0-0 0-1 2 3 0
Blizzard 6 0-1 0-0 1-2 1 3 0
Jenkins 5 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Williams 21 3-7 3-8 1-4 1 4 9
Brand 25 6-8 7-12 1-9 2 3 19
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 25-51 22-37 6-26 10 34 76
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.490, FT-.595. 3-Point Goals:
4-10, .400 (Smith 1-1, Mack 3-7, Crooks 0-1,
Depina 0-1). Team rebounds: 9. Blocked shots: 1
(Brand). Turnovers: 21 (Crooks 4, Smith 4, Depina
3, Rhymer 3, Brand 2, Mack 2, Blizzard, Rogers,
Williams). Steals: 4 (Crooks, Depina, Rogers,
Smith).
OREGON (91)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Jones 31 7-11 9-10 4-9 2 3 23
Bracey 30 9-19 6-8 4-7 1 3 24
Hicks 34 3-4 3-5 0-7 0 3 9
Ridnour 15 0-1 0-0 0-1 1 3 0
Norwood 30 2-6 7-8 0-2 0 3 12
Davis 9 1-4 2-2 0-0 1 2 5
Lindquist 25 3-4 1-2 1-2 3 1 7
L Jackson 8 1-1 5-6 0-1 2 0 7
Michaelis 5 0-0 2-2 0-1 0 2 2
Hartenstein 12 1-1 0-3 0-1 0 5 2
Anderson 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 27-51 35-46 9-31 10 25 91
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.529, FT-.761. 3-Point Goals:
2-11, .182 (Jones 0-2, Bracey 0-1, Ridnour 0-1,
Norwood 1-3, Davis 1-4). Team rebounds: 3.
Blocked shots: 3 (Hicks 3). Turnovers: 19 (Jones
7, Bracey 3, L Jackson 3, Ridnour 3, Hartenstein,
Lindquist, Norwood). Steals: 8 (Hicks 2, Ridnour
2, Bracey, Jones, Lindquist, Norwood).
__________________________________
Massachusetts 40 36 - 76
Oregon 50 41 - 91
__________________________________
Technical fouls: Massachusetts 1 (Williams). A:
9,231. Officials: Rang, Mark Reischling, Jim
Giron.