Oregon 79, No. 25 Stanford 64
Friday February 07, 2003EUGENE, Ore. (AP) Luke Ridnour watched the first half of Oregon's contest against No. 25 Stanford from the bench.
In the second half, the point guard took over the game.
Ridnour scored 23 points and extended his free throw streak to a school-record 43 as Oregon upset Stanford 79-64 Thursday night, snapping the Cardinal's four-game winning streak. The previous school mark for free throws was 41 straight.
Ridnour sat for the final 18:03 of the first half after picking up his second foul in 32 seconds.
``I was pretty fired up, I wanted to play bad,'' Ridnour said. ``I was frustrated in the first half.''
Ridnour was fidgety on the bench and appeared let down when Oregon coach Ernie Kent put in freshman Brandon Lincoln for the second time in the game and the Ducks up 27-16.
``As long as we kept it a 10-point cushion, I was going to leave him out of the game,'' Kent said.
Oregon, which started the week by dropping out of The Associated Press rankings for the first time in 18 weeks, beat the Cardinal for only the second time in 15 games. The Ducks avenged an 81-57 loss earlier this season at Stanford.
The Cardinal (16-6, 7-3), who recently beat then-No. 1 Arizona, got 17 points from Julias Barnes. Josh Childress added 15 points and 13 rebounds.
Reserve Andre Joseph had 17 points for Oregon. Luke Jackson and Ian Crosswhite each had 14.
Joseph picked up most of the slack for Ridnour. The junior guard entered the game four minutes into the first half and scored 14 points before halftime, including a three-minute stretch when he made three 3-pointers.
Joseph's third 3 ignited a 9-2 run that ended with the Ducks up 29-18 three minutes before the break.
The second half belonged to Ridnour, who shot 7-for-13 from the field. The junior attempted Oregon's first six shots and scored its first six points to give the Ducks a 42-32 lead.
``When he's mad, he plays at a whole other level,'' said Oregon forward Robert Johnson, who had 11 rebounds and four points. ``And he was mad.''
Johnson wasn't alone in noticing.
``He came out in the second half and was going to score the ball, you could see it in his eyes,'' Stanford coach Mike Montgomery said.
After the Cardinal cut the lead to 47-44, Ridnour scored eight straight with a pair of 3-pointers and two foul shots for Oregon to make it 58-51.
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