Pacific 10 Basketball Tournament--Evening Games : Ducks Upset Wildcats, 72-63; Huskies Romp, 86-71

What’s a tournament without an upset? Oregon provided it Friday night at Pauley Pavilion in the inaugural Pacific 10 basketball tournament by upsetting second-seeded Arizona, 72-63.

It wasn’t a fluke. The Ducks, who who barely beat USC, 51-49, Thursday night never trailed. They led at halftime, 26-18, resisted a run by the Wildcats early in the second half and had the game under control in the closing minutes.

Washington easily disposed of Stanford, 86-71, in an earlier semifinal game and will meet Oregon in a 3 p.m. semifinal game today at Pauley Pavilion.

Sean Elliott, Arizona’s All-Pac-10 forward tried to compensate for his team’s deficiencies, but he couldn’t do it alone. He scored 22 of his 28 points in the second half.

The support wasn’t there, though. Guard Craig McMillian was scoreless and eventually fouled out and center Tom Tolbert scored only six points before fouling out.

The Ducks finished seventh in the regular season conference race and were penalized by having to play a first-round game. It turned out to be advantageous for them.

Guard Anthony Taylor was the leader of the winners with 29 points, 18 in the second half. And he was supported by guard David Girley, who had 16 points.

The Ducks, 16-13 overall, shot 65% in the second half, 51.1% for the game. The Wildcats shot only 36.8%, 27.8% in the first half, and were three-point basket crazy but connected on only 4 of 25 attempts.

Arizona, 18-11, closed to 59-54 on Elliott’s jump shot with 3:10 left before

Oregon made a steady parade to the foul line to put the game away.

Washington had lost four out of five games during a stretch in February. And a Seattle newspaper questioned the Huskies’ coaching with a headline, “Can Andy Russo Coach.”

There aren’t any apparent problems now, however.

Stanford, 15-13 overall, was the consensus sleeper of the tournament but the Cardinal was bludgeoned to sleep by the Huskies’ version of the Twin Towers, 7-foot Chris Welp and 6-10 Phil Zevenbergen.

Zevenbergen was particularly effective. He got 16 of his 20 points in the first half, made 9 of 12 shots and grabbed 13 rebounds.

Welp played only 22 minutes, but he scored 21 points, making 8 of 11 shots. The Huskies shot 73.1% in the first half, 63% for the game.

Washington (17-13) which is not renowned for its backcourt, also got a 16-point performance from guard Greg Hill and the all of the Husky reserves played competently.

Put it all together and it was a blowout.

“Washington played a great basketball game and didn’t have any weakness in any phase,” Stanford Coach Mike Montgomery said. “They were strong inside and Hill played exceptionally well. We were only down by nine at halftime, but we didn’t have much going for us.”

Washington had 11 turnovers in the first half and Stanford only 5, but it didn’t matter because the Huskies were getting second and third shots by controlling the boards. The Huskies had a 17-8 rebounding advantage in the first half, a margin they sustained for the game.

Moreover, Russo credited Washington forward Phil Vidato for stifling Stanford’s Todd Lichti, an All-Pac-10 forward. Lichti got 18 points, his average, but was only 5 for 13 from the field.

Washington led, 44-35, at halftime and kept building on its lead in the second half. When the Huskies led, 71-51, with 8:46 left, Russo then rested his regulars.