Once Again, Our West Coast Correspondent Molly

So I should have written about the game, like, when I got home last night, despite the absurd hour, because now all I can think about is the NEXT game. But here's what happened: J had a show. The show was in a bar with no TV. After the show, our friend P stuck his little radio headphones in his ears and reported that Oregon was down by 11 at the half.

Bunk, I say.

So J and I crossed the street to the bar with a TV, where we nicely asked to have the Ducks game on and the slightly surly bartender nicely complied with our request. The Ducks were down. Probably still by 11; I don't know, because I was too busy going, "What the fuck is Stelly doing in there?" Adrian Stelly, for those not in the know, is a walk-on who has played a total of 41 minutes this season, generally at times like the end of the WSU game when Oregon won by 30. P had mentioned that Aaron Brooks was out, and we figured it was because he was sick - he'd been held out of the second half of the previous game with "flulike symptoms."

And then we saw Ryan Appleby. With a piece of tissue sticking out his nose. J started to put things together, and the paper today confirmed it: Brooks got ejected for "fighting." Can't play tonight either. DAMMIT, BROOKS. The year before last, he put himself out with a broken hand when he punched the, uh, I don't know the technical term, the thingy what holds up the basket. That was Luke Jackson's last year, and though Brooks was a freshman, I like to think he would have made a difference. Now he's out the follow-up game for throwing an elbow at the Greatest American Hero's nose. Bummer. (Turns out Appleby needed six stitches in his upper lip. Ouch.)

But Stelly really came through. It was his three, early in the second half, that got things going - and then sophomore Chamberlain Oguchi took over again, after a scoreless first half, with a quick succession of wicked awesome (sorry, I had to say it) threes. One of them, off a hot steal, tied the game; another fantastic shot came off an assist from Stelly after Stelly had a fast break and a sweet pass backward to Oguchi. Another was contested by two Washington players and I do love the shots of Oguchi with Bobby Jones in his face, draining the three all the same. Johnson had some nice moments and Kent, of course, had a goofy dunk, which he followed with a panther-growl face that would have made Andre Joseph proud.

The really amazing thing was, though I got nervous, I never thought they were going to throw it away. I feared for those final minutes, but ultimately it wasn't even close (at least by my definition). It was a feisty, ferocious team coming out and playing like they meant it. Hairston astonished us with 7-of-8 free throw shooting in those last vital minutes; Oregon has lost games on missed free throws more than once before. At least three Washington players were bleeding and yet the refs were lettin' 'em play - at one point there was something that looked mighty like a foul that wasn't called, and J observed, "The refs are totally in their pocket."

That is NOT a normal situation for Oregon. If I had one wish, I would have liked to see Ray Schaefer in there for a few fiery blocks - the one thing Washington consistently got by the Ducks with was their inside shot (god, I hope I'm using basketball speak right. I'm never sure). But hey, if it ain't broke ... you know the rest. I like Schaefer and I like Leunen, but if the Hairston-Stelly-Oguchi-Johnson-Lincoln lineup works? USE THE FUCK OUT OF IT.

If Oregon can beat Washington, they can beat Cal. The only way they can get a .500 season is by winning the Pac-10 tournament; the only way that's gonna happen is if they beat Cal, who beat them twice, and Arizona beats UCLA - Oregon split the Arizona games, but UCLA trounced the Ducks both times.

Fingers crossed.

-Molly