Ducks fly north for holiday season meeting with Pilots.

Byline: Bob Clark The Register-Guard

PORTLAND - This was supposed to be for the state championship, university division.

Instead, Oregon and the University of Portland will be looking for some semblance of holiday cheer before they take a Christmas break when the Ducks and Pilots meet tonight at 7:05 in the Chiles Center.

Oregon (4-2) comes off an 87-86 loss to Alabama, which was the second defeat in three games for the Ducks. They can ill-afford another loss in their nonleague finale, with their next game Jan. 2 in the Pac-10 opener at USC.

But how about the Pilots? They were once sailing along with a five-game winning streak that included road triumphs over Oregon State and New Mexico. Then came a lost week, with consecutive defeats to Duke, Weber State and Portland State, the latter in the second game of the River City Rivalry.

The Pilots (5-4) had beaten the Vikings - as Oregon did earlier - and along with that win over the Beavers had a rare opportunity for a sweep of their in-state rivals ... until they lost the rematch with PSU on Friday night. But Portland still could at least lay claim to a win over Oregon's other three Division I programs with a triumph tonight.

`They can own the state if they win this game,' UO coach Ernie Kent said.

Beyond those motivational aspects of the matchup (to be televised by the Oregon Sports Network over Comcast cable channel 14), Portland also might have a slight advantage in the presence of assistant coach Josh Jamieson, who spent the previous three years as graduate manager for the Ducks. In that position, he had complete access to the program's inner workings and aided in Oregon's on-court preparation for games.

When Kent signals something to the Ducks on the court tonight, Jamieson will know and has taught the Pilots how to respond.

`We've gone through that before,' Kent said of coaching against a former staff member. `There will still be some things we're able to do. If you execute, you can still do your stuff.'

Portland's recent difficulties are largely tied to offensive struggles. The Pilots were held to 51 points by both Duke and Portland State and 55 by Weber State.

The Blue Devils held Portland to a .231 overall shooting percentage, and the Pilots only made 8-of-44 two-point attempts against Duke.

`That's the best defense I've ever seen since I started playing basketball,' Portland senior Dustin Geddis said. `It was amazing how they played defense as a team.

`We'd call out a play, they'd turn around and talk to each other and call out what they were going to do and frustrate anything we tried.'

Eugene Jeter, Portland's leading scorer, was 3-of-15 from the field against Duke. Donald Wilson, the No. 2 scorer, was 2-of-12. Portland went to its bench and Patrick Galos misfired on 9-of-10 attempts.

And then it continued. Weber State stopped the Pilots, and so did PSU. Jeter was 1-of-9 against the Vikings, and so was Geddis. It turned into another offensive nightmare, with Portland going 16-of-48 from the field.

Geddis said recent losses `gave us some reality, that if we're going to be as good as we want, we have to understand that people are going to be coming after us.'

Oregon should appreciate that from the Pilots, who upset the Ducks 79-78 two years ago, the last time these teams played in the Chiles Center. The Oregon seniors have offered teammates their memories of that disastrous day for a UO team that finished 26-9 with a loss in the Midwest Regional finals, and the Pilots haven't forgotten it either.

`Some of our guys were talking about that,' Geddis said.

A repeat victory over Oregon at home would be Portland's biggest win since an upset of Gonzaga last season.

`Oregon's a really good team, but we've played some of our best basketball when our best was needed,' Geddis said. `This would be big for us because Oregon is a really good team.

`Luke Jackson is really good and they've got some big guys down low who can finish. Watching them (against Santa Clara) really opened some eyes about what we have to go against. They've got some big boys on that team.'