UO men will lean on defense in race for Pac-10's sixth spot.

Byline: Bob Clark The Register-Guard

LOS ANGELES - What Oregon's been doing best is what the Ducks will most need to do tonight when they make a final visit to the Sports Arena to play USC.

`The game will be won on the defensive end,' Oregon's Malik Hairston said.

On that basis, the Ducks have reason to be optimistic about winning only their third road game in 10 attempts. In the second half of the Pac-10 season, Oregon has held all but one opponent under its scoring average - and the Ducks still won that exception, over Arizona State.

The 64.5 points opponents are scoring against Oregon this season is the best defensive average by a UO team since the 1984-85 season - before the shot clock was brought into play - when the Ducks of Don Monson held opponents to 61.9 points.

`We've gotten better every game defensively,' said Hairston, who as the youngest Duck turns 19 years old today. `We're understanding basically what it takes on defense and we've gotten in a lot better shape. We know we need to run with our man, (and) work with our man.'

All that will certainly come into play against the Trojans, on their final weekend of playing in the venerable Sports Arena before it's replaced by a new arena on campus that is scheduled to open next season.

The Trojans not only went over their average point total of 67.9 in beating Oregon 84-78 in the meeting last month at McArthur Court, but USC shot 53.1 percent from the field in that game, the third-best shooting percentage of the season against the Ducks.

`We've got to do a better job of defending them,' UO coach Ernie Kent said. `We've made some adjustments defensively this time around. ... I'm hoping we'll do a better job of keeping them from getting so many great looks.'

The Ducks at least won't have to contend with Gabe Pruitt, the USC sophomore who scored 30 points at Mac Court. He's still out with a knee injury.

The reality is, however, four other Trojans scored in double figures against the Ducks in the earlier meeting, and even without Pruitt, USC handed league co-leader UCLA a defeat last weekend.

`We couldn't stop them. We couldn't keep the ball in front of us the whole game,' UCLA's Cedric Bozeman told the Los Angeles Daily News. `They drove on us all night and got easy baskets.'

The USC point guards, freshman Ryan Francis and senior Dwayne Shackleford, were an especially troublesome pair for the Bruins to contain.

`They will cause you nightmares if you can't contain their driving,' Kent said. `We've got to make sure we do some things defensively' against their charges to the basket.

Shackleford, in particular, has picked up his scoring after the loss of Pruitt's 19 points a game. After averaging 1.9 points over USC's first 19 games, Shackleford has averaged 11.7 over the past three, the number of games Pruitt has missed.

There is also the challenge of defending USC's Nick Young, the Pac-10's fifth-leading scorer in league games at 17.9 points. That assignment largely will fall to Jordan Kent.

`He's a tough matchup,' the younger Kent said. `You have to make sure you limit his touches and be on him, and you better be ready when he does get it because he's going to shoot it.'

Young is a capable three-point shooter, but at 6-feet-6 he's also willing to go into the post area and use his height advantage against shorter perimeter players. And like all of the Trojans, he'll drive from the wing if he senses the opportunity.

At stake tonight is Oregon's fleeting hope of finishing in sixth place in the Pac-10. The Trojans currently hold that spot at 7-7 while the Ducks are seventh at 6-9. The advantage of being in the USC position is avoiding playing on the first night of the Pac-10 tournament, when the top six teams draw a bye into the quarterfinals.

Lose tonight and the Ducks are done in their quest for sixth. They'd be two wins back of the Trojans with two games left, and the first tiebreaker is head-to-head results.

Even if the Ducks win tonight for a split of the season series, they'll need at least one more win and possibly two. The second tiebreaker is results against other teams in the league, starting from the top of the standings. USC has a wide edge there, with wins over UCLA, Stanford and Arizona while the Ducks have beaten only Arizona, of the teams ahead of Oregon.

OREGON MEN

AT USC

Oregon (12-15, 6-9)

Starters

Jordan Kent, 6-5 Jr.

(2.5 ppg, 4.1 rpg)

Malik Hairston, 6-6 So.

(14.7 ppg, 4.6 rpg)

Ray Schafer, 7-0 So.

(3.7 ppg, 2.8 rpg)

Chamberlain Oguchi, 6-5 So. (7.9 ppg, 1.5 rpg)

Aaron Brooks, 6-0 Jr.

(10.9 ppg, 4.5 apg)

USC (16-9, 7-7)

Starters

Nick Young, 6-6 So.

(17.2 ppg, 6.4 rpg)

Sead Odzic, 6-3 Fr.

(3.5 ppg, 1.2 rpg)

Abdoulaye N'diaye, 6-11

Jr. (5.1 ppg, 4.7 rpg)

Lodrick Stewart, 6-4 Jr.

(12.4 ppg, 3.5 rpg)

Ryan Francis, 5-11 Fr.

(6.6 ppg, 3.8 apg)

Time: 7:30 p.m.

Radio/TV: KUGN-AM (590). No telecast.

UO MEN VS. USC

7:30 p.m. today at the Sports Arena, Los Angeles.

Radio: KUGN-AM (590). No TV.