The final regular season game of the 2013 campaign ended similarly to how it began for the University of Oregon’s women’s basketball team; with a sloppy loss and a look of bewilderment and frustration from head coach Paul Westhead.

Westhead was noticeably flustered on the sideline as his team fell 70-52 to the Utah Utes on Sunday afternoon at Matthew Knight Arena. Jillian Alleyne paced the Ducks with 13 points and 8 rebounds, however, it was no match for Utah and Taryn Wicijowski and her 18-point and 9 rebound effort.

The Ducks came out of the locker room looking sloppy, turning the ball over and giving away easy points to the Utes. Utah was able to capitalize on these mistakes and jumped out to an 11-4 lead early and forced Westhead to call an early timeout to simmer his squad down.

Following the stoppage, the Utes were still able to maintain their advantage over Oregon, even with the Alleyne remaining active on both ends of the court.

However, the freshman couldn’t shoulder the load for the entire squad and halfway through the first, the Ducks still found themselves trailing by nine.

As the half progressed, it was more of the same for the Ducks; lackluster defense and the inability to score on Utah, and as a result they were unable to chip into the deficit.

Oregon also had no answer for the Utah three-point shot in the first half, with the Utes shooting 50% as they went 6-12, with the Ducks unable to hit even one from three-point land.

Michelle Plouffe scored three of her 13 points when she drew a foul on Devyn Galland and hit the free throw to extend the Utah lead to 30-18 with 5:36 left in the first.

The closing minutes of the half showed no real change for Westhead’s team and as the first half drew to a close, the Ducks found themselves trailing 41-25.

Turning point. The Utes came out of the locker room on fire and opened the second half with a 7-0 run fueled predominantly by Plouffe and increased their lead to 48-25, a lead that the Ducks would simply be unable to surmount.

As the second half continued, Oregon could not chip into the Utah lead with poor shot selection and undisciplined defense, and with 10:21 left saw themselves looking at a 23 point deficit, 61-38.

Freshman, Devyn Galland provided Westhead a spark off the bench, chipping in with eight points and playing ferocious defense in her 20 minutes on the hardwood, but in the end it was not enough to keep the game with the Utes close.

Utah continued to hit open shots, and as the clock hit triple zeros and Oregon fell 70-52, the Ducks looked somber and many had their heads low in silence as they suffered their 26^th loss of the season.

On the horizon.  The Ducks finish the regular season 4-26 and enter the Pac-12 tournament in Seattle losers of four straight.

Oregon will now likely meet the Washington Huskies on Thursday, and Alleyne believes that in order to be successful in the future it needs to start on the defensive end.

“We need to be more alert, be more attentive,” said Alleyne. “Forget offense, if we do the defense the offense will come and I don’t think we understand that yet as a team.”

Times for the games on Thursday are still not finalized but the games will be televised on ESPN2 and the Pac-12 Network.

The two time defending national champion Oregon Ducks acrobatic and tumbling team defeated the Baylor Bears 266.775-249.265 in their home opening match on Saturday afternoon.

The meet began with the compulsory event where Oregon was just a little crisper than the Bears, and after the four phases the event consisted of, found themselves with a 37.45-36.06 lead.

The meet then moved onto the acro event, which consisted of three heats between the two squads. Oregon did not look as crisp in the second event of the meet, but still managed to win all three heats and take the event 27.95-25.25.

After their convincing victories to start the afternoon, the Ducks entered the pyramid event, the final event before halftime, leading the Bears of Baylor 65.4-61.3. Oregon continued their consistent effort against the Bears and won all three heats of the Pyramid to take the event 28.75-27.4 and headed into halftime with a 94.15-88.70 lead.

Getting back to action after halftime, the two teams competed in the toss event, which also consisted of three heats.

Turning point. For the first time, Baylor looked incredibly out of sorts and nearly dropped two tops during their three heats. The Ducks were able to capitalize and took the event 26.95-23.30, which helped to boost their lead to 121.10- 112.00 heading into the fifth event.

The meet than moved to the tumbling event that consisted of six separate heats. The Ducks won four of the six heats and were able to once again expand their lead to 175.18-164.53 headed into the final event, the team routine.

Each team performed a two and a half minute synchronized routine with the Oregon besting Baylor 91.60-84.60. With this victory, the Ducks took the meet 266.75- 249.265.

After the meet, senior base Lauren Loos talked about how the key to the teams success was preparation.

“Today was really exciting,” said Loos “We came in prepared, expecting Baylor to be a lot better than their last meet. We were really prepared to execute our own stuff, and we came out and excelled in all the places we thought we would and really outdid ourselves.”

On the horizon.  Head coach Felecia Mulkey and her squad will sit back and enjoy their victory over the Bears for a little bit as they do not hit the pads again until March 16 against Fairmont State University. The meet begins at 2 p.m. and takes place at Matthew Knight Arena.

Even though their Pac-12 careers may be over, there are still several familiar names attempting to continue their football careers in the NFL. A group of Pac-12 alums participated, in varying degrees, in the NFL combine the past several days.

Former Ducks Dion Jordan and John Boyett were just two of many to compete in the vast array of drills NFL scouts and general managers put incoming rookies through prior to the draft.

The Oregonian’s Aaron Fentress provides the good and the bad news for these and other notable Pac-12 players.

Heart condition could sideline star Ute. Former Utah defensive standout, Star Lotulelei, has hit a bump in his journey to the NFL.

Lotulelei is widely regarded as one of the top players available in this year’s draft class; however, a recent test has revealed he is suffering from a heart condition.

While the severity of the condition is still unknown, this blip on the radar has a multitude of general managers rethinking taking the talented nose tackle with a top draft pick come April.

Dog gone. The Sausage Race at Miller Park in Milwaukee is one of the more popular events that occur in Major League Baseball each summer.

Fans have become accustomed to seeing the sausages and their antics appear on SportsCenter’s Top 10 as well as Not Top 10 plays of the week.

However, police are now in search of the Italian Sausage costume, valued at $3,000, that apparently was taken from the back room of a curling club in Milwaukee last week.

Once again, the Ducks’ men’s basketball team finds themselves on the losing side of a matchup with the Golden Bears. For the 11th time in a row, California ousted Oregon, this time on their home court at Matthew Knight Arena.

Oregon led for a majority of the game, but once again, could not wrap up the victory late and lost on a last second shot by Cal guard Justin Cobbs.

The Emerald’s Isaac Rosenthal provides a full game recap here.

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The Oregon baseball team begins their first home series of the year when they take on Loyola Marymount at 6 p.m. this evening at PK Park. Expectations are high for Oregon head coach George Horton’s team this year, as last season they were a game away from advancing to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.

If the Ducks want to sustain the momentum from last year’s campaign, they will rely heavily on right fielder Steven Packard.

After going on a religious mission for the last two years, Packard returned to Eugene, having had a breakout season his freshman year.

However, this stellar season nearly did not occur. The Register-Guard’s Rob Moseley takes a closer look at Packard and his journey of faith.

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New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera threw in a live batting practice session on Friday morning for the first time since undergoing knee surgery.

Rivera, arguably the greatest relief pitcher of all time, suffered a torn ACL on May 3 while fielding fly balls, which immediately cut his 2012 season short.

The 43-year-old closer felt good after his short session last year but is not going to rush his body back into action before it is properly healed and ready to go.

Oregon looks to hurdle past Cal. In sports, sometimes a team just has your number. Seemingly no matter what you do or how you game plan, the opposition seems to come out on top. This has been the California Golden Bears for Oregon men’s basketball the past five years.

Since 2008 the Ducks have not beaten Cal, and the team from Berkeley has been a perennial thorn in their side. However, this is not the same Oregon team from previous years.

These Ducks have aspirations of winning the Pac-12 and making a run in the NCAA tournament. However, in order for this to happen, Dana Altman and his team must break this streak and get a win over California.

The Register-Guard’s Bob Clark talks about why the matchup tonight will be no easy task.

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Going into the spring game last year, Oregon fans were unsure of who their starting quarterback in the fall would be. Bryan Bennett seemed to have the inside track to the job until a redshirt freshman from Hawaii dazzled coaches and fans with his raw athletic ability and cannon for an arm.

Presumably having a quarterback returning is a good thing; it provides consistency and familiarity with the playbook. However, not all the schools in the Pac-12 are fortunate enough to have their signal caller returning.

ESPN.com’s Ted Miller takes a look at teams with questions at quarterback and other story lines to watch in the spring.

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Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius, who is currently standing trial for killing his girlfriend, is now seeing his endorsement deals vanish.

The South African runner has lost his sponsorship deal with Nike and Oakley, as well as the fragrance company Thierry Mugler.

Dion Jordan’s touted as top OLB — With the Super Bowl a few weeks in our rear view mirror, the event now captivating the minds of football fans everywhere is the NFL Draft.

The results of the combine and the ever-changing carousel of who will be the first-overall pick provides hours of entertainment and countless talking points for members of the media.

NFL.com’s Mike Mayock has recently published his top-five rankings per position, and Oregon’s outside linebacker Dion Jordan is rated No. 1 at his position; Kiko Alonso is rated as the No. 5 inside linebacker.

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Dustin Haines steps up in the community — The first names that come to mind when thinking about Oregon quarterbacks are the likes of Jeremiah Masoli, Dennis Dixon and now Marcus Mariota. These athletes have run the fast-paced offense Oregon has become synonymous for to near perfection, and as a result, the program is more nationally recognizable than it has been in years.

However, it’s important to remember the work these student athletes do off the field as well.

At times, we can forget the effect these players have in the community as well as in between the hash marks of Autzen Stadium.

The Register-Guard’s Rob Moseley looks at Dustin Haines, one of the Ducks backup signal callers, and the positive work he does in the community.

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It’s no secret that this year’s draft class is not deep in the quarterback department — Compared to years previous when quarterbacks like Cam Newton, Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III were consensus first rounders, there is no standout QB this year.

For this reason, Alex Smith, the former starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, is a hot commodity.

He was drafted No. 1 overall out of Utah in 2005 and held down the starting position in San Francisco until earlier this year, when Colin Kaepernick and his athletic mobility took over after Smith was forced to sit a game with a concussion.

Smith has made it known he wants out of the Bay Area, and it is reported that Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs may come knocking on his door.

Another season begins — As the basketball season enters its final stages and fans everywhere begin to check out mock tournament brackets, another Oregon varsity sport is getting underway: Oregon head coach George Horton and baseball team will head west to Hawaii this weekend to start their 2013 campaign with a four game series against the University of Hawaii.

Just a game away from the College World Series last year, the expectations for the Ducks run high this season.

Horton and several members of the team discuss closer Jimmy Sherfy and the potential for the squad on the diamond this year.

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An early look at 2013 — We all know that college football, even in the off-season, never sleeps. Recruiting and conference news are always subjects of conversation for those who like to keep tabs on their team 12 months a year.

Oregon football is no exception, and there is possibly even more intrigue for the 2013 season since Chip Kelly has left for Philadelphia, and Mark Helfrich now has hold of the reigns to the Oregon offense.

The Register-Guard’s Rob Moseley takes a (very) early look at the projected two-deep for the 2013 campaign.

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University of Kentucky postseason hopes suffer huge blow — Nerlens Noel, considered by many to be the number one prospect in the 2013 college basketball class, tore the ACL in his left knee last night in a game against Florida.

Noel, the star forward for the Wildcats, came down awkwardly and immediately grabbed his knee after blocking a layup from behind.

The injury puts a dark cloud over any postseason run for Kentucky, which through this point of the season have not performed to early expectations.