Portland, OR – The Dam City Classic continued with the Oregon State Beavers facing the Long Beach State 49ers in the nightcap before a crowd of 6,521. Long Beach State has played one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the nation with losses to Wichita State, North Carolina, Louisville, UCLA, Washington, Kansas, New Mexico State and Texas.
Long Beach State (3-10) parlayed a 46-point second half to a 71-67 win over the Beavers (3-8). Oregon State had a chance to tie the game with seven seconds left when Stephen Thompson Jr. was fouled and made his first foul shot to cut the deficit to 69-67. He then missed his second shot, grabbed he offensive rebound bur missed a 5-foot jumper. Roschon Prince then added two free throws to put the game away for the 49ers. Loyola Marymount transfer, 6-1 Evan Payne led the way for the winners with 19 points. Thompson Jr. and Drew Eubanks led with Beavers with 17 points each.
It’s been a trying season thus far for Oregon State. Thompson Jr. missed six early games with a foot stress reaction. Then leading scorer and rebounder Tres Tinkle (20.2 ppg, 8.3 rpg) went down with a broken wrist. This was the fifth straight game he’s missed. This Beaver team doesn’t have the depth to miss any one of their talented sophomores (Tinkle, Thompson Jr. and Eubanks). To top things off 7-0 senior Cheikh N’diaye missed his second straight game with an injury. Some of their players getting game time are clearly not Pac-12 level players. When they get Tinkle back in a few weeks they’ll definitely improve but they don’t seem to have to depth necessary to compete well in the Pac-12. No Pac-12 team should lose to the likes of Lamar and a Savannah State team that was coming off a 68-point loss to Oregon, regardless of who is hurt. Gary Payton Jr, did so much for this team last year and he’s clearly been missed more than was anticipated.
Long Beach State is a team that is better than their record. After they complete their brutal non-conference schedule they’ll be able to win some games in the Big West and likely be around the middle of the pack. Payne (13.5 ppg) and fellow LMU transfer, 6-7 Gabe Levin (12.2 ppg, 6.6 rpg) are both solid players but they’ll need more help to have more success. They received some of that tonight as 6-6 junior Roshon Prince contributed 12 points and 12 rebounds.
The Dam City Classic continues on Sunday afternoon at the Moda Center as Oregon State faces Portland. The Oregon Ducks take over the arena tonight as the Duck women battle Portland State at 5pm and the men face UNLV at 8pm.
This article was written by Carl Berman, Managing Partner of NetScouts Basketball. You can subscribe to our RSS feed from the upper right corner of our home page, follow us on Facebook, or on twitter.
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