Corvallis, OR – Oregon State outscored Oregon by 16 points in the second half to run away from the Ducks 72-57 before a sold-out Gill Coliseum. The win moved the Beavers into sole possession of second place in the Pac-12 conference with a record of 8-4. They are in good position of getting a first-day bye in the conference tournament. With the loss the Ducks fall to 6-6 in the conference with four of their last six games on the road. Oregon State’s Stephen Thompson Jr. was the game’s high scorer with 22 points, connecting on 4-of-8 three-pointers. Louis King had his best shooting effort of the season, leading Oregon with 20 points and hitting 5-of-7 from deep.
This Oregon team continually seems to get into an offensive funk. Tonight they looked good early and had a 28-22 lead with 3:45 left in the first half. Then they went on a scoring drought of over seven minutes and a field goal drought of over nine minutes. The Beavers scored 15 straight points and took a 37-28 lead on a Tres Tinkle hoop early in the second half. Oregon fought back and, behind King and Paul White, scored 12 straight points to take a 42-40 lead. Thompson Jr. followed with a three-pointer and Oregon State never relinquished the lead for the rest of the contest. The Beavers then scored on six straight passions to take a 15-point lead and put the game away. Oregon, meanwhile, went back into their offensive funk making only one field goal over a five-minute span late in the game.
The Ducks were very loose with the ball making several unforced turnovers on bad passes. They ended the game with 18 turnovers against Oregon State’s eight, certainly not an indication for success. Oregon’s King and White (12 points) were generally their only two willing shooters. For some reason, Payton Pritchard, coming off two solid games, went back into his non-aggressive mode. He didn’t score in his first 33 minutes of action, only taking three shots and passed up possible shots off penetration to pitch out to outside shooters. Oregon needs Pritchard to be aggressive for them to be successful. He was far from that tonight. Oregon also couldn’t get Kenny Wooten Jr., into the offense. Wooten logged 28 minutes and only had two shot attempts and two rebounds. Combined, Pritchard and Wooten played 66 minutes and attempted six shots. That’s not going to get it done.
This seems to be a quiet Oregon team. They don’t seem to talk much on defense and were burned several times on backdoor plays that a more vocal team may have adjusted to. They also seemed to miss several defensive assignments, the most obvious when Thompson Jr. got loose for a corner three with Victor Bailey Jr. not reacting.
Oregon State has evolved into a good team with their three leaders once again having solid games while they received contributions from some of their role players. Tinkle was efficient scoring 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting while adding seven assists and six rebounds, Ethan Thompson missed time in the first half with foul trouble but scored 10 points and had four assists against only one turnover. Senior 6-11 center Gligorije Rakocevic came off the bench to add 11 points on perfect 4-of-4 shooting over 21 minutes. Alfred Hollins made several big baskets in the Beavers’ second half run and contributed eight points and five rebounds. Oregon State dominated the paint with a 34-20 scoring advantage inside. This was Oregon State’s first sweep over Oregon since the 2009-2010 season.
Both teams head to Los Angeles to face USC and UCLA this coming week. USC is now 7-6 in the conference while UCLA is 6-7.
This article was written by Carl Berman, Managing Partner of NetScouts Basketball. You can follow us on Facebook, or on twitter.
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