Game 15 Recap: Beavers Bounce Back, Down Ducks 64-57

Final Score: Oregon State 64, Oregon 57

Oregon St. tightened up the Pac-10 race, defeating the conference leading Oregon Ducks 64-57 in a nationally televised game on the Fox Sports Network Sunday night.

The Beavers bounced back from a 51 point loss Wednesday to Seattle University that tied for worst in school history with a defensive gem that earned them their first Pac-10 win of the season. In the 332^nd. edition of the Civil War, and the last one ever in Mac Court, the Beavers jumped out to an 8-0 lead and never really looked back. Not that the Ducks didn't make a game of it, as they answered the OSU opening volley with their own 7-0 run, and down the stretch pulled within one basket several times.

But with the game on the line, Josh Tarver blocked a shot, and Seth Tarver grabbed the rebound, drew a foul, and hit both his free throws to seal the deal for the Beavers with 15 seconds left.

Roeland Schaftenaar got off to a good start, making a couple of key plays on both ends of the floor, and that, as has often been the case, was as key as anything for Oregon St. When Schaftenaar makes even a couple of plays, the Beavers tend to play with confidence and under control, instead of a hint of hesitation, which in turn is all the difference on close plays. The Beavers never showed uncertainty, even when a play went wrong, in the Pit, notorious for being disruptive to even the best of opponents.

S. Tarver had three of his four steals in the early going, and the Beavers maintained control throughout the first half with a 16-6 edge in points off turnovers, which translated into a 31-24 halftime lead the Ducks never overcame.

S. Tarver's dunk built the Beavers' largest lead, 25-14, with just under five minutes left in the first half.

On a night when Oregon retired Terrell Brandon's number, the Duck crowd was rather subdued, at least by their historical standards most of the night. Of course, getting wire-to-wired in your own building will tend to do that.

Daniel Deane had a large hand in holding off the Ducks in the second half as well. In one of the more curious moves of the game, Oregon assigned E.J. Singler to Deane during the second half for an extended stretch. A serious physical mismatch, the move resulted in fouls for Oregon as Singler struggled against the much stronger Deane, and contributed to putting the Beavers in the double bonus for the critical stretch drive.

Deane's putback with 4:37 left gave the Beavers; their largest lead of the second half, a nine point 58-47 advantage. Deane also grabbed a couple of crucial rebounds down the stretch, had a key blocked shot, and contributed at the free throw line, as did Schaftenaar.

Deane shared the leading scoring honors with S. Tarver, as both had 15 points. More importantly, Deane connected on eight of ten free throws to lead everyone at the line, and also had the game co-lead in rebounds with Oregon's Michael Dunigan, with eight.

Schaftenaar was the third Beaver in double figures, with 11 points.

Tajuan Porter led all scorers, with 20 points for Oregon, but connected on only three of eleven three pointers, and just six of twenty total shots. The Oregon St. defense held Oregon to just 35% shooting, and below 30% in the first half. No one was in double digits besides Porter for the Ducks, though Malcolm Armstead did put up a couple of pretty runners.

Coach Craig Robinson switched more to a matchup zone in the latter stages of the contest, and Oregon struggled to find shots with any consistency as a result.

The win was the first at Mac Court for Oregon St. in 17 years, and was also the first ever home loss against OSU for Oregon coach Ernie Kent. With the Arizona schools coming to the valley this week, Oregon St. improved to 7-8 for the season, and 1-2 in the Pac-10, while Oregon fell to 10-5, and 2-1 in the conference, and into a three way tie with both Stanford and California for the league race lead. The Arizona Wildcats (8-8, 2-2 in the Pac-10), coming off an 87-70 win over the 24^th.  ranked Washington Huskies today in Tucson, takes on the Beavers Thursday at 7 PM at Ralph Miller Court in Gill Coliseum.