Long story short-- Family in town, busy weekend, very little time to post. Here's my effort to get caught up.
The Men's Basketball team took down Washington on Thursday, giving them three conference wins so far on the season. Rebounding was an issue all game for the Beavers (Washington out- rebounded the Beavers 39-17), but they managed to sneak by the Huskies with the help of free throws down the stretch and four players in double digits. Each team had four blocks, but the Beavers were able to force 14 steals. The Huskies only stole the ball four times.
Shooting was decent. A quick glance at the numbers from this game will tell you that Oregon State got to the line a lot more than Washington did. The Beavers shot 42 free throws(!), and converted on 27. The Beavs and Huskies each only hit four threes a piece. OSU did a good job of containing UW's long range bomber, Ryan Appelby, to only 2-9 from behind the arc. He only scored 8 points on the game. The Beavers did a good job containing Ryan in the first time the two teams played as well. He only had five points that game, with one three.
For the Huskies, Jon Brockman had a solid double double with 14 rebounds and 14 points. Spencer Hawes scored a game-high 22 points, and Pondexter added 13.
For the Beavers, Josh Tarver lead the team in points, assists, and steals, which is good to see out of the young point guard. He had 16 points, 7 assists, and 4 steals. Marcel Jones had 15, Wesley Washington had 14, and McGillis (a guy who was supposed to go to Washington) added 11.
In other notes, Jay John used a relatively short bench for this game. Only 8 players saw the hardwood, and the starters played the majority of the game with the exception of Sasa Cuic. We usually don't see this from Jay.
On Saturday, the Beavers didn't have such luck. OSU saw a lead that was as large as 5 slip away late in the second half, much thanks to Washington State's Aron Baynes. He had 14 points, the majority of those coming in late in the second half.
This was a relatively calm game compared to other wild game's we've had in the past. Both teams had under 10 turnovers, and were fairly even in rebounds, assists, and fouls.
Aron Baynes lead WSU down the stretch. (AP Photo/Don Ryan)
The Beavers drop to 11-19 (3-4 Pac-10) with the loss. The Beavers would need a win in the Civil War this Saturday to prevent a 20 loss season for the first time since 2001.
That game tips off at 3 p.m. in Eugene.
Go Beavers!
--JB--