I'm a little behind... bear with me as I get caught up.
In a well-fought battle at Gill Coloseium, the Beavers were a few favorable bounces away from knocking off Arizona in front of 6,537 at Gill Coliseum, but fell three points short. The Wildcats prevailed 56-53.
The Beavers held an eight point lead with four minutes remaining in the first half, but Arizona senior Chase Budinger scored the final six points of the half to cut the Wildcat's defecit to two points at halftime.
A Chase Budinger layup at the beginning of the second half tied the game, and Arizona preceded to make several more baskets in succession to build a moderate lead. They extended their lead to 7 points with 15:26 remaining in the half, and later built a 13 point lead with 11:37 remaining after a Chase Budinger fastbreak dunk.
From there, the Beavers outscored the Wildcats 21-11 over the next ten minutes, tying the game at 53 with 1:44 remaining.
The Beavers then had three looks to score, but failed to convert on all of them. Trailing by three points, Roeland Schaftenaar had a look from behind the arc with nine seconds remaining, but couldn't hit. He then got another look as the clock expired, and the ball went in-- then came out.
"You can pick two, three, or four places where it could have gone our way, or could have gone their other way," Craig Robinson said after the game. "Our team did everything right tonight, except win the game."
Calvin Haynes led the Beavers with 12 points on 4-of-15 shooting (26.6%), his lowest percentage in a game since he was 1-of-7 against Arizona State on January 8. However, he scored in double digits for the 13th time in the 15 games he's played in so far this season.
Roeland Schaftenaar added 10 points, five assists, and two steals for the Beavers. Rickey Claitt scored eight, and three players (Johnson, S. Tarver, Wallace) scored six points in the game.
Arizona was led by senior Chase Budinger, who scored 17 on the game. Guard Nic Wise added 14, and Jordan Hill scored 13. That trio played all forty minutes of the game.
The loss ends a three game Pac-10 winning streak for the Beavers, their first since the 2004-2005 season when Oregon State beat Oregon, Washington, and Washington State.
The Beavers will look to start a new winning streak on Saturday, when they play host to Arizona State.
--Jake (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)