Oregon State's post-season run ended just a little over two weeks ago, but I never got the chance to recap the entire tournament in one place. Here's that place.
Round One: Oregon State 49, Houston 45.
Clinching their first non-Pac-10 post-season tournament victory since the 1986-87 NIT, the Beavers surprised the streaky Cougars to advance into the CBI Quarterfinals. Omari Johnson stepped up in a big way for the Beavers during the game, hitting clutch shots down the stretch. He had all 11 of his points in the second half. Daniel Deane also had a big night, as the ball turned to gold nearly every time he got his hands around it. He scored 14 points in the game, on 7-of-7 shooting.
Houston averaged around 80 points per game before playing the Beavers, with Aubrey Coleman accounting for just under twenty points per game.
The Beavers held him to just under ten-- Coleman scored 9 points on 3-of-12 shooting.
"The thing I am most proud of with these guys is their defense," Coach Robinson said. "This is a team that averages 80 points a game, and we got them down to 45."
And, the quote of the game, which I dug up from Buker's game story:
"Hopefully, this will make us feel better about how we finish the season,'' said Johnson. "We think we can win this tournament.''
Round Two: Oregon State 71, Vermont 70 (Overtime)
After scoring just six points in the CBI Opening Round Game against Houston, Calvin Haynes woke up from a nasty slump to drop 19 points on the Vermont Catamounts in Round Two. Not only did he lead the team in scoring, but he sunk the game-winning basket with 6.1 seconds remaining in overtime. The shot was a floater from the left side of the lane. Basically, if Haynes sinks the shot, OSU wins, if not, the tournament ride is over.
"Basically, if we get a stop, we win the game, and we didn't get a stop,'' said disappointed Vermont coach Mike Lonergan.
The Beavers stumbled out of the gate in overtime, committing four turnovers and missing two lay-ups in the opening minutes. Luckily, the Catamounts struggled as well, as the Beavers actually held a lead for all but 39 seconds in the period.
Quote of the game...
"The whole time, I'm thinking the ride's over. Maybe this is really it,'' said Robinson of the struggles the Beavers went through in overtime..
Semifinals: Oregon State 65, Stanford 62 (Overtime)
Not often do you get the opportunity to play a team four times in a season, but the Beavers were itching to avenge a Pac-10 tournament loss when the two teams met in the CBI Semifinals at Gill Coliseum.
The Beavers swept the regular season series before dropping a Pac-10 tournament play-in game. The Cardinal what seemed to be the last laugh, until the Beavers took advantage of the CBI matchup.
Both teams got off to a hot shooting start, as seemingly everything fell in the first ten minutes. At the nine minute mark in the first half, the score was 21-20 in favor of Stanford. The Beavers would take a 28-26 lead into haltime.
The Cardinal sent the game to overtime when Lawrence Hill hit a fallback jumper from 15 feet out as time expired in regulation. He was able to collect a rebound that went right over the hands of Roeland Schaftenaar after Anthony Goods missed a three pointer that would have potentially won the game for Stanford.
The Beavers looked like they would win the game in regulation, then had their hopes squashed on the aforementioned shot. OSU then quickly fell behind in overtime, but gutted it out.
Quote of the game, by Craig Robinson. "We're in the championship."
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Championship, Game One: Oregon State 75, UTEP 69.
In a game that shouldn't have been as close as the final score indicated, the Beavers started the CBI Championship Series with a bang as they defeated UTEP.
The Beavers led by as many as 21 in the second half, but UTEP used their speed and athleticism to chip away at the Beaver lead. They went on a 24-9 run over the next several minutes of play, and eventually whittled the lead all the way down to just three points with 1:14 to play in the game.
The Beavers had one of their best shooting games of the season at 60.5 percent, including 68.4 percent in the second half.
The point distribution was the best I'd seen in the season to date, as Roeland Schaftenaar led the Beavers with 19 points, Lathen Wallace was just behind him with five three's and 18 points.... Seth Tarver sccored 17, and Rickey Claitt scored 13.
Quote of the game, from UTEP head coach Tony Barbee: "They have been at home the past three weeks and we have been on the road the past three weeks it seems like. It will be interesting at our house with our crowd."
Champinoship, Game Two: UTEP 70, Oregon State 63.
It didn't take long for UTEP fans to develop a hatred towards Roeland Schaftenaar when the Beavers rolled into town to try and wrap up a CBI title.
The Miners used the home court to their advantage in the game, just as the Beavers did in Game 1.
The Beavers were close to being in position to win or at least tie the game late, but they failed to get big rebounds when they were needed most. The Beavers and Miners' rebounding numbers were nearly identical, but UTEP seemed to get the timely rebounds down the stretch.
"Rebounding: that's the first thing that jumps out at you about this game," Coach Robinson said. "We just came up a little bit short."
After shooting lights out in Game 1, the Beavers seemed to force things against in Game 2, often taking shots that were out of the offense.
Champinship, Game Three: Oregon State 81, UTEP 73
Playing in front of a sellout UTEP crowd with the CBI Championship on the line, Rickey Claitt turned in hist best performance of the post-season, if not the entire season, when he scored 28 points on 8-of-9 shooting, and 5-of-6 from three point range.
Calvin Haynes, who led the Beavers for seemingly entire stretches of the regular season and dropped in the winning shot against Vermont, was a non-factor in the game, but it didn't matter, as he just sat back and watched Rickey take charge.
"This is extremely special," Rickey said after the game. "I told coach that if we made it to a post-season tournament I'd do everything in my will to win it for him, and myself because it's my last year. And for Corvallis, because the community deserves this and a winning team, and to have a championship, so I just didn't want UTEP to take it."
Lathen Wallace scored 14 points, and Schaftenaar scored 12... Roeland played in all 40 minutes of the game, and was verbally harassed the entire time.
"I got booed for about two hours straight today, but we had fun," said an elated Schaftenaar.
The Beavers shot 57 percent from the field in the game, and 63 percent from behind the arc. The Beavers also made 17-of-26 free throws, a number of which helped the Beavers finish off the Miners near the end of the game.
The win marked the first tournament victory of any kind for the Beavers, who finished the season 18-18 after going 2-1 in the Championship Series.
--Jake (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)