Final Score: Oregon St. 89 Texas Pan-American 69
Oregon St. showed little rust off an 8 day layoff, and finals week, leading wire to wire for a 20 point win over Texas Pan-American. The Beavers jumped out to a 16 point lead over the Broncos 6 minutes into the game, on a series of Lathan Wallace free throws.
Oregon St. lead by 11 at halftime, 43-32, and pulled away to lead by as much as 30 points in the second half, before coasting to the 20 point win.
Omari Johnson led Oregon St. with 18 points, and Wallace came off the bench to add 15 more. Guards Jared Cunningham and Ahmad Starks both joined Johnson in hitting a pair of three pointers, and adding 10 points each to the Beavers' total.
Perry Petty put down 5 of his 10 three point shots, and 7 of 10 from the line, and led Texas Pan-American, who came into the game having lost by 22 points, 74-52, Friday night in Spokane against Washington St., with 32 points. But the only other Bronco with more than 6 points was Reuben Cabrera, who came off the bench for 10 points.
After the completion of fall term finals Friday, Roberto Nelson was finally able to make his much anticipated first appearance on a basketball court in an actual game in nearly two years. Nelson had 4 points on two free throws and a breakaway basket, in 15 minutes of action.Oregon St. improved their record to 4-4, heading to Missoula, Montana, Wednesday, to face the 5-4 Grizzlies. Montana, from the Big Sky Conference, dropped a 50-48 overtime decision today to San Francisco.
Texas Pan-American from the Great West Conference dropped to 3-9 on the season, and will conclude what has been a rough four game western road trip that has seen the Broncos lose all three games so far, with a visit to some more Broncos next Sunday, to face Boise St.
Breaking a two game losing streak put Coach Craig Robinson, and Johnson and Cunningham in talkative moods. Here are the quotes.
Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com