Cunningham, Collier Come Up Huge Against Hofstra

Final Score : Oregon St. 82 Hofstra 72

Jared Cunningham and Devon Collier both came up with career high scoring nights, and Joe Burton had a career high assist effort, as Oregon St. pulled away from Hofstra for a ten point win Wednesday night in the second round of the Ticket City Classic.

Cunningham poured in a game high 35 points, and Collier contributed 25 to the win, while Burton had an unusual double double, with 10 rebounds and 11 assists. Cunningham's total was the most scored by any Beaver in 5 years, and Burton's assist total was the first one in double digits since Lamar Hurd had 10 in 2004.

The Beavers overcame an early pair of 3 pointers by the Pride with a 19-4 run, but still found themselves trailing 41-39 at halftime.

Oregon St. took the lead for good on Angus Brandt's jumper in the first minute of the second half, going up 44-43, but the lead was never more than 6 points in the physical battle until Cunningham sank a pair of free throws with 3:45 left to put the Beavers up 72-64. Oregon St. hadn't shot well most of the night, but made their last 6 free throws to put the game out of reach.

Devon Collier jams home 2 of the 25 points he posted in the Beavers' win over Hofstra.

The Beavers were only 52% from the field, including a miserable 2 of 13 (17 %) on 3 pointers, and the last 6 made free throws improved things to 64% (16 of 25). Shooting will need to improve as Oregon St. (3-0) heads to East Rutherford, New Jersey, to take on Texas (2-0) Saturday evening in the third round of the Ticket City Classic.

Oregon St. overcame a balanced Hofstra effort that put 4 players in double figures scoring, led by Mike Moore's 16 points, and the Pride's attempts at disrupting the Beavers with physical play. The bruising contest resulted in 3 technical fouls, and 51 total fouls.

"This was by far the gutsiest win I've seen since I've been here," Oregon St. coach Craig Robinson said. "To take a bunch of really good basketball players from New York City, who tried to come in here and steal one from you, take a punch in the mouth, be able to deliver one back, and come out with a win, was just tremendous. They tried to gangster the game, but Devon, being from the Bronx, knows some of those guys. And Jared is from Oakland; he's been in a few dust-ups before. They were ready for something like this."

Had Oregon St. shot well, they should have won easily, and they still out-shot Hofstra from the line and overall from the field.

The Beavers out-muscled the Pride inside, with 48 points in the paint vs. 28, and a narrow rebounding edge. Oregon St. also ran well, and had an 8-0 edge in fast break points.

A halftime performance by the full Oregon St. University Marching Band, 250 strong, which filled the court end to end and side to side seemed to light a fire under the team, not to mention the turnout of 3,870.

Freshman Eric Moreland had the best off-the-bench performance of the night for Oregon St., with 4 points and 4 rebounds in 15 minutes.

(Photos by Andy Wooldridge)

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com