Oregon St. vs. Washington Pac-12 Tournament Game Thread

Oregon St. (18-13, 7-11) vs. Washington (21-9, 14-4) at The Staples Center in Los Angeles at NOON PST / Fox Sports Net & ROOT Sports Northwest / KEJO 1240 AM / KPAM 860 AM (Streamed)

Oregon St. faces a rival from the state to their north at noon for the second day in a row. This time its Pac-12 regular season champion Washington.

The Beavers opened the Pac-12 Tournament yesterday with the only upset of a higher seeded team, beating Washington St. 69-64. Oregon St. erupted with an early 13-0 run, sparked by 3 of Ahmad Starks' 4 three pointers in the first quarter of the game, racing out to a 24-8 lead. The Cougars responded with a 15-2 run of their own, and took a 39-38 lead to the locker room.

The Beavers' defense tightened down the screws in the second half, allowing Washington St. only 1 basket from the floor in the last 10 minutes of the game. Oregon St. also survived getting only 4 points from Jared Cunningham, but compensated with a game high 19 points from Devon Collier, another 15 from Joe Burton, and a game high 12 rebounds by Eric Moreland, who moved past Lonnie Shelton to become the Beavers' all-time leading rebounder as a freshman. It was enough to overcome an 18 point effort by the Cougars' Brock Motum.

The Huskies will be looking to bounce back from a 75-69 loss at UCLA last Saturday. It meant Washington had to wait out Sunday until Stanford upset California before the Huskies were able to claim the regular season championship, and the tournament's top seed.

C.J. Wilcox came off the Washington bench for 22 points, but it wasn't enough to overcome the Bruins, who held the Huskies to only one basket in the final 4:44 of the game.

The Huskies swept the regular season series from the Beavers, winning 95-80 in Seattle back in December, and then edging out a 75-72 win last month in the rematch at Gill.

Washington got a 26 point, 9 rebound performance from Tony Wroten to win the conference campaign opener, and prevailed in the rematch, and overcame a game high 23 points by Cunningham to win in Gill, as Terrance Ross posted a 21 point, 13 rebound double double.

Here's the place to analyze opening day at the tournament, and follow the Beavers through another extended lunch contest.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com