Final Score: Oregon St. 89 Real Canoe 73
Oregon St. men's basketball team completed their swing through Spain today with an 89-63 win over Real Canoe in Madrid, Spain. (It was a revelation that there is a problem with counterfeit canoes in Madrid, but its good to know the one the Beavers sank was a genuine one.)
The win gave the Beavers a sweep of the 4 game trip, with all wins by 16-18 points.
Angus Brandt again led Oregon St., with 18 points, though after averaging a double double in the first 3 games, he only got 4 boards today. Eric Moreland picked up the rebounding slack, grabbing 11, and Langston Morris-Walker came off the bench with a 10 point, 10 rebound double double. Moreland also had 5 blocked shots. Roberto Nelson was also in double figures, with 10, but a balanced Beaver effort saw Devon Collier, Joe Burton, and Victor Robbins all with 9 points, and Ahmad Starks added 8.
Brandt and Starks combined for 13 early points as Oregon St. jumped out to a 21-8 lead before Real Canoe cut the deficit down to 23-14 by the end of the first quarter.
Real Canoe cut the deficit to just 4 points, trailing 35-31 as Brandt got into foul trouble, before the Beavers bounced back with an 8-3 run to take a 43-34 lead at halftime.
Real Canoe got as close as within 7 points, but Brandt and Nelson combined for 13 of the points in a 15-3 run, and Oregon St. held a 68-57 lead after 3 quarters. A 12-2 run to start the final period opened the biggest lead of the game, 80-59, and the Beavers coasted home from there.
"I couldn't be happier with the way we handled it," Oregon St. coach Craig Robinson said. "We didn't get into anything with those guys. I thought there was a point there in the fourth quarter where they didn't score. We just decided to start playing D and just shut them down. I didn't think it was chippy in the respect that it got out of hand, they were just playing hard for their own self respect."
As far as the objective of figuring out how to replace Jared Cunningham, Robinson feels better about the progress of the offense than the defense.
"I think everyone, as I have said all summer, understands that we all have to pick it up because we don't have Jared," Robinson said. "We have to be much better on defense than what we were on this trip. I think we are getting there. I think we are conscientious and this team likes each other and want to work for each other. It looks like we don't have as much to worry about with our offense as we thought we'd have. We had some guys step it up. Angus is scoring points, Ahmad is scoring more, Roberto is scoring more and Devon is scoring more."
Brandt led the team in scoring and rebounding, averaging 15.8 points and 8.8 rebounds per game, and Nelson averaged 15 points per game.
As important as anything was the trip coming off without mishap.
"All in all, I'm very happy with the trip," Robinson concluded. "I'm happy with the games. I'm completely ecstatic that nobody is injured, and these guys will now get a well deserved break, and then we'll be back at it in the fall."
Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com