Oregon St. Pulls Away From Corban

Oregon St. pulled away from Corban University, an NAIA school from Salem, OR and the Cascade Collegiate Conferrence, for a 69-42 win in the season opener for both teams Tuesday night at Gill Coliseum. The game was an exhibition, the first of two for the Beavers, which won't count in either team's "official" record.

Corban got off to a good start, as the Warriors took a 14-11 lead with 9:49 left in the first half on a mid-range jumper by Toby Roth. But the Beavers answered with a layup by Angus Brandt, followed by a Jarmal Reid dunk, and Oregon St. never trailed again.

The Beavers opened a 31-23 halftime lead, and then turned up the defensive pressure to start the second half. The result was a 12-0 run that effectively ended the game.

With every position a physical mismatch in favor of Oregon St., the Beavers, who mixed some matchup 2-3 zone with a lot of man defense held the Warriors without a second half field goal until 12 minutes into the second half, a 3 pointer by Tyler Edwards.

Roberto Nelson answered with his only 3 pointer of the night, putting the Beavers ahead 58-27, and it was time for head Coach Craig Robinson to get everyone but Benny into the game from there on, as a minuscule crowd began to file out early.

Nelson led Oregon St., with a co-game high 15 points in 27 minutes, though on only 4 of 10 shooting, including just the 1 3 pointer, on 3 attempts.

Jordan Carter led Corban, also with 15 points, on 4 of 11 shooting.

The Warriors connected on 7 of 32 3 pointers, as Corban coach Steve Matsen, father of Oregon St. alum Adam Matsen, elected a fire at will attack against the taller Division I opponent.

The Beavers' interior defense was decent, but a better outside shooting team, and there are better ones than the Warriors, would have made considerable hay from beyond the 3 point arc; a number of Corban's misses were nevertheless open shots that Oregon St. did not get out and contest well.

Victor Robbins was the only other player in double digits, with 11 points in 24 minutes, on 5 of 7 shooting, and easily had the best game of the night of anyone in the building.

Angus Brandt had 8 points in 13 minutes, and looked much more confident than in the open practice earlier in the month. Robinson had no reason not to be conservative with the returning senior captain recovering from a season ending ACL tear early last season, but appeared able to go much longer had there been a need.

Challe Barton also had 8 points, in 23 minutes, as well as 5 assists and 4 rebounds.

Reid led everyone on the boards with 9 rebounds. Olaf Schaftenaar came off the bench to grab 8, and Josiah Sebens led Corban, also with 8 boards.

By virtue of the physical mismatches, it was hard to fully evaluate the Beavers, who appeared to start slowly, as might be expected for an October game, but found some rhythm of ball movement as the game wore on.

Of concern, Oregon St. shot only 18% on 3 point shots, knocking down only 2 of 11.

A Few Words About Tonight's Production

Tonight's game was streamed, and the standard definition stream wasn't too bad, video wise, though it seemed to suffer more glitches as the night wore on.

But the Pac-12.com presentation that was produced by Oregon St. was an embarrassing effort to put it mildly. The amateurish production didn't put a score and clock on the screen, making it necessary to run a second window to follow the live stats, defeating the purpose of full screen video unless you had a dual screen setup. Especially given that whomever Oregon St. put in charge of announcing was totally incompetent.

Mike Parker has nothing to worry about as far as being upstaged by a new young star; tonight's announcer never once gave the score, or the time on the clock, even when a time out occurred. Between long stretches of dead air, and commentary not connected to the highlights, Oregon St. would be better served by employing someone from the student station KBVR.

Oregon St. Continues Preseason Next Week

The Beavers continue their pre-season with another exhibition against Concordia University of Portland, OR, another Cascade Collegiate Conference NAIA squad, next Tuesday, in another 7 PM contest that like tonight, won't have radio or tv coverage.

Here's the post-game highlight package: