Oregon St. Looks To Keep It Rolling At Gill Against USC

USC (9-9, 1-5) at Oregon St. (13-5, 4-2) / Gill Coliseum, Corvallis, OR / 3 PM PST / Pac-12 Channel / KEJO 1240 AM / KEX 1190 AM

Game Notes / Rosters

Oregon St. will wrap up "LA Weekend" this afternoon, hosting USC. The Beavers will acknowledge the 25th anniversary of and celebrate Gary Payton's record 58 point performance, which happened to be at the Trojans expense, in a 98-94 overtime win on Jan. 22, 1990.

The Beavers will also try to extend their 11 game home winning streak that has them still unbeaten in Gill this season as well, their best home start since 1980.

Oregon St. downed UCLA 66-55 Thursday night, again relying on a stifling defense that held the Bruins to barely over 30% shooting for the game, while hitting over 50% themselves. Malcolm Duvivier led the Beavers, with 19 points, and Gary Payton II was right behind, with 18, 15 in the first half.

The Beavers held the Bruins to 19 points in the first half, which is the average first half scoring of Oregon St.'s last 5 opponents.

But the stories of the game were deeper in the stat sheet, as Duvivier was 11 of 12 at the line, including 8 of 8 as a part of Oregon St. making 11 of 12 in the last 2 minutes of the game, rebuilding a double digit lead that the Bruins had cut to 2 points with 2 1/2 minutes to go. For the game, Oregon St. sank 16 of 18 at the line.

The other numbers other than the number of shots UCLA missed were the ones all across the sheet for Payton, who had 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 5 steaks, and a blocked shot.

USC, tied for last place in the Pac-12 with Califofnia, lost their 3rd in a row, and 5th in their last 6, dropping a 75-67 decision to the Ducks Thursday evening. Again, free throws were a big part of the story, as Oregon elevated themselves from what was a generally bad night shooting for everyone (both teams shot in the 30s, percentage wise) by getting to the line 31 times, and making 25 of them.

Part of the Trojans' problem after falling behind early, was their 1 dimensional offense down the stretch, where Julian Jacobs made 4 baskets, and had 9 of his co-team high 16 points in the last quarter of the game, but no one else made a shot from the floor for USC during that stretch.

It's the 130th meeting between the Beavers and Trojans, and USC holds an overall 67-62 edge in the series, but Oregon St. has won the last 5 games at Gill, and 7 of the last 10 meetings, including a sweep last season.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com