Oregon State loses to Colorado on Wayne Tinkle’s Birthday.

Oregon State remains winless in the conference after Colorado runs away down the stretch with an 85-78 win. Drew Eubanks finished the game with a double-double having 27 points and 11 rebounds on 10 of 13 shooting. Stevie Thompson also had 26 points, going 4-7 from beyond the arc.

Tonight’s clash of the titans in Boulder saw a ferocious match-up between two of the Pac-12’s basketball heavyweights, the 0-7 Buffaloes and the 0-7 Beavers. Oregon State chose to stick with the same starting lineup from the last two games, with Drew Eubanks and Big G down low, and Kendal Manuel, Stevie Thompson Jr., and JaQuori McLaughlin in the backcourt.

The Beavers got off to a red-hot shooting start, at one point being 4-4 from three and 90% from the field. With 7 minutes left in the first half, they already had more than half of the total points they average on the season per game. Drew Eubanks led all scorers on the team with 12 points in the first, and the Beavs shot 5 for 10 from three.

Oregon State had 40 points at the half, which is significant because in three games this season (Portland, Oregon, Stanford) they failed to score 50 points in an ENTIRE game. However, the Beavers failed to play really any defense whatsoever in the half. The Buffs bench outscored the Beavs 27-2, which is the narrative of this entire season. CU’s head coach, Tad Boyle, sat his starters for the first five minutes of the game to send a message after their lackluster conference play failed to meet expectations. Unfortunately for the Beavers, it turns out the Buffaloes bench is as good as our current starting rotation and the game remained close until the Colorado starters came in, even with the Beavs shooting 90%. Colorado went into the locker room at the half up by two points.

The Beavs came out in the second half riding the momentum from the first, shooting an obscene percentage given our season’s offensive woes. Colorado’s inexplicable lack of double-teaming Drew Eubanks allowed Oregon State to hang around, keeping the score within one for most of the half.

With just over 3 minutes left in the game, Drew Eubanks and Stevie Thompson Jr. combined to have 49 of Oregon State’s 70 points. Which is great, but the rest of the roster struggled to do much of anything with the ball. The Beavs stayed in it until those final 3 minutes, and then saw their chances slowly slip away. Colorado gets their first conference win and the Beavers will move to 0-8 and stand alone at bottom of the Pac-12.

In addition to losing tonight’s game, Building the Dam also lost a bet to our counterparts at The Ralphie Report. We will now be changing our twitter avatar to a very fitting Disappointed Gary Payton.

The Beavs continue their road trip and will play at Utah on Saturday before hosting No. 7 Arizona at Gill next week.