Whatever season-opening slump Stephen Thompson Jr. was in has been broken wide open. The junior guard hit his first two three-point attempts of the game and he kept the hot hand for the rest of Oregon State's 74-62 victory over Eastern Kentucky.
As always, here are the numbers that you need to know:
26 - Points scored by Stephen Thompson Jr., and thank goodness he was feeling it because Drew Eubanks was a non-factor for most of the game. Thompson's 26 points led all scorers, and he managed them on 10-16 shooting. Here's hoping that this game is a sign of things to come from the elder Thompson brother and not merely an anomaly.
10/5/2 - Points, rebounds, and assists for Drew Eubanks. Coming into this game, the key matchup was Oregon State's 6-foot-10 center against Eastern Kentucky's 6-foot-9 forward, Nick Mayo. Eubanks found himself in foul trouble, getting hit for his third at the 19:31 mark of the second half. As a result, Eubanks managed only 10 points, five rebounds, and two assists while Mayo tallied 15 points, nine rebounds, and four assists. The Beavers were able to get away with it this time, but they can't afford to have Eubanks sitting for most of the second half of games.
2 - Games this season (out of eight) in which Oregon State trailed at halftime. The first time was against Wyoming, a game that the Beavers were down by four at the half of a 75-66 loss. The second time, tonight's game against Eastern Kentucky, the Beavers trailed by four once again but managed to rally in the second half to win the game by a score of 74-62.
17 - Second-half points scored by Tres Tinkle. In the first half it appeared that Tinkle was content to let the game come to him as he worked on distributing the ball and letting Stephen Thompson Jr. continue to test his hot hand. Once the second half started though, Tinkle really began to play more aggressive across the board. It wasn't just his 18 second-half points that were big, it was his all-around GPII impersonation as he racked up game totals of 21 points, eight rebounds, and five assists, and three steals.
5 - Total wins for Oregon State so far this season, after playing just eight total games. I'm sure that you don't need to be reminded that last season the Beavers played 32 games and won just five all season.
Oregon State (5-3) next hosts Arkansas Pine-Bluff (0-9) on December 9th.