Beavs Build Big Lead, Decide They Don’t Like It, Win By 5 Instead

I turned on a Bill Walton Ted Talk and a college basketball game broke out. Said basektball game was the 351st edition of the civil war.

About halfway through the second half the question posed in our slack chat was “Anyone wanna get the recap of this game?”. I, a very casual at best basketball fan, decided it would be fun to write about this game cause at that point we were up by 17 and things were looking quite good for us and I figured it would be an easy write up.

Turns out, I was wrong.

In front of a bunch of people who think green and yellow are a good color combination, the Beavs shot out to an early lead behind Tres Tinkle and Bill Walton’s favorite player of all time, Kylor Kelley. Our beloved Beavs took a 13 point lead into half time and the greater Eugene area was sad. The second half saw the Beavs bump up their lead to 18 and it felt like we we’re going to cruise to our first victory in Eugene in 7 year (2012 was 7 years ago apparently), Well that didn’t happen. Things when sideways, emotions ran high, and the Ducks came back and made it one hell of a game in the final 10 minutes or so.

Turnovers were a big issue for the Beavs as the Ducks went full court press and OSU could not figure out how to break it, even with Bill Walton yelling “Throw the ball down the court” repeatedly. The lead was down to 66-65 with 3:49 left in the game before a pair of Louis King free throws gave the ducks their first lead since mid way point of the first half. From that point on it was a back and forth affair that saw the rivals trade one point leads. The last minute saw the Beavs go to the free throw line on three occasions. The pride of Wilsonville Zach Reichle gave nailed a pair with 45 seconds left to give the Beavs a 73-72 lead. A Tres Tinkle rebound set up my fellow Canadian Antoine Vernon’s opportunity to drill two more free throws with 20 seconds left to extend the lead to three. A missed three by Louis King, a rebound by Stephen Thompson Jr and a foul gave the senior guard the chance to ice the game from the line, going 2 for 2 and bringing the score to it’s final resting place of 77-72.

On the night Tres Tinkle lead the Beavs with 28 points (12 from 3 point land) and 8 rebounds, even after an ankle tweak that was fixed up by Beav athletic trainer Toby(sorry Toby, Bill Walton didn’t mention your last name).

What was the difference or this game versus civil wars in Eugene of the past few years?

You’re welcome