Beavers Take Down Cougars to Clinch First Round Bye in Pac 12 Tournament

It’s been a tough couple weeks for the Beavers, but they finally snapped out of their losing funk with a much needed victory over the Washington State Cougars in their final game of the regular season. The 85-77 win clinches a first round bye for the Beavers in the Pac-12 Tournament.

It looked like the Beavers were in trouble early, with Robert Franks dominating the opening minutes of the game. Franks had 17 points in the first 10 minutes, helping the Cougars build a 12 point lead.

Then, Tres Tinkle finally found his game. Tinkle hit 4 three pointers in the back of the half to get the Beavers back in the game. Ethan Thompson helped out with an absolutely disgusting dunk.

Franks was still dangerous, but the OSU defense finally found a way to limit his offense. By the end of the first, the Beavers had got the Wazzu lead down to 5, 43-38.

Oregon State started to take control in the second half, with Kylor Kelley finally finding his way into the game with some big dunks. Tinkle also found some room under the rim, while Stephen Thompson Jr. contributed with jumpers and threes, one of which put the Beavers in front.

OSU kept working, with Zach Reichle and Stevie Thompson hitting threes, while Tinkle and Kelley kept driving to the rim. The Beavers got the lead as high as 16 before the Cougars began to fight back, but time ran out for WSU. They cut the lead down to 6 briefly, but Oregon State had too many weapons to deal with, and pulled out the win, 85-77..

Tres Tinkle grabbed another double double, with 26 points and 12 rebounds, along with 3 assists. Stephen Thompson Jr. also scored 26 points, and in doing so passed Roberto Nelson to become OSU’s all time fourth leading scorer. Stevie also had 2 rebounds and an assist.

Ethan Thompson also had a great day, with 17 points, 11 assists and 5 rebounds. Kylor Kelley also broke into double digits, with 10 points and 3 rebounds.

The Beavers are guaranteed at least the 4 seed in the Pac-12 Tournament, but depending on the results of today’s games could grab the 3 seed. Root for UCLA to beat Utah, and check back with Building the Dam later when the bracket is set for more Beaver basketball news.