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Freshman guard Jarod Lucas scored a surprise 21 points off the bench, including 17 in the first twenty minutes of action, as Oregon State slid past an upstart Stanford group on the road on Thursday night, 68-63.
The win snapped a four-game losing skid for the Beavers, which recently has been leading a conversation about the confounding overall direction of the program and swirling rumors about the future status of head coach Wayne Tinkle.
In the victory, Oregon State moved to 13-8 overall with a 3-6 record in Pac-12 play. Stanford now sits at 15-5 with a 4-3 mark in league action.
Lucas was arguably the most efficient Beavers talent in the contest, tallying his career-high on a 5-10 shooting performance from the field and knocking down 8 of his 9 free throw attempts in just 27 minutes of action. One of four Beavers to reach double-figures, Tres Tinkle chipped in another stat-sheet stuffing 15 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals, Ethan Thompson added 14 points (6-9 FG) and 5 rebounds of his own and center Kylor Kelley had a monster night on the defense-side of things, blocking a season-high tying 7 shots and grabbing 6 rebounds, to go along with his own 10 points (4-8 FG).
For the Cardinal, forward Oscar da Silva led the way with 22 points (10-17 FG) and 8 rebounds. Freshman guard Tyrell Terry contributed 13 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists while fellow back-court piece Daejon Davis finished with 12 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists.
Overall, the Beavers put themselves in a much-better spot than they were at the beginning of the week, as a solid start to the campaign became heavily-derailed by the recent four-game losing streak. If they can handle California on this Saturday in Berkeley, the team would set the stage for a remarkable Civil War opportunity against #11 Oregon on the following Saturday (2/8).
Game Notes: The Beavers won despite having just 8 assists on 23 made field-goals and turning the ball over 13 times...Oregon State was out-rebounded once again, this time by a 36-33 margin...Wayne Tinkle’s boys had another rough night from behind the arc as well, knocking down just 4 of their 20 three-point attempts...Tres Tinkle scored in double-digits for his 86th straight game.
Up Next: Oregon State travels to meet with California, who took #11 Oregon to the wire in an enthralling clash on Thursday night. The tip-off is set 1:00 PM PT and will be televised on the Pac-12 Network.