Oregon State Men’s Basketball: Beavers Win Season Opener 71-63

Oregon State started their 2020 season strong, taking down California 71-63 in a non conference game. An aggressive, balanced OSU attack controlled the game for most of its duration, though the Bears made things a little interesting late.

The first half of the game started out balanced with the teams trading the lead, but Oregon State began to grab momentum around the 14 minute mark, growing their lead to 6 points off of a Maurice Calloo three pointer and some Warith Alatishe layups. Cal would come back later in the period, tying the game and taking the lead with some Matt Bradley free throws. Calloo and Alatishe teamed up to grab the lead back for the Beavers very quickly, and a very competitive first half ended with the Beavers up 5, 36-31.

Some amazing shots from Ethan Thompson opened the game up early in the second; he scored 7 points to help give the Beavers their first double digit lead of the game. The Beavers would hold onto that margin for most of the second half, until their scoring stalled out with 4 minutes left to go.

Momentum began to shift toward Cal, with the Golden Bears getting to within 5, but a driving layup from Thompson finally broke the scoring drought, and free throws from Jarod Lucas and Zach Reichle finished things off. The Beavers took the W, 71-63.

This game was a great debut for Warith Alatishe. The Nicholls State transfer led the Beavers in scoring, with 16 points, 8 rebounds and 2 assists. Ethan Thompson was right behind him, with 15 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists. Zach Reichle put in a solid game with 11 points, 2 rebounds and 4 assists. Coming off the bench, Jarrod Lucas looked very good, also scoring 11 points, with 1 rebound and 1 assist.

The 1-0 Beavs will be back in action on Friday, November 27th, when they’ll take on Northwest University. Tip off is set for 10 AM, so try to sleep off whatever you do on Thanksgiving and get up early for OSU basketball.