Arizona State Narrowly Edges Oregon State, 74-73

On a night where nearly everything seemed to go right for Oregon State, the Beavers still somehow fell victim to a red-hot Arizona State squad, 74-73, to give the Sun Devils their seventh straight victory.

As a team, Oregon State shot 26-52 (50.0%) from the field and connected on almost half of their attempts from behind the arc 10-22 (45.5%) in one of their most efficient offensive displays all season. The Beavers out-rebounded the Sun Devils by a 30-28 margin and finished with 16 assists compared to Arizona State’s 10 dimes. Forward Tres Tinkle posted 25 points (8-16 FG) and 9 rebounds and Ethan Thompson added 20 points and 7 assists. The usually futile Beavers bench even chipped in 20 points.

And yet, the only thing Wayne Tinkle’s group forget to walk away with from Tempe was a victory.

Part of the issue in claiming that very win was Oregon State’s inability to tame Arizona State’s multi-headed offensive attack that saw five players reach double figures, including Remy Martin (17 points), Alonzo Verge Jr. (17 points), Romello White (15 points), Kimani Lawrence (14 points) and Rob Edwards (10 points). The Beavers seemingly had no answer for them on the defensive end and instead tried to trade buckets with Arizona State for long portions of the contest, eventually pushing the scoreline past the Beavers comfortable threshold.

From there as they say, the rest was history. The loss for the Beavers will go down as another heart-breaking result in a season full of “could’ve, should’ve, would’ve” been moments. Would it have been nice for Jarod Lucas to hit the game winner with ticks to go on the clock? Of course it would have. But when the story of the 2019-2020 Oregon State basketball team is written, there will be more “what if’s” than “what is” at the end of the day.

With the defeat, Oregon State is now 15-12 on the season and 5-10 in league play, which puts them two games above Washington for the bottom spot in the Pac-12.

For Arizona State, the victory propels them to the top of the Pac-12 with a 10-4 record and a half-game advantage over Oregon, Colorado and UCLA. The Sun Devils are also now 19-8 overall on the season.

Up Next: The Beavers will play their final road game of the regular season, when they travel to Eugene to face Oregon on Thursday, February 27th at 8:00 PM PT. The game will be televised on ESPN2.