Beavers Win Double OT Thriller Against Troy

It was a grueling Friday night for the Oregon State Men’s Basketball team, as the Trojans of Troy took the Beavers into double overtime, but Oregon State prevailed to win the game 81-80 and improve to 2-0 on the season.

It was a close fought battle all night. OSU took a lead early in the first with sharp shooting from Christian Wright and Dexter Akanno, but down the stretch the Trojans made things competitive. With 5 minutes left in the first half Tayton Conerway gave Troy their first lead of the game with a second-chance layup. Oregon State kept things close, retaking the lead with a pair of free throws from Akanno, before Troy tied things up with a pair of Conerway free throws.

A short Troy run gave the Trojans a brief lead to open the second half, before Tyler Bilodeau gave the Beavs the lead back with a three. Bilodeau drove the Beaver offense for much of the second half, with 11 points in the period, helping the Beavers keep pace with Troy. Oregon State led for most of the second half, but was never able to put much distance between themselves and the Trojans.

A Jordan Pope layup gave the Beavs a 5 point lead with a minute and a half left in regulation, but a costly penalty and turnover gave the Trojans an opening. Troy managed to cut the Beaver lead to just one, before a pair of free throws from Pope got the Beavers back up 3. With no time left on the clock, a three point buzzer beater from Troy’s Thomas Dowd sent things to overtime tied 61-61

An Akanno jumper gave the Beavers the lead to open OT. The Beavers once again for most of the period, but with 1:31 left in OT a Thomas Dowd layup put Troy in front. Josiah Lake tied things with a free throw, but Troy took the lead with less than a minute left with a Randarius Jones layup. A Jordan Pope jumper with 9 seconds left in OT tied the game at 72.

Oregon State opened the second overtime with a driving layup from Christian Wright, but Troy took the lead with a 3 pointer from Aamer Muhammad. The Trojans led for most of the rest of overtime, before the Beavers managed to tie things up with 6 seconds in the game. That was thanks to a Jordan Pope layup, and Pope was fouled on the score. Pope’s free throw ended up being the one point that mattered, giving the Beavs an 81-80 win.

The Beavers will be back in action on Tuesday, November 14th, when Appalachian State comes to Corvallis. Tip off is set for 7:00.