Amit Tamir and Leon Powe led the Bears, each scored 20 and Powe added 14 boards,
while Tamir had 10.
Tamir hit 6-of-10 three-point attempts a year after he hit 7-of-11 in Gill
to tie a Coliseum record.
“That’s an explosive team and they can do that against anybody
once they get going,” said sophomore point guard Lamar Hurd. “Tamir,
coming into the game, we knew we had to get in him, 6’10”, can shoot
over anybody, once those guys get going it’s tough.”
David Lucas led all players with 25 points, even though he was plagued with
foul trouble for much of the second half. He went out of the game with 11 points
at the 17:06 mark of the second half with four fouls. Lucas reentered
the game with 10:20 remaining and scored 14 points in just over 10 minutes.”)
“It’s always a tough thing when he is out of the game for us. He’s
our foundation down there, so anytime he’s not in it’s tough,”
said Hurd of Lucas.
Head coach Jay John echoed Hurd’s thoughts, “It’s no secret
that when David gets in foul trouble it hurts us.”
Three other Beavers joined Lucas in double figures; Chris Stephens had 13,
J.S. Nash had 11, and Lamar Hurd chipped in 10, seven in the first eight minutes
of the contest.
“Me and Lamar talked after the game (on Thursday) and made a conscience
effort to be more aggressive offensively instead of being so passive,”
said junior guard J.S. Nash. “I think we’re a better team when either
one of us can score.”
The Beavers stayed close for much of the contest. Oregon State had a 13-4 run
in an eight-minute stretch to take their first and only lead of the game at
29-28 on an Angelo Tsagarakis three-pointer.
Cal promptly went on a 10-4 run of their own to take a five-point lead going
into the locker room.
The Bears ran the lead to 10 in the first minute of the second half and had
their largest lead at 16 with 7:10 remaining in the second after a bucket by
Powe. Oregon State then countered with a 9-2 run capped by a Stephens lay up
to close the gap to nine.
But Tamir's three-point shots were too much for the Beavers to overcome.
“Today there were times where I saw a brain wanting to work and a body
just not getting there,” said Coach John.
Lucas led the Beavers with nine rebounds, while Hurd had a team-high four assists.
Both teams shot well from the field, the Bears shot 53.6% on the night and
the Beavers shot a respectable 43.1%.
Kyle Jeffers had a nice game off the bench with seven points, four boards,
and two blocks in only 20 minutes.
Richard Midgley and Marquise Kately joined Tamir and Powe in double figures
with 17 and 12 respectively.
NOTE: Two Beaver players set a new career high for points
in recent games: Chris Stephens scored 24 against Stanford Thursday while Lucas
scored 27 against Arizona State.
Jake Schubert can be reached at jake.schubert@beaverfootball.com.