“It (the win) feels great,” said junior forward David Lucas. “We
worked really hard during the week to prepare for them. I thank the scout squad
for coming out there and playing good and helping us be prepared for Arizona.
I think we played good as a team and I think we went out there and played our
hearts out and we got the victory.”
Lucas and Chris Stephens led the way for OSU with 22 points apiece. Lucas drilled
10-of-14 from the field while Stephens hit 8-of-15, including 4-of-8 from behind
the arc.
“Guys are gaining confidence, so obviously I am really happy for the
guys,” said Beaver head man Jay John. “They’ve been through
a lot. This is a great win for us.”
Stephens is steadily climbing up OSU’s career three-point list, now with
84, he is six behind Brian Jackson for 9th all time in Beaver history.
The win by Oregon State snaps a seven-game win streak by the Wildcats against
the Beavers.
Arizona held early leads of one and two points, but for the most part OSU controlled
the game. The Wildcats last lead was 8-7 with 16:50 remaining in the first half.
At that point the Beavers went on a 14-2 run to take a 21-10 lead with 12:16
remaining in the half.
Lute Olson’s team cut the Beaver lead to one point three times in the
first half after that Beaver run, but a Stephens three-ball with 14 seconds
remaining in the first half gave OSU a four-point halftime advantage and Arizona
never got closer than three in the second half.
It seemed as if every time Arizona made a big play Oregon State would answer
and never let the Wildcats get on top.
“The team that played the hardest won,” said Arizona coach Lute
Olson. “Obviously they were better prepared than we were, because they
came out and gave it 100 percent for the whole ball game.”
The loss drops Olson to 8-2 against his former assistants and 36-7 against
the Beavers all time. The loss also drops the Wildcats to 6-6 when scoring less
than 90.
Channing Frye led Arizona with 18 points and 13 rebounds. Chris Rodgers and
Hassan Adams had 14 points apiece, while Salim Stoudamire and Mustafa Shakur
added 12 respectively.
With under 10 minutes left to play, all of the Beavers points came on dunks,
lay ups, and free throws, a total of 23 points, and the final margin of six
was the closest the game got in that time frame.
J.S. Nash and Angelo Tsagarakis both played well for the Beavers tallying 14
and 13 points respectively.
Lamar Hurd had what some may think was his best game of the year with nine
points, eight assists, two steals, and zero turnovers.
Speaking of turnovers, the Beavers won that battle tonight forcing 20 by the
Wildcats while committing only seven themselves, just one in the second half.
OSU scored 21 points off of those Arizona turnovers and they did not give up
any points off of their own turnovers.
Both teams shot the ball well tonight from the floor with OSU narrowly out-shooting
Arizona 55.4% to 52.7%.
Next for the Beavers is a trip to the Bay Area to play the number one and undefeated
Stanford Cardinal on Thursday before meeting the California Golden Bears on
Saturday.
Jake Schubert can be reached at jake.schubert@beaverfootball.com.