Oregon State Stuns Oklahoma State; Pac-12 Is 6-0 in NCAA Tournament
Oregon State pulled off another upset in the NCAA Tournament Sunday night, and the surprising Beavers have advanced to the Sweet 16.
This time 12th-seeded Oregon State led virtually wire to wire and beat fourth-seeded Oklahoma State and Cade Cunningham 80-70 at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
The Beavers, who were picked to finish last in the Pac-12, have won five straight games, all of which were upsets over teams in the NCAA tournament -- UCLA, Oregon, Colorado, Tennessee and now Oklahoma State, a hot team many observers considered a darkhorse to reach the Final Four.
As surprising as the run by Oregon State (19-12) is the fact that the Pac-12, maligned as a basketball conference, is 6-0 in the NCAA tournament, and all five of its teams are still in the tournament. Four other Pac-12 teams -- Oregon, UCLA, USC and Colorado -- play second-round games Monday.
Oregon State will face giant-killer Loyola-Chicago in the Sweet 16 next weekend, but the story on Sunday was the Beavers' defense and Ethan Thompson, who provided the Oregon State offense when Oklahoma State (21-9) was making its run.
The Beavers limited Oklahoma State to 27.7 percent shooting, and though Cunningham, the Big 12 player of the year, had 24 points, he was just 6-for-20 from the field. Oregon State also outrebounded Oklahoma State 55-33, with Roman Silva and Warith Alatishe collecting 12 boards apiece for the Beavers.
It was tightly officiated game in which 53 fouls were called and 73 free throws were attempted. The Beavers were 32-of-35 from the line (91.4 percent) and Oklahoma State was 26-of-38 (68.4 percent).
And it was Thompson who did the damage down the stretch. He missed half of the first half with foul trouble, but he played the entire second half, and came up big when things got hairy for the Beavers. Thompson scored 17 of Oregon State's final 22 points and finished with 26 points. .
The Beavers made only one of their first 11 shots, but still managed to take an 18-point lead late in the first half with Thompson sitting out.
They led throughout the second half, but the Cowboys got within two points with 11:21 left in the game and were just three points behind with 3:42 to go. But Thompson scored the next six points to make it a nine-point game, and the Beavers held on from there.
In the first half, the Oregon State star was Maurice Calloo, who scored all 15 of his points before halftime.
Calloo began his college basketball career at Oklahoma State and played 16 games for the Cowboys as a freshman before he was among three players dismissed from the program because of an off-campus incident. Calloo later committed to play at Cleveland State, but eventually landed at Indian Hills CC before signing at Oregon State in 2020.
Here are the won-loss records of the six top basketball conferences in this year's NCAA tournament:
Pac-12 -- 6-0
SEC -- 5-3
Big 12 -- 7-4
Big East -- 3-2
Big Ten -- 6-6
ACC -- 3-5
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Cover photo of Ethan Thompson by Trevor Ruszkowski, USA TODAY Sports
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Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53
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