Beavs MBB Overcomes Slow Start, Notches 10th Straight Home Win

Oregon State rallied from a slow start thursday night in Corvallis to beat Washington State 82-74. With the win, the Beavs improved to 7-4 in WCC play and 17-7 overall. It was also the 10th straight home game at Gill Coliseum that saw Beavs fans leave happy.

It had been a long 9 days since the last game for the OSU mens basketball team. Oregon State, still reeling from that loss to Gonzaga, looked "foggy and lost at times" according to Wayne Tinkle in his postgame presser. It certainly looked bleak early for the Beavs as they fell behind 9-1 in the early minutes of Thursday nights contest. The message from Tinkle to his players during the first media timeout stuck with them, as the Beavs went on a 7-0 run with a Lelevicious three-pointer giving Oregon State their first lead of the game at the 9:30 mark of the first half. The Beavs would cut the deficit to just one heading into the half.

Michael Rataj finished with another successful outing, as the junior scored 21 points and reeled in 8 rebounds to go with it. Rataj found a couple of timely buckets for Oregon State down the stretch that propelled the Beavs to their 10th straight win at Gill Coliseum. Parsa Fallah was back in form, as the big man logged 17 points of his own to go with 6 rebounds. The Beavers benefited from the Cougs aggresive play, with Oregon State shooting 38 total free throws, making 30 of them. It was the most free throw attempts taken by a Washington State opponent since 2016. OSU went on a 7-0 run out of the half to find themselves up by 6, before Washington State went on a 6-0 run of their own later in the 2nd half to cut the Beavs lead to one.

It was the play off the bench for Oregon State that was the deciding factor, Wayne Tinkle in his presser talked about how important points off the bench were as he showed appreciation for Josiah Lake, who finished with 8 points, and Isaiah Sy, who notched 9 points off the bench. It was a team effort, as the Beavs saw 8 players register points Thursday night. The attention now turns towards St. Mary's, who the Beavs still have to play twice this season. The home fixture for Oregon State will be Saturday with the tip time set for 7:00 PM PT on ESPN2.

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