Oregon State Basketball Drops 2025 Regular Season Finale To #23 St. Mary's
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Oregon State lost Saturday night's WCC season finale to Saint Marys 74-64. The loss dropped the Beavs to 20-11overall and 10-8 in WCC play.
The loss also confirmed that the Beavs will go into the WCC tournament with the #5 seed. OSU kept this one close, with the Beavs leading for 13 minutes in the first half, but the Gaels pounded the offensive glass and tightened the screws on defense to avoid a late scare.
It was always going to be a tall order taking on the #1 team in the conference on the road, but for the first few minutes the Beavs looked up to the task. Oregon State shot more than 70% from the field for the first 8 minutes of the game, eventually being rewarded with a 18-13 lead halfway through the first half. After the Beavs held a five-point lead, the car ran out of gas. The Gaels dominated on the boards the entire rest of the way, ending the night with more offensive boards than defensive boards.
Oregon State trailed 34-33 at the intermission, with Parsa Fallah and Liutauras Lelevicius pitching in with 10 first half points a piece. Beavs fans watching knew there was a bit of luck involved for OSU to only be down one at the half after shooting 12% from beyond the arc in the first 20 minutes. There were warning signs in the first half of what was to come later in the game, as Saint Marys had as many offensive boards as OSU had total rebounds. Augustus Marciulionis led the Gaels in scoring at the half, as he was responsible for 13 of Saint Marys 34 points on 3-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc.
The Beavs were playing catchup for most of the second half, staying within 10 but rarely getting within 2. Saint Marys was able to knock down their free throws down the stretch to keep Oregon State at bay by making 17-of-19 on the night.
Perhaps the biggest story of the night was the rebounding mismatch. The Gaels won the rebounding battle 39-22, while winning the offensive glass battle 20-6. Mitchell Saxen led the way for all Gael rebounders with 11 while his teammate Luke Barrett reeled in 5 offensive and 5 defensive boards.
With the loss, the Beavs will go to Las Vegas with the #5 seed and a chance to avenge the program's worst loss this season to Portland as they will play the winner of #8 Portland vs #9 Pepperdine. If Oregon State is able to get past the first round they will be rewarded with a duel against Santa Clara. The Beavs have one chance to make it to the dance this season, they'll have to win 4 games in as many days. Oregon State opens up the WCC tournament Saturday March 8th at 6 p.m. PT.
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Kyle is a 2019 graduate of Southern Oregon University and currently does play-by-play for SOU football and men’s and women’s soccer. He hosts a daily sports show in southern Oregon on The Ace Sports Radio, 107.9 FM and 1300 AM. Kyle also does play-by-play for the Rogue Valley Royals hockey team and the North Medford High School Black Tornado for TableRockSports.net. Kyle lives in Ashland, Oregon with his wife and a Dalmatian named Penny.