Rataj Leads Beavers to Road Win Over Pepperdine
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Oregon State recorded a rare road win Thursday night in Malibu as they were able to fend off Pepperdine 84-78.
With the win, the Beavs improved to 19-9 overall and 9-6 in WCC play while completing a season sweep of the Waves thanks to the 83-63 win last month in Corvallis. The road had been a scary place for Oregon State this season, with Thursday's win over Pepperdine accounting for only their second conference road win.
For a moment on Thursday night in Malibu, it seemed the road blues were back for Oregon State as the Beavs fell behind 21-13 in the early goings. Pepperdine led for essentially the entire first half until Oregon State took the lead with a few minutes to go thanks to a corner three from Isaiah Sy.
Michael Rataj was the man of the hour once again as the junior finished with 25 points and reeled in an impressive 12 rebounds. Big man Parsa Fallah added 24 points of his own to go along with 4 rebounds. Oregon State is now 7-0 in conference play when leading at the half.
Wayne Tinkle in his postgame press conference after the win against Pacific last Saturday in Corvallis emphasized how important the bench and the role players were going to be if the Beavs want to make a run in the WCC tournament. The Beavs responded to his comments by having 8 players log points Thursday night in Malibu.
Liutauras Lelevicius added 9 points off the bench in his 24 minutes on the floor. Oregon State outrebounded the Waves 40-27 while shooting 50% from the floor and 31% from beyond the arc. Pepperdine was led by Coulibaly Boubacar's 20 points while Moe Odum tacked on 19.
The massive difference Thursday night was paint presence. 50 of the Beavs 84 points came from inside the paint while Pepperdine was held to 11 points in the paint.
Oregon State is 9-6 in WCC play, which is good for 5th place. The top 4 sides in conference get an automatic bye to the Quarterfinal round. The beavs currently trail 4th place Santa Clara by a game, however Santa Clara hold a number of tiebreakers over Oregon State.
Realistically looking at the schedule, Oregon State would need to win 2 out of their last three games and have Santa Clara do the exact opposite, lose 2 out of their last 3 games. An at large bid for the NCAA tournament is all but off the table for Oregon State. It's going to take a massive run in the WCC tournament to get there.
The Beavs finish their season with an away-home-away three game stretch, with San Diego and St.Marys flanking the last Oregon State home game of the season against San Francisco.
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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.