WATCH: Wayne Tinkle Talks Michael Rataj's Career-High Scoring Performance, Gonzaga Rematch
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The Oregon State Beavers improved to 16-6 over the weekend with an 83-69 victory over the Santa Clara Broncos. That victory came from a complete team performance by the Beavs, highlighted by a career-high 30 points by junior forward Michael Rataj.
Beavers head coach Wayne Tinkle took questions from the media Saturday night following the victory. Tinkle indicated his pride in his team's home performance, while also noting their need to find a way to get road victories in the final four weeks of the regular season. Watch the full presser below.
NOTES
- Tinkle on Saturday night: "Really proud of the win. Gutty, guty performance. Obviously we weren't at our best for 40. We felt multiple times we could have really stretched things out. Big part of that goes to their coaching staff and their team. They're pretty damn good, but when we asked our guys to dig deep, to pick up the intensity. They did it down the stretch the last seven, eight minutes and found a way to close it out."
- Michael Rataj on scoring 30 points and another strong second half: "I'm just trying to stay aggressive and make the winning play in the end...the last couple games, it was pretty good because my teammates believe in me and my coaches, so I'm just trying to pay off the respect they give me."
- Tinkle on being where they need to be to make a postseason run: "We're close. We're close to, you know, getting to where...we understand what we need to do on the road to win and we've just got to find a way to make that next step and we know it's going to be a hell of a challenge, great environment [at Gonzaga] much like the environment we had when they were here, and throw caution to the wind. Let's let's throw the ball up and go bang around and see what we can do."
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Joe Londergan joined the SI brand in 2023 with G5 Football Daily. With over 15 years of experience in covering and working directly in college and pro sports, Joe's expertise has been featured in Front Office Sports, SB Nation, and XRAY.FM. He is a member of both the Football Writers' Association of America and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers' Association. Joe holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Louisville and a master's degree in sports administration from Seattle University. Outside of his writing career, Joe enjoys golfing, although he admits that while he hits driver decently, his short game is a liability.
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