CORVALLIS – Oregon State knows the feeling of going winless in the Pacific-10 Conference.
It’s part of why its 57-54 win over Oregon on Saturday, which moved the Ducks a step toward the same distinction, in front of a packed house felt so sweet.
Oregon State (10-10, 4-5) received a “stern” halftime speech from head coach Craig Robinson after the Ducks (6-15, 0-9 Pac-10) shot 70 percent from the three-point line in the first half, including 19 points and five threes by junior guard Tajuan Porter.
Oregon is now two losses away from tying its worst-ever start to a Pac-10 season of 0-11 from 1992-93. The Ducks host Arizona and Arizona State this weekend.
“I’m glad it’s them, and not us,” Beavers sophomore forward Omari Johnson said.
The Beavers’ 1-3-1 zone trapped Oregon’s guards into a frustrating 20 turnovers, limiting the Ducks to 19 second-half points after the efficient first half.
Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said his team had prepared all week for the trap and knew the Beavers were likely to use it the entire game. In the beginning, its counter attack worked well, leading 15-10 after freshman forward Matthew Humphrey’s three-pointer with just over 12 minutes left in the first half.
The Ducks, however, went nearly four minutes before scoring again, one of four droughts of three minutes or more in the game for the Ducks. After OSU’s Johnson hit a three and turned a steal from the trap into a transition dunk, Porter and sophomore guard LeKendric Longmire hit a three and made a layup to push the lead back to 30-21 with 4:31 left. When Porter hit a three to make the game 33-21, it was the Ducks’ first double-digit lead of the Pac-10 season.
“We played real well,” Porter said.
Robinson made sure it was his team that put the heat on in the second half.
“He said if we didn’t pick it up, we were going to lose,” Johnson said, “and we didn’t want to lose in front of the packed house.”
Robinson also put a man on Porter’s hip at all times, not letting him run defenders off screens to get open like he had.
The Beavers held Oregon scoreless for nearly five minutes at the start of the second half and grabbed their first lead of the game since the 15:06 mark of the first half when sophomore guard Calvin Haynes made a three-pointer. Haynes finished with a team-high 15 points for the Beavers. Oregon State’s 6-foot-11 junior point-center Roeland Schaftenaar scored all nine points in the second half, including a 30-foot bank shot three-pointer as the shot clock ran down that ignited the Gill Coliseum crowed of 10,192 and kept the Beavers ahead 56-52 with 1:50 left.
Omari Johnson’s four missed free throws in the final minute kept Oregon within reach of tying the game, and Humphrey’s long miss as time expired capped the Beavers’ third-straight win.
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