CORVALLIS — A turnover-plagued game hampered a good shooting night for the Oregon men’s basketball team in a 76-72 loss to Oregon State on Saturday.
Despite outshooting and outrebounding the Beavers, the Ducks (11-8 overall, 3-7 Pacific-10 Conference) made too many careless mistakes — resulting in 21 turnovers — leading to their fifth consecutive loss which drops them to ninth place in the Pac-10.
Oregon head coach Ernie Kent attributed the turnovers to playing too fast and ball-handling trouble.
“We were playing pretty fast and had
a couple of great transition opportunities to score and we turned the ball over,”
Kent said. “Our big guys for some reason had balls in their hands and lost them or threw them away a couple times on
inbound plays.
“Just mistakes we don’t normally make.”
Oregon State (12-9, 4-6) shot only 40.3 percent from the field — compared to Oregon’s 50.0 percent — but took 17 more shots and scored 27 points off Oregon’s turnovers to lead them to victory.
The Beavers were led by 22 points and nine rebounds each from forwards Nick DeWitz and David Lucas. DeWitz added four assists, two steals and a block.
Oregon’s Jordan Kent, who started for the first time this season, said they were aware of the problems DeWitz and Lucas could cause them.
“We had a good game plan for them, and, if we blocked out, it shouldn’t have been too big of a problem,” Jordan Kent said.
Oregon received another solid game from swingman Malik Hairston. The freshman went 8 of 12 from the field, including 2-of-3 from behind the arc, for 20 points — tying a career-high.
Oregon point guard Aaron Brooks also got back into the swing of things with a 21-point performance and shot 4 of 7 from behind the three-point line.
The game started with the Ducks jumping out to a 6-0 lead, but the Beavers countered with a 7-0 run of their own to take the lead.
They would trade the lead back and forth for most of the first half until Oregon State went on a 10-2 run heading into the locker room, capped off by a Sasa Cuic fade-away jumper to give the Beavers a 34-30 halftime lead.
The Ducks crawled back in it and gained a 43-41 lead, but still managed to blow two good opportunities to take an even bigger advantage.
The first blown opportunity came on an Oregon fast break. Center Ray Schafer found himself wide open underneath the basket, but couldn’t convert. The next time down the floor, Hairston was on the lower block and was just about to make a move toward the basket when he traveled and turned the ball over.
“We had them on the ropes and had some crucial turnovers where we could’ve had a 10 point lead,” Brooks said.
The Beavers would put the game away on a late 7-0 run, highlighted by a Chris Stephens three-pointer.
The loss for the Ducks marks
the first time they have lost when shooting over 50 percent in a game this season.
Oregon welcomes the Washington schools to town next week, with No. 13 Washington coming to McArthur Court on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

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