45 minutes north of Eugene, the yearlong procession of ‘last games’ marched on in Corvallis on Saturday night, as Oregon (17-8, 9-5 Pac-12) defeated Oregon State (11-15, 3-12 Pac-12), 60-58 in the two program’s last game at Gill Coliseum as conference opponents. The Ducks, looking for an opportunity to kick their season into gear following two split series against the Washington and Los Angeles schools, found just that in their rival’s house.

Oregon didn’t miss a field goal for the first five minutes of play, but lost possessions through turnovers kept the game close. Kwame Evans Jr, whom Oregon head coach Dana Altman said after Oregon’s home win over Arizona State on Jan. 25 “… came to me and said, ‘Coach, I just need to come off the bench and try to get something going.’” When the Ducks need to get a run going, Evans is back in the lineup for Altman.

After its early run, the script flipped. Oregon went 0-7 on field goals and it was another freshman who would lead the show for the Ducks.

Shelstad, who finished with 15 points in his first career Rivalry Series matchup, was vital to the Ducks’ success in non-conference play but cooled off significantly since Oregon began facing Pac-12 opponents.“Jackson worked his tail off,” Altman said. “We had him guarding [Jordan] Pope and he’s coming off those screens… I wanted to get him fewer minutes but he still played 35.” The freshman from West Linn, OR. led the Ducks in points in the first half with 11.

The Ducks bounced back midway through the second half, where they kept the Beavers scoreless for a five-minute stretch of their own. In that time, Oregon managed to build a nine point advantage that would sustain the team into the halftime break.

Notably, Oregon’s leading scorer on the season, Jermaine Couisnard, struggled for points in the first half. The senior, who averaged 14.9 points per game heading into tonight, went 1-6 with two points in the opening 17 minutes. He led the Ducks in rebounds, though, and made a 3-pointer and a layup inside the last two and a half minutes left in the first half to extend Oregon’s advantage to eight points.

Meanwhile the Beavers missed easy points at nearly every opportunity in the first half. Two flubbed layups from KC Ibekwe and Dexter Akkano left Oregon State head coach Wayne Tinkle struggling for answers. Despite shooting 11 times from the field, the Beavers’ leading scorer on the season, Jordan Pope, had just six points and was 0-4 from beyond the arc, where he has made 38.8% of his shots this year per Sports Reference. Oregon State entered the half down 12 points and in the midst of a three minute scoring drought.

Oregon sustained its advantage into the second half, where trading points saw the Ducks’ lead drop into single digits only once in the first nine minutes. A five-minute scoreless run from the visitors had their strength in doubt, but the Beavers couldn’t capitalize on their rivals’ inefficiency as they found only six points in that time. 
Despite adding only 24 to their lead in the second half, Oregon led for nearly all of the period, buoyed by strong defense that would boost it to a much-needed victory. “I thought for 34 minutes, we did a lot of good things and we were rebounding really good,”Altman said

With just under four minutes to go, Beavers guard Michael Rataj hit a 3-pointer and drew the foul from Jadrian Tracey. After missing the free throw, the Ducks’ lead was cut to six. The late shift in momentum meant that Oregon didn’t sustain its strong victory that would’ve pushed it into games next week, but the Ducks were able to push through the final quarter of the game to earn a victory in Corvallis.

It didn’t come easy though — Oregon’s lead, once double-digits, dwindled to nothing. Oregon State equalized off a pair of Pope free throws with 40 seconds left. An N’Faly Dante dunk after three missed opportunities from the Ducks left Oregon State one second to find points.

With Gill Coliseum as loud as it had been, the Beavers had the ball on their own end line. A Chol Marial half-court effort could not bring them victory on home turf. “Jermaine [Couisnard] passed to me to finish the game and I just blacked out,” Dante said. “I knew we were in better shape because we had the ball and it’s not a lot of time left.”

The procession continues on Feb 28, when the Beavers come to Eugene in the reverse fixture, but whether or not, Oregon will have a motivation beyond playing spoiler to its rivals remains to be seen. It’ll have to be a whole team effort too — with all 10 squad players finding minutes for Oregon tonight, both Dante and Altman mentioned how important it would be for the Ducks to make use of the players they have available down the stretch.