Jared Cunningham scored 24 of his game-high 27 points in the second half to lead the Oregon State men’s basketball team to a 76-71 victory over Oregon Sunday afternoon at Matthew Knight Arena.
It was a tale of two entirely different halves in the 336th edition of the Civil War rivalry, with Oregon State’s length and pressure 1-3-1 trap defense proving to be too much for the Ducks to handle down the stretch.
“The second half was not one of our better efforts,” Oregon head coach Dana Altman said. “Our turnovers were what disappointed me most, we had some awful turnovers.”
Oregon State (14-7, 4-5 Pac-12) overcame a horrendous first-half shooting performance with its trademark defensive scheme, which forced the Ducks (15-6, 6-3) into 23 turnovers in the second half.
Cunningham, the Pac-12’s leading scorer at 17.8 points per game, singlehandedly erased the halftime deficit by pouring in 11 of the Beavers’ first 20 points to start the second half. Sophomore guard Ahmad Starks went 3-of-4 from behind the three-point line after halftime as the Beavers put together a 57.1 percent shooting clip to build a 16-point lead with less than seven minutes remaining. @@http://www.pac-12.org/portals/7/images/MBasketball/2011-12-stats/HTML/OSU.HTM#team.ind@@  @@http://www.osubeavers.com/sports/m-baskbl/stats/2011-2012/20osumbb.html@@
“We were more aggressive after half,” Cunningham said. “We played hard to the end. It was good that we were knocking down our free throws at the end.”
The Starks-Cunningham duo shot a combined 2-of-13 from the field in the opening 20 minutes as Oregon State connected on just 27.6 percent (8-of-29) of its shots as a team. But as OSU’s defense continued to apply pressure on Oregon’s backcourt — Cunningham (2.9 steals per game) and Starks (2.0) rank first and third in the Pac-12 in steals, respectively — things started to open up offensively. @@http://www.pac-12.org/portals/7/images/MBasketball/2011-12-stats/HTML/OSU.HTM#team.ind@@
Cunningham scored 12 of his 27 points at the free-throw line and also grabbed a team-high seven rebounds to go along with three assists and one steal. Starks added 15 points and two rebounds but also had a game-high six turnovers, four in the second half.  @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205335431@@
Oregon State used a 22-4 run midway through the second half to finish with 53 points after halftime.
“That’s just unacceptable,” senior guard Devoe Joseph said. “Any time a team scores that many points in a half on your home floor it’s going to be hard to win.”
Joseph was one of the few bright spots for Oregon on Sunday. He scored 22 of his 26 points in the second half and also had seven boards and three assists in 38 minutes of action. Joseph connected on three straight three-pointers early in the second half before Oregon State went on its big run. @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205335431@@
“The momentum definitely went into their hands and they had the momentum after that,” Joseph said. “We had it, and they just took it right back.”
A pair of late three-pointers from Joseph and E.J. Singler cut the deficit to 73-70 with 50 seconds remaining, but Oregon would get no closer.
The loss dropped the Ducks into a tie for third in the Pac-12 standings with a road trip to Utah and Colorado looming this week. A disappointed Altman reiterated after the game that this team still isn’t where he’d expected it to be.
“I’m not going to let the guys off the hook. We should be further along than what we are,” he said. “To turn the ball over 23 times in late January, that’s not acceptable. It’s a little hard today. You can’t lose games at home and be in the hunt, and we’ve lost two of them now.”
Junior Carlos Emory registered his first career double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds off the bench.