The Oregon State Beavers faced off against the Saint Martin’s Saints in a friendly exhibition match Thursday night. The Beavers look to defend the first PAC-12 championship for the first time in school history.

The game would be the first time Gill Coliseum would welcome back fans for the first time since March 7th, 2020. The Beavers anticipate a full stadium of Beaver fans in the season opener on Tuesday, November 9th.

The exhibition game answered many questions from the off season, most notably the starting lineup of the Beavers ‘21-22 season.

The Beavers are welcoming back seven players from the previous season and adding six players via the transfer portal and two freshmen.

Coach Wayne Tinkle wouldn’t give too much insight into the starting five decision til prior to the game versus the Saints.

The starting lineup for the Beavers consisted of a backcourt duo of Junior guard Gianni Hunt and Junior guard Jarod Lucas.

The front court consisted of Junior guard Dashawn Davis, Senior forward Maurice Calloo, and Senior forward Rodrigue Andela.

St. Martin’s is an NCAA Division ll school and the Saints lineup would consist of; guards Alex Shumacher, Kyle Greeley, Jaden Nielsen-Skinner, forward Tyke Thompson and center Marky Adams.

The tip off saw Oregon State’s forward Andela and Saint Martins center Adams jump for first possession, the Saints would just edge on top and get the opportunity to score first.

Despite losing the tip off, the first points of the (exhibition) season came from Andela in a shot from the post which resulted in an and-one opportunity, where he then completed the free throw.

The Beavers would capitalize on a fast start. The crowd at Gill erupted after an energetic dunk by Davis, the Beavers quickly went up 12-7 just five minutes into the game which was the largest lead for the Beavers during the duration of the game.

After a Saint Martins timeout and four costly turnovers by the Beavers, the visiting Saints would go on a scoring run of 12 after hitting a series of threes. The push by St. Martin’s would be enough to gain a 21-16 lead.

The run by the Saint’s would end by a dunk in transition by Tre Williams, assisted by Davis.

Oregon State would go on to miss the next eight of ten shots, and four straight misses from the charity strike.

St. Martins would take advantage of the poor shooting of Oregon State and go up 32-18 with 5:45 left in the half.

The Beavers would get closer to tying the score after a combined 13 points from Warith Alatishe (six) and Callo (7) would close the deficit to 32-31.

At halftime, St. Martin’s leads Oregon State 41-36.

The Beavers would have a higher field goal percentage. Oregon St. 46.4% on 13 of 28 shooting while St. Martin’s would shoot 40% with 14 of 35 shots falling. Despite having a higher field goal percentage, the Beavers would trail by 5 after only converting on 3-13 three point attempts. The Saints would convert 7 of 16 three point shots.

To open the second half, St. Martin would go on a 10-5 run and lead 51-41.

The three point shooting would continue for the Saint’s, pushing the lead to 63-52 with 12:30 left of the game.

The Beavers have been counted out before but didn’t let that get in the way of cutting the deficit once more. After a series of back and forth scoring, the Beavers would be able to go on a run of their own.

Beavers guard Hunt would find Williams for a wing 3 after drawing the defense with a drive cutting the Saint’s lead to 3, the score was 75-72 with 5:14 left.

Down the stretch Tinkle would go with Hunt, Williams, new transfer Dexter Akanno, Alatishe, and true freshmen Glenn Taylor Jr.

After a great defensive effort by the Beavers, Glenn Taylor Jr would give the Beavers the lead after a lay-in. St. Martin’ wasn’t leaving Gill Coliseum without a fight and would bring the score back to even with a minute left in the intense game.

After a Beavers turnover, St. Martin’s Brett Reed missed both at the line with 25 seconds left in a tie game.

After a Tinkle timeout, Dashawn Davis, an All-American junior transfer from Trinity Valley Community College hits a contested 3 from the right wing with 2.2 seconds left to erupt the Beavers crowd and sideline.

Hunt picked off the inbounds pass to close the game, Oregon State 83 to St. Martin’s 80.

The Oregon State Beavers look forward to playing in front of Gill Coliseum in the season opener vs. Portland State Tuesday night at 7 p.m.