The Oregon State Beavers and Cal Poly Mustangs men’s basketball teams finally met again since the 2006-07 season in Gill Coliseum on Monday night. The Beavers rumbled to a victory after two sessions of competitive overtime.

“We were far from our best. A handful of guys that just didn’t have our kind of night. Proud of our guys that showed they were in the foxhole,” head coach Wayne Tinkle said.

Cal Poly came in with the plan of being the dominant hand on defense, keeping the score relatively low at 2-7 in the first five minutes, taking an early lead.

The Mustang’s Tuukka Jaakkola took advantage of the switches to smaller matchups on defense, giving multiple pressures that led to turnovers in the first half.

At the 11-minute mark, a new spark was ignited for Oregon State by senior Chol Marial coming off the bench. His night began with a slam dunk over two defenders, an assist to sophomore Jordan Pope for a reverse layup, and even a dominant block on the defensive end.

The Mustangs would keep a slight lead thanks to Freshman Quentin Jones hitting back-to-back three-point shots from the top of the key.

Both teams got to at least six team fouls before the seven-minute mark of the first half.

In the first half, the one to take advantage of the foul troubles was sophomore Tyler Bilodeau for Oregon State. Seven of his 11 points were free throws and even took a charge foul to stop a turnover breakaway by the Mustangs.

The first half ended with both teams nearly mimicking each other on almost every stat. The biggest difference is in the 3-point shooting, the Mustangs shot 3 -11, and the Beavers 0-3.

Cal Poly showed its metal by keeping Pope to four points but the Beavers never waivered, the lead did not become more than seven and kept it within three coming into the second half.

“It’s huge, we still have some other guys that we didn’t go to that I think we can,” Tinkle said. 

The second half started with no loss of pace. Starting with a block from sophomore KC Ibekwe on a layup attempt.

Pope was able to get back on the board to keep the Beavers’ lead at four on a contested shot that looked very much like a foul.

In this half, it was Oregon State that was more hindered by fouls. Totaling eight to the Mustangs’ five in the final four minutes. 

With a minute left Oregon sophomore Michael Rataj made a contested layup to tie the game at 49. Oregon State was given the chance to take the lead but a Jordan Pope turnover gave the Mustangs the last shot. A missed three by Cal would send the game to overtime.

Ibekwe and Rataj kept Oregon’s Paint game alive with multiple layups and rebounds. At the same time, Jones continued his clutch shooting at the other end. 

“Had a bunch of big plays in the paint,” Said Lake II about his teammates in the paint. “Props to them for battling inside and being tough.”

Putting together a beautiful series of dribble moves and putting his defender on skates, Pope hit an open mid-range jumper to take the lead with a minute left. He keeps his streak of double-digit scoring alive with now 11 straight games.

Both teams continued trading leading by one or being tied coming into the final 30 seconds

Oregon captured a 60-58 point lead with 14 seconds left. Cal Poly’s senior Kobe Sanders took the ball up-court, dribbled in between three defenders, and made a contested layup to send the game to a second overtime at 60-60.

“If we were a very mature, experienced team you’d be disappointed but we’re young, we’re still building,” Tinkle said.

Ibekwe was finally able to put a cap on Jones’ production with a blocked layup you could hear from the stands with two minutes left to play. He then captured another set of second-chance points to give the Beavers a 3-point lead with one minute and 12 seconds left.

The beavers were able to finally put away the Mustangs with another layup by Ibekwe and a fastbreak layup by Lake II. Allowing no more scores, giving us a final score of 70-63. Extending the Beavers record at home to 5-0, and 5-3 on the season.

Cal Poly had the heavy advantage in 3-point percentage with a 6-23 average of 26.1 percent While Oregon State shot 0% from the three-point line. Oregon State did make it up with a heavy rebounding advantage, they grabbed 49 rebounds to Cal Poly’s 32.

The Beavers will stay at home giving them a chance to go 6-0 playing at Gill Coliseum when they take on Utah Valley on Dec. 9th at 2 PM.