The Beaver men’s basketball team faced off against the Idaho Vandals in Gill Coliseum this Saturday afternoon, where they would secure the victory with a final score of 78-62.
“We lost a lot of shots at the rim; I think I should take responsibility,” junior Parsa Fallah said on the slow start that led to a one-point lead.
The Beavers were able to stifle the early troubles thanks to an effort by Micheal Rataj, who forced multiple turnovers on defense and contributed to most of the Beavers scoring in the first half. He had four steals and scored eight of the Beavers 36 points at halftime.
At the midpoint of the opening half, OSU would take a substantial lead by going on a 7-0 run.
One player missing on the court was senior point guard Demarco Minor, a regular contributor on offense. He was 0-3 on shot attempts in his first 15 minutes of playing.
However, he could not go into the second half empty-handed, snagging two steals and finding senior Matthew Marsh for two alley-oop slam dunks.
Both offenses lost rhythm in the last 10 minutes of play in the half. At one point, Oregon State was 2-10 on field goals and had not scored a field goal in over three minutes of play.
Idaho would slowly chip away at the lead and even make it back within three points in the last minute of the half with a three-pointer from sophomore Jack Payne.
Despite this, the Beavers would come away with the final shot. With a second left on the clock, sophomore Liutauras Lelevicius sank a three-point shot from the corner to put the Beavers up by six going into halftime, 36-30.
“I didn’t like our lack of focus defensively. Offensively, I didn’t think we were as tough as we needed to be; we missed a lot of shots at the rim,” head coach Wayne Tinkle said.
Oregon State stretched the lead to 12 early in the second half, with Minor making his first shot attempt of the half to finally get on the scoreboard.
Fallah was the leading scorer in the first half, being the only Beaver with double-digit points. With continued assists from Minor to him in the paint, he would be at 20 points at the 13-minute mark of the second half. The next-highest scorer on the team has eight.
Fallah would end the game with 25 to lead all scorers, while Minor led all players in assists with nine, only scoring two points.
“We’ve got to get him (Minor) to where he understands where he can look to score,” Tinkle said.
The Beavers offense would only continue to build their performance as time wore down, showcased by an alley-oop layup by sophomore Josiah Lake II thrown to him by sophomore Isaiah Sy from the three-point line.
On the other hand, the Vandals offense had no sign of picking up any momentum. They would have multiple scoring droughts and struggle from the three-point line. Letting the lead increase to beyond 20 points.
The Beavers’ defensive efforts coming into the second half had truly changed. Idaho had nearly doubled Oregon State in three-point attempts, but converted only three more completed shots, shooting 18%.
With less than two minutes remaining, both teams emptied their benches as the chance for a comeback for Idaho had vanished. The clock would run down to close out an Oregon State victory.
The Beavers will remain home at Gill Coliseum for their next matchup against UC Irvine on Dec. 18 at 2 p.m.