The Saint Mary’s men’s basketball team defeated Oregon State 63-49 Saturday night in Corvallis.

While OSU scored the game’s initial points, jumping out to a 4-0 lead 1:07 into the game, the Gaels proceeded to go on a 12-1 scoring run over the next six minutes.

It was a lead that they never relinquished.

The Beavers scored their fewest points of the season, making only 36.5% of their field goal attempts on 19-52 shooting. The Gaels connected on 26-49 of their shots, or 53.1%.

“I’m just disappointed that, in a game of this magnitude, that we didn’t come out with the fight we needed…Defensively, we just had no presence at the rim. They got downhill and got a lot of layups,” head coach Wayne Tinkle said in the post-game press conference.

After OSU cut the lead to 14-10 with 12:21 remaining in the first half, the Gaels reeled off a 9-0 run that ended with the Beavers’ Parsa Fallah making a layup with 8:16 left.

The rest of the opening half saw the Beavers and Gaels trade baskets, with Saint Mary’s holding a 30-19 advantage heading into the locker room.

With the Gaels outsourcing the Beavers 33-30. The Beavers made only 25% of their field goal attempts in the first half and 50% in the second. Saint Mary’s, meanwhile, connected on 56.5% in the first half of field goals and 50% in the second.

As the second half began, Saxen scored four points for the Gaels to increase their lead to 34-19 with 18:48 remaining. OSU’s Demarco Minor immediately responded by putting down a two-point jumper, but the Gaels had an answer for all of the Beavers’ buckets.

With Saxen, Harry Wessels, and Luke Barrett leading the way for Saint Mary’s, the Gaels expanded their lead to 45-27 with 12:21 left to play.

From there, OSU and Saint Mary’s would trade baskets until time expired, with the Gaels briefly expanding their lead to 21 with 6:18 remaining. At the same time, the Beavers cut the final margin to 14 with baskets from Sy, Josiah Lake II, Liutaurus Lelevicius and Maxim Logue.

Isaiah Sy was the Beavers’ leading scorer for the game with 10 points, two rebounds, one assist, and one block. Fallah added six points, five rebounds, and two blocks. 

Augustus Marciulionis led the Gaels with 18 points, 10 assists, six rebounds, and four steals. Mitchell Saxen added 15 points, seven rebounds, one assist, and two blocks. 

With the loss, the Beavers fall to 7-5 in the West Coast Conference and 17-8 overall, while the Gaels improve to 21-4 and 11-1 in WCC play. The Beavers will play their next game on Thursday, Feb. 13, at 7 p.m. in Portland for their second game against the Pilots.