One day after defeating Washington State, Oregon State Men’s Basketball fell to the Washington Huskies Saturday in Gill Coliseum with a final score of 79-69.

The Beavers now drop to 12-7 this season overall, with a 4-3 record in the Pac-12.

Within the first few minutes of the game, the Huskies had achieved a 11-0 lead. Although OSU senior guard Stephen Thompson Jr. soon gained the Beavers their first five points, they could not come back from the early lead.

According to OSU Head Coach Wayne Tinkle, Washington began the game aggressively and kept control from start to finish. The Beavers finished the game with 44 percent field goal percentage, to Washington’s 58 percent. Washington gained 25 points from turnovers, and OSU ended with 15.

“I’m disappointed that we didn’t perform better, especially out of the gate. The guys showed great heart like they always do, but we just dug too big of a hole for ourselves,” Tinkle said.

Thompson Jr. scored a total of 30 points during the game. This included six 3-pointers, a record high in his career.

“I would much rather have a win than 30 points. There’s a lot of things I could work on individually, I feel like I could have played a better defense,” Thompson said.

By the end of the first half, the Huskies had seven steals, four of which came from Washington guard Matisse Thybulle. OSU had two at the half.

Wayne believed that after losing possession of the ball multiple times in the first half, the Beavers became overly cautious.

“The problem is after the first several possessions where we turned it over, we got really tentative. So we got it there, but then we held it and they would come and trap us,” Wayne said.

At  halftime, OSU lagged behind Washington at 40-27. Thompson Jr. led the team in points, scoring 13, followed by OSU redshirt junior forward Tres Tinkle and sophomore guard Ethan Thompson at five points each.

According to Tres Tinkle, the Beavers’ loss came down to not being as aggressive as the Huskies.

“It came down to passes. They were getting dunk after dunk,” Tres said.

Although the Beavers came within nine points of Washington’s lead during the final half of the game, they were ultimately unable to sustain any runs greater than five points. According to Wayne Tinkle, this was a drastic difference than how OSU normally plays.

“We just couldn’t sustain a run, like we have so many times, to get ourselves back in. It was guys getting out of character, defensively, helping out in the corners when we’re not supposed to,” Wayne said. “Every time we broke down from the way we’re supposed to do things defensively, they made us pay.”

Oregon State will play against Colorado in Boulder next Thursday on Jan 31 at 6 p.m.