CORVALLIS – While well beyond the notion of moral victories, the Oregon State men’s basketball team believed it had tangible evidence of progress amid a lost season earlier in the week.
The Beavers took a halftime lead over Arizona – the No. 5 team in the nation – during what head coach Wayne Tinkle called “probably the best 20 minutes we’ve played this year.”
Against a far lesser opponent Saturday at Gill Coliseum, they trailed by 19 points at halftime. The second half margin only reached single digits one time in an 81-68 defeat to Arizona State, one that marked a significant step back heading into the final four weeks of the season.
“It was painful,” Tinkle said.
The Beavers have now lost 20 games for the eighth time in team history, according to Sports Reference. They have seven games, three more at home, to secure a Pac-12 win before the league tournament in Las Vegas and avoid the 0-18 conference record last seen in 2008.
With the loss, Oregon State may have seen its easiest recipe for a win the rest of the season slip through its fingers and head back to the desert.
Unlike on other nights when OSU took the floor as a heavily overmatched underdog, the team arrived at their home arena Saturday afternoon with a concrete formula to get in the win column for the first time in 12 games. The Sun Devils started four players 6-foot-5 and under, along with a 6-foot-8 center.
When freshman guard JaQuori McLaughlin pulled up for a quick three in transition from the left wing early in the first half, a group of bright yellow ASU jersey packed the paint only to witness Drew Eubanks sky above them all for a two-hand put-back dunk. The hyper-athletic 6-foot-10 forward looked up to the crowd and pounded his chest with both fists, seemingly an indicator of way OSU could punish the Sun Devils inside.
Eubanks had 22 points (7 of 11) and 17 rebounds to record his sixth double-double of the season, sophomore center Gligorije Rakocevic added six points (1 of 4) and seven rebounds and the Beavers churned out 43-27 rebounding advantage.
But that margin was negated in part by 18 turnovers against a team rated last in the conference in defensive efficiency, committing sloppy passes, offensive fouls and a five-second violation on an inbounds play out of a timeout. ASU turned those 18 miscues into 32 points, owning a 27-point edge over the Beavers in the same category.
After taking a 12-6 lead out of the gate, the wheels began to come off as Arizona State made a 14-0 run during which it shot 3 of 3 from three-point range, often against slow defensive closeouts. During a 12-0 run that expanded the deficit to 39-21, the Sun Devils again went 3 of 3 from deep. They finished 10 of 17 from beyond the arc in the first 20 minutes against the OSU matchup zone.
“There’s teams that have zoned Arizona State and gotten to their shooters and done a nice job,” Tinkle said. “And we didn’t. We didn’t have the same urgency. … We went zone because we play zone and we didn’t get our hands up into shooters first half. Second half we go man and we couldn’t keep anybody in front of us without fouling. Anybody that wants to question what we’re doing there defensively, it’s not what we’re doing, it’s how we’re doing it.”
When asked about his team’s defensive miscues, McLaughlin began discussing the lack of team communication before Tinkle interjected.
“What were we supposed to do to shooters,” he asked.
“Get up into them. Make them drive,” McLaughlin responded. “And I don’t think we did that either.”
Shannon Evans II (21 points), Torian Graham (21), Tra Holder (19) and Kodi Justice (13) all reached double figures and made multiple threes. On the other end, OSU went 2 of 14 from three-point range in the first half.
The Beavers finished with more three-point attempts (28) than ASU, which fires them up at a higher rate than any team in the conference. Stephen Thompson Jr. finished with 15 points (5 of 17) and five assists and McLaughlin added 10 (4 of 12) with six assists and six turnovers.
“For whatever reason we got a little bull-headed and didn’t get (the ball in the post) as much as we’re supposed to,” Tinkle said.
Saturday put a firm punctuation on another challenging week, in which Tres Tinkle moved back to a hard cast on the right wrist he broke 10 weeks ago. Doctors expect to re-evaluate him in 2-3 weeks, indicating there is virtually no chance of a return this season for the team’s leading scorer.
Without a boost from their best player in sight, the Beavers faced the reality of completing the season without him trying to earn a win for the first time since Dec. 21. Communication and crucial miscues at both ends were once again a common theme, which Wayne Tinkle highlighted before the postgame news conference ended without a customary “Go Beavs.”
“We said in the locker room, we’ll either address and handle these things or we’ll continue to be frustrated after games,” he said.
— Danny Moran
dmoran@oregonian.com
@DannyJMoran
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