Back in March, Oregon State made one of the most unexpected postseason runs ever, defying preseason predictions of a last-place finish in the Pac-12 and reaching the Elite Eight.
If that seems like it happened longer than nine months ago, there’s a good reason. The Beavers have lost 10 in a row since a season-opening win over Portland State and are hoping desperately to end that skid when they host Nicholls State Tuesday night in Corvallis, Ore.
It’s not like Oregon State is getting blown out game after game. It suffered back-to-back one-point losses to Samford and Princeton last month, followed by a three-point overtime loss to Wake Forest. A 10-point loss to Iowa State on Nov. 12 doesn’t look bad now that the Cyclones are ranked ninth with an 11-0 record.
But 1-10 is still 1-10 and coach Wayne Tinkle, for one, sounded like someone who was tired of explaining away every loss after Saturday’s 83-73 home defeat to Texas A&M.
“There was a stretch there we turned it over too much. We got careless, we stopped trusting the offense, which is what has hurt us time and time again,” Tinkle said.
Jarod Lucas scored 25 points in the loss for the Beavers and leads the team in scoring at 11.9 ppg.
Meanwhile, Nicholls (8-4) is coming off a 104-73 rout of Mississippi Valley State Saturday. Five players reached double figures for the Colonels, led by Ty Gordon’s 22 points. He connected for six of Nicholl’s 14 3-pointers.
Nicholls nearly pulled off an upset win Wednesday night at Wisconsin, leading most of the game before falling 71-68. Its other losses occurred at No. 1 Baylor, TCU and to a Utah Valley team that dumped then-No. 12 BYU.
The Colonels are potent offensively, averaging 81 points per game and shooting 48 percent from the field. They make more than nine 3-pointers per game.
This is the second meeting of the programs. Nicholls State won the first matchup 28 years ago in a tournament at BYU.
–Field Level Media