It’s been a rough season for defending Pac-12 champion Oregon State, which hasn’t played a game since Jan. 20 and has lost four straight as part of a 3-14 overall record (1-6 Pac-12).
The first loss in the current losing streak came against Saturday’s opponent, rival Oregon, 78-76 on Jan. 10 at home. Now the Beavers go on the road to Eugene to play the Ducks, who have won six of their last seven games and are aiming at a top-four spot in the conference standings to earn a first-round bye in the Pac-12 Tournament in March.
“I’m not going to make any apologies to our guys as far as where we’re at, because we’ve learned enough lessons, and it’s hard on them, the situation we’re in,” Oregon State coach Wayne Tinkle said after the team’s most recent game, an 82-72 home loss to Washington. “But that’s where tough teams, character teams come together and find a way to pull it out.”
Oregon (12-7, 5-3) had a 15-point lead in the first half and seemed headed for its seventh straight win on Tuesday, but couldn’t sustain the energy and effort and lost 82-78 to Colorado at home.
The Ducks had fought their way into prognosticators’ projected NCAA Tournament brackets after upsets on the road over two top-10 teams at the time, UCLA and USC. Then they crushed Washington by 28 points, and confidence was high against Colorado.
“We got outworked,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “They beat us on the boards by eight (30-22), second-chance points really killed us, 18-11. That was really the difference in the game. … I thought we had put some things together, but we got outworked.”
Oregon forward Quincy Guerrier scored a season-high 22 points in the loss and three other Ducks scored in double figures, but Oregon gave up a season high in points defensively.
Oregon State has won two of the last three meetings in Eugene.
–Field Level Media