The fifth-ranked Oregon State baseball team received 98 of a possible 100 points and is the choice by the Pac-12 Conference’s coaches to win the league in 2016. Adding to the pain was the loss of a 10-point lead with 7:44 left to play.
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Redshirt freshman Corey Griego (184), redshirt sophomore Cody Crawford (197) and redshirt sophomore Amarveer Dhesi (hwt.) then combined for three straight wins by decision for nine unanswered points to clinch the match.
The shift was monumental: From the point when Utah nursed a 10-point lead, it took only five shots for the rest of the game and made only the last one (a Taylor 3-pointer).
The first half was back-and-forth and about midway through, Utah went on a 9-2 surge, fueled by three Kuzma lay-ups, to lead 27-24 with 9:01 left.
Utah took a 69-68 lead when senior forward Jordan Loveridge made three free throws with two seconds remaining, but Thompson was fouled on a 3-point attempt just before the buzzer and converted all three free throws for the win.
Only two of the turnovers counted as Oregon State steals.
But Utah still held a 4 point lead when Poeltl returned with 5 minutes to go.
Oregon State’s Gary Payton II, left, grabs a rebound from Utah’s Lorenzo Bonam during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Corvallis, Ore., on Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016.
“You can argue either way about the last two (fouls), but you call it on one end, you gotta call it on the other”, Oregon State coach Wayne Tinkle said. Utah is 12-1 all-time against the Beavers in Salt Lake City.2. “It was a good battle for a large portion of the game”, said Krystkowiak, who then addressed the late miscues by his team.
“We put ourselves in position to win a game on the road”, he said, matter-of-factly “and we certainly should’ve won it”. Schaftenaar finished with 8 points, all early in the first half, and was a non-factor in the second half.
Oregon State responded with a 7-0 run, capped by a Thompson breakaway lay-in and free throw after being fouled.
With Stanford coming off of a big win over conference title contender Arizona State and Oregon State having one of its worse regular seasons in recent memory, Stanford’s wrestlers had been confident that this was the year they could knock off the Beavers, winners of four of the last five conference championships, for the first time since 2004 and for just the second time since 1953. The Utes are averaging 85.4 points in their last four games after averaging 58 in the previous four.
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Oregon State hosts Colorado on Saturday. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.
