Oregon State held off UCLA down the stretch to claim the Pac-12 Tournament Championship, their first ever, with a 69-57 win, after blowing most of a 31 point lead.
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On Thursday, the Rivals three-star prospect added yet another Pac-12 offer to join Oregon State and Cal – one from the Washington State Cougars.
“I could not be more proud than I am of them tonight”, Washington coach Mike Neighbors said. “But if we’re going to win, and do anything in Vegas, we have got to defend”.
The Beavers’ 9-9 conference record ties the program’s best mark since 1990, the last time OSU made the NCAA tournament.
UCLA will start the Pac-12 Tournament on Wednesday at 6 p.m., when the Bruins take on seventh-seeded USC at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. He and fellow left-handed reliever Luke Heimlich backed up starter Travis Eckert, who scattered three hits and two runs over 7 1/3 innings for his first victory of the season.
“All I know is we are in one of the toughest leagues in the country, with 11 wins over top 100 teams”, USC coach Andy Enfield said.
The USC Trojans (20-10) are coming from an 81-70 win over Oregon State Beavers. Thankfully, GP2 is one of the better seniors in the conference. “USC is a great team but we fought hard”. We really wanted to see UCLA and Steve Alford establish some strong building blocks this season so that there’d be some realistic hope that next year could be a Final Four team, but, in reality, this season has simply shown us the major cracks in the foundation.
Maryland couldn’t get closer than nine points in the second half.
“We did some uncharacteristic things, but man, momentum shifted quick”.
If they could, the Beavers would be playing for a Pac-12 women’s basketball tournament title 19 hours later. Of the five Pac-12 teams that earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA field since the conference tournament resumed in 2002, three of them won the conference tournament.
IN 80, Maryland 62: Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell had 17 points and four assists in his final home game and Troy Williams matched his career high with 23 points to lead the Big Ten champion and No. 12 Hoosiers (25-6, 15-3) past the No. 14 Terrapins (24-7, 12-6), who head into the conference tournament with four losses in their last six games. The other 14 top seeds all won at least 15 conference games.
A victory over OR (25-6, 14-4) certainly would’ve put a bow on Enfield’s third, much-improved campaign in addition to USC’s NCAA Tournament résumé.
Oregon State: The Beavers trailed at halftime for the ninth time this season. The Bruins will face California on Saturday after the Golden Bears upset No. 10 Arizona State. OR was the seventh seed in 2014 when it beat No. 10 BYU and lost to second-seeded Wisconsin.
The state of OR is loaded with in-state talent this year, and Morris clearly near the top of the board.
“It was an awkward game, thats for sure”, Altman said. “It is a little different this year because of our strength of schedule and nonconference schedule, but it is still about match-ups”.
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It was an wonderful season for OR, and the short highlight video by the Pac-12 reveals some spectacular plays by our beloved Ducks! “The way they applied that to their championship run this weekend was really admirable”.
