History, as it so often does, repeated itself Sunday night in Corvallis when Oregon State edged No. 7 Arizona, 58-56. After Langston Morris-Walker cruised down the lane to score a go-ahead layup with 28 seconds remaining in the second half, the Beavers settled back in to the same 2-3 zone defense that stumped the Wildcats all night.
The pressure forced Arizona’s Elliot Pitts to make a wild pass across the court to T.J. McConnell, who barely kept the ball in bounds. McConnell missed an off-balance floater, and five Beavers closed-in on Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, who picked up the offensive rebound. The buzzer sounded, and the 6,191 fans in attendance poured into the paint.
It’s been 15 years since OSU has had such an outing against a top-10 team, the last time being when it shocked – you guessed it – No. 3 Arizona at home, 70-69, on March 2, 2000.
“It’s a big win,” forward Victor Robbins said following Sunday night’s upset.
Yeah, you could say that. With the win, OSU improves to 11-4 (2-1 Pac-12), pushes the undefeated streak at home to 10, and sends a stunned Arizona back to Tucson with a loss for the first time eight meetings between the teams. Suddenly, the Beavers, written off early in the season by many as a middle-of-the-Pac team, have something to prove – and that something is backed up by a stellar defense.
Sunday night, the Beavers, moved up and down the floor in an orange blur. The Wildcats often looked dizzy and disoriented, shooting only 37.8 percent from the field, and a sickening 4-of-17 from beyond the arc.
OSU held Arizona to its lowest point total of the season, while racking up 32 rebounds, led by Gary Payton II with nine. They continued to frustrate the Wildcats creating five turnovers, four blocked shots, and four steals – again led by Payton II with two; he leads the Pac-12 in the category averaging 2.9 per game.
If Wayne Tinkle’s defense-first philosophy wasn’t convincing anyone before, it is now.
“The No. 1 thing we’re talking about is picking up the defense,” Robbins said. “We can guard anybody if we play hard.”
What OSU finally figured out Sunday, is that same unrelenting defense it’s worked to perfect thus far, can lead to offensive production. The Beavers steadily drove up the score, often working to find opportunities in the final seconds of a possession, and shot 51.3 percent from the field. They traded the lead with Arizona 20 times, and committed 10 turnovers, but showed marked improvement by moving the ball crisply around the court and rarely throwing up a shot in desperation. The offense was, as a whole, just better.
OSU travels to Seattle Thursday night at 6 p.m. to visit a floundering Washington team. The Huskies have dropped four straight after starting the season 11-0. Whether or not UW will be able to resolve its mudslide against the increasingly dangerous Beavers is for Thursday to decide.
For now, OSU gets to enjoy the type of victory the program hasn’t seen for 15 long years. And while a lot of attention is being paid to a certain other team in Oregon competing for the CFP National Championship tonight, the Beavers certainly succeeded in stealing some of that spotlight Sunday.
But as long as we’re talking about football, if defense really does win championships, Tinkle and company may have started angling toward a similar end on the court.
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