Trailing by ten at halftime and as much as 15 in the first half, Oregon State made it a game down the stretch.
The Beavers (10-10, 6-8) tied the game at 68 with under two minutes remaining but fell short 75-73 on the road against Arizona State (7-9, 4-6).
With the contest tied at 68, Sun Devils guard Remy Martin hit his first three-pointer of the game to give Arizona State the lead with 38 seconds left. After some fouling back-and-forth, the Beavers had one final chance.
Oregon State got the offensive rebound off the second shot of a one-and-one down two points with 15 seconds remaining, but Ethan Thompson got tied up with the possession arrow favoring Arizona State.
Holland Woods made a pair of free throws to clinch the victory for the Sun Devils.
Ethan Thompson led Oregon State with 18 points on 5-10 shooting and 7-11 from the line.
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Here were the key takeaways.
The Good
No quit in this team.
At halftime, Arizona State had an 87.1% chance of victory up 41-31 according to ESPN but that did not deter Oregon State.
Trailing 60-50 with 10:58 remaining, the Beavers went on a 16-6 run to tie the game on a Warith Alatishe jumper with 2:02 remaining. During the run, Rodrigue Angela had three dunks off of solid ball movement from Oregon State.
Oregon State defended the three-point line and Remy Martin well.
The preseason All-American shot 5-18 from the field, including 1-6 from behind the three-point arc with his sole make coming off the dribble with 38 seconds remaining. Martin still finished with 23 points due to 16 foul shots (12-16) but it was not an efficient offense for the Sun Devils.
As a team, Arizona State shot 4-15 from behind the arc or 26.7%.
The Bad
Poor start
In the first 6:53 of the game, Arizona State went on a 19-4 run with Wayne Tinkle using his first timeout down 9-0 just 2:06 into the contest.
Oregon State fought valiantly in the second half to make it a game late, but that type of execution will not win games. The Sun Devils are not good, either.
If Oregon State wanted to make a case to make the NCAA Tournament, this was a must-win.
The Highlight
Rodrigue Angela postered a Sun Devil off of a baseline out-of-bounds play.
The Stat
Oregon State had seven more turnovers than Arizona State, 15-8.
The Next Game
Oregon State will host Utah on Thursday, February 18th at 5:30 p.m. PT.