SB Nation - Rickey Claitt

Beavers Get By UTEP In Game One With Toughness, Crowd

Jake Bertalotto — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:15:00 -0000

Oregon State guard Rickey Claitt reacts after dropping a 3-point shot during the first half of Game 1 of the CBI Championship Series. (AP Photo/Don Ryan)

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The Beavers may have not been the most athletic team in the gym on Monday night, but they wanted it more. And they had the crowd on their side.

The Beavers took Game One of the CBI Championship Series from the Texas El-Paso Miners in front of 8,030 in Legendary Gill Coliseum by the score of 75-69. The crowd was definitely a factor in the game.

The Beavers led by as many as 21 in the second half, but UTEP used their speed and athleticism to chip away at the Beaver lead. They went on a 24-9 run over the next several minutes of play, and eventually whittled the lead all the way down to just three points with 1:14 to play in the game.

Roeland Schaftenaar led the Beavers with 19 points on 5-of-8 shooting. Lathen Wallace was just behind him with five three's and 18 points. Seth Tarver sccored 17, and Rickey Claitt scored 13.

The Beavers offense looked as good as it had in a long time on Monday night, as the Beavers were patient and made a lot of shots. It's rare to see an Oregon State team put up as many points as they did in a win, but the Beavers jumped out to a comfortable first half lead and matched the Miners in the second half.

Randy Culpepper scored 20 points for the Miners, and Stefon Jackson added 17. Oregon State's zone defense also turned in a great performance in the game.

The win over UTEP in Game 1 marked the first time ever that an Oregon State squad has won four post-season games. The series now moves to El Paso and the Dan Haskins Center, where the Beavers will look to end the CBI Championship Series on Wednesday night.

--Jake (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)

Beavers Get First Season Sweep of Stanford in 16 Years

Jake Bertalotto — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 05:16:43 -0000

The Beavers started the game on a 25-7 point run and hardly looked back in Saturday's 66-54 win over Stanford on Thursday night at Gill Coliseum. The Cardinal battled back at several points in the first and second half, but the Beavers continued to execute the modified Princeston offense and maintain a healthy lead.

The Beavers, who completed a season sweep of Stanford for the first time since 1993 with the win, led wire-to-wire in both games against the Cardinal this season. Back on January 24, the Beavers held less than a ten point margin for most of the game until they went on a 12-3 run in the middle of the second half to take a comfertable lead. On Thursday, Stanford tied the game at four, but could never catch the Beavers again in the final 38 minutes of the game.

Roeland Schaftenaar led the Beavers with a career high of 26 points, picking up five rebounds and two assists along the way. Calvin Haynes added 17 points. Rickey Claitt and Seth Tarver each scored seven points.

Stanford was led by Jeremy Green, who scored 19 points in 17 minutes off the bench. Landry Fields added 17 points. Anthony Goods, who led the Cardinal with 15 points back on January 24, was held scoreless in the game.

The Beavers shot over 53 percent from the field, a number that dropped considerably in the final ten minutes of the game. For most of the first and the second half, the Beavers were shooting over 60 percent from the field. The Beavers also shot very well from the free-throw line, making 20 of 27.

Oregon State, who averages 18 three-point field goal attempts per game, only shot eight three-pointers in the game, making four.

The Beavers will now have an opportunity to get a season sweep of the Bay Area schools on Saturday, when the California Golden Bears will be in town. Tipoff is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. on FSN.

--Jake (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)

"Speed Bump Beavers" Pop USC's Tire, Win 62-58 in OT

Jake Bertalotto — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:38:45 -0000

Usually I live by a "act like you've been there before" mentality, but can you believe it, Beaver Nation?

CR has insisted that this team "do things right" ever since he arrived on campus. It payed off with a solid road win at Fresno State, a gritty home win against Nebraska, and now, our first Pac-10 win in 21 games. Craig Robinson is .500 all-time in the Pac-10.

If you haven't already, go here for The VD Special's thoughts from Gill.

And if you're just joining us, check out the game preview, open thread, and the celebration open thread.

The Beavers rallied from 15 points back in the second half of Sunday's game to do something an Oregon State squad hasn't done since February 22, 2007... beat a Pac-10 team. The Beavers have had 23 attempts since then when you count Pac-10 tournament games, and the y've come oh-so-close on so many occasions.

But never, have they battled back and finished like they did on Sunday. The Beavers simply wouldn't go away.

Roeland Schaftenaar played the game of his Oregon State career, and had one of the most impressive statlines a big man could have: 18 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists,, 1 turnover, 1 block, and 3 steals in 40 of 45 minutes.

Prior to the game, Roeland had been averaging six points and trace amounts of rebounds and assits per game. He had surpassed those marks by halftime.

Just two games ago, against Seattle U, Roeland had zero points and five turnovers in eleven minutes.

It was Roeland who sent the game to overtime with a three-pointer with 0:04 left on the game clock.

Calvin Haynes, who The VD Special described as "our Brandon Roy" was hot in the second half. He had 16 points in the game, and 14 came in the second half.

"At the end of the second half, and into overtime, they were keying on Calvin." CR said after the game. "Calvin was very unselfish finding the right guys, the open guys, and then those guys knocked the shots down."

Calvin ended up 7 of 12 from the field, and had four assists, two turnovers, and a steal.

When you combine Roeland and Calvin's stats, you get: 34 points, ten assists, three turnovers, and four steals.

Omari Johnson didn't miss a shot from the field on his way to eleven points. He was the only other Beaver in double figures, but Seth Tarver had eight points, and Rickey Claitt has five. Rickey, who left late in the game with injury, had three steals in the game, none bigger than the one that led to his injury. We wish Rickey the best in his recovery, and hope it's nothing serious.

Oregon State shot 50% percent as a team, and 46.7 percent from three point range. The Beavers have shot over fifty percent in five other games this season, but I would venture to guess that they haven't had a shooting performance like this against a Pac-10 team in a long time.

Also, Oregon State was a perfect 3-of-3 in overtime, and made their only three-pointer. Comparitively, the Trojans were 1-of-7 in the extra period, with their only field goal being Daniel Hackett's three-pointer on USC's second possession. After that, the Beavers went on an 8-1 run to win the game by four, amidst chants from the crowd of "Just Like Football!"

Against USC, that is impressive.

Very impressive.

Pregame Keys Revisited:

Get into the Offense: Craig Robinson's Princeton Offense was working as well as it ever has on Sunday. Take it from the man in charge himself: "The second half was probably the best offensive that we've run. Each game we hope to get better and better, and that's what you saw in the second half." The Beavers seemed to be getting easy layups even when future pro Taj Gibson was on the court, and it shows in OSU's exceptional field goal percentage. This will continue to be important throughout the season, and it was something the Beavs struggled with in the game against UCLA. But now we know, and the team knows, that if we can run the offense to near-perfection, we can play with absolutely anyone.
Control the Boards: USC held a slight advantage on the offensive boards, and they seemed to get their offensive rebounds at more opportune moments, but the Beavers kept up with the Trojans on the glass. The final numbers were 31-30 in favor of USC, which is exceptional, if you ask me. Taj Gibson, the 6'9" rebounding machine, who averages eleven rebounds a game, only had four rebounds against the Beavers. And only one of them came defensively.
Find Consistency on Defense: The 1-3-1 zone worked brilliantly against the Trojans, and was much more successful than it was against UCLA. It kept the Beavers in the game for much of the first half, after USC surged back from an early deficit. The Beavers were down five at the half... down fifteen at one point in the second half, and rallied back with strong defense and three-point shooting.

Next up: Arizona State and Arizona on the road. Remember to vote in the poll below, as part of our Modified Schedule Project. Sorry to all you haters out there, but I kinda rigged this one.

GO BEAVERS!

--Jake (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)

Poll

Are you satisfied with OSU's 62-58 WIN over the Trojans?

#@$% yeah!

50 votes

50 votes | Poll has closed

UCLA Runs by Oregon State in Conference Opener

Jake Bertalotto — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 06:51:05 -0000

The Beaver defense held UCLA to just two field goals in the first five minutes of the game, but once UCLA found their grove, they were tough to stop on Friday night at Gill Coliseum. The Beavers fell to the Bruins for an eighth consecutive time, this time by the score of 69-46 in front of a season-high crowd of 5,629.

After the Beavers shut down the Bruins down early in the game, UCLA went on to take a 21 point lead at the half. The Beavers could never climb back into the game in the second half, despite playing the Bruins fairly evenly in the final 20 minutes. The Beavers never really settled into their offense, and UCLA's fervent defense kept OSU's shooters off balance. Craig Robinson said it best in a post-game interview with Mike Parker:

"Our defense was fine, what was killing us was our fast shots that led to fast breaks for them. When we shot the ball fast, they got it out quickly. But when we made them play in the half court, I was pretty happy with the amount of pressure we were putting on. As we keep learning, and as we keep getting used to the league, we'll be in games."

In the second half the Beavers shot 52 percent from the field, which was impressive compared to the 35 percent they shot in the first half. Although many of UCLA's reserves received substantial minutes in the second half, it was still an improvement that Craig Robinson was impressed with.

"We're going to have some setbacks, but at least we had a second half that gives us some confidence and lets us know that we can play with a team that's considered the best team in the league."

Once again, Oregon State was led in scoring by Calvin Haynes, who had 16 points off the bench. Omari Johnson, Seth Tarver, and Rickey Claitt all had seven.

For UCLA, Darren Collison and Michael Roll each had 16 points. Collison was 7-of-10 from the field, and Roll was a perfect 4-of-4 from the three point line. Freshman Drew Gordon added 11 for the Bruins, who move to 11-2 with the win.

Pregame Keys Revisited:

Control the Tempo: Oregon State never really settled into their offense in the first half, which was when the outcome of the game was decided. Like coach Craig Robinson (who is Barack Obama's brother-in-law, if the FSN telecast didn't make that clear enough to you) said in the postgame quote above, UCLA's smothering man-to-man defense forced the Beavers to take quick, contested shots.
Break the Press: UCLA never really got to the point where they had to pressure the Beavers to speed up the tempo, they just controlled the pace with their defense.
Rebound: The Beavers were out-rebounded 31 to 25, but where they really suffered was on the offensive glass. The Bruins had 12 offensive boards (Alfred Aboya led the way with five), compared to OSU's 4. That's a lot of extra opportunities for an offense as potent as UCLA's.

Oregon State held the Bruins to under their season scoring average, which is a small moral victory. However, the Bruins allowed under their season defensive scoring average, so there's a small moral defeat.

With the loss, the Beavers fall to 5-6 on the season and 0-1 in the Pac-10. That now moves to streak to 21 straight regular season conference losses, and 23 straight conference losses when you include the Pac-10 Tournament.

The Beavers will look to once again to end that streak Sunday at Gill, when the USC Trojans come to town. The Trojans are 10-3 on the season, most recently defeating Oregon 83-62 at Mac Court.

More on the Trojans coming tomorrow... you can get the UCLA perspective on this game by heading over to Bruins Nation.

GO BEAVERS!

--Jake (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)

Poll

Are you satisfied with the way the UCLA game (L, 69-46) turned out?

Yes

16 votes

No

20 votes

36 votes | Poll has closed

Beavers Make History in Win over Howard

Jake Bertalotto — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 06:47:04 -0000

The Howard Bison (1-7) prevailed when they played Oregon State in their season opener in the nation's capitol earlier this season, but a repeat victory wasn't to be when the two teams met again Saturday night at Gill Coliseum.

After allowing Howard to only two points in the first ten minutes of the game, Oregon State (4-5) went on to defeat the Bison 90-54. The win demonstrates the improvement of the Oregon State program so far this season.

"We new that first game wasn't really the team that we are now" head coach Criag Robinson said after the game. "We didn't want to let any [thoughts of OSU and Howard's first game] come into the thought process of this game."

At halftime, Oregon State led 44-17 after shooting 61.5% in the half. The Beavers did get off to a slow start, though, only converting on one of their first seven field goals. Calvin Haynes led the Beavers with 17 points in the first half, Omari Johnson added 14.

The Beavers hit a school record 14 three-pointers in the game, in 20 attempts, for 70 percent. Oregon State was 34 of 53 on field goals in the game (64.2%), their highest mark this season.

Sophomore Omari Johnson led the team with 18 points in 29 minutes. Ricky Claitt added 15 points, and was a perfect 3-3 from three-point range. He hit three consecutive shots from the perimeter late in the game, the final of which broke the school's single game record for team three-pointers.

Off the bench, Lathen Wallace scored 16 points, a season high. Calvin Haynes contributed 17 to the effort in his role as the sixth man. Haynes has played in less games than most of his teammates due to an academic suspension, but he has scored over 14 points in each of his three games. He leads the team with 17 points per game.

Howard was led by Eugene Myatt, who scored 13 points. He also scored 13 points when these two teams met on November 14. Six-foot-nine center Paul Kirkpatrick added nine points for the Bison. Howard shot just 34.5 percent from the field, and 22.7 percent from beind the arc.

The Beavers will get several days off to spend time with their families before returning to practice on Dec. 25. The team will be back in action when they play Seattle on Dec. 29 at 7:00 PM. The game will be televised on FSN.

--Jake (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)