SB Nation - Seth Tarver

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)

Oregon State Prepares for 331st Civil War

Jake Bertalotto — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 20:30:34 -0000

Just a week after completing a season sweep of both of the Bay Area teams, the Beavers will return to action on Sunday when they'll do battle with Oregon in the 331st Civil War game at MacArthur Court in Eugene.

The Beavers, who have won three straight games and seven of their last ten, beat the Ducks 57-54 earlier this season at Gill Coliseum. In that game, the Beavers overcame an early 12-point deficit and a 35-30 halftime defecit to overcome the Ducks in the second half.

Oregon point guard Tajuan Porter, who had 19 points and five three-pointers in the first half, was held to just three points in the final half. The Beavers outscored the Ducks 27-19 in the second half, holding off the Ducks down the stretch to win by three.

Oregon State's win in the first Civil War gave them their fourth Pac-10 win in the first half of the conference schedule. A win tomorrow would give the Beavers their eighth Pac-10 win, and their fourth win in the second half of the Pac-10 season. A win would also move the Beavers to 8-8 in the Pac-10, a .500 winning percentage, with two games remaining on the regular season schedule.

The Beavers, who sit at 7-8 in Pac-10 play, have already made a seven game improvement from a year ago. That margin gives Craig Robinson's team the fifth-best single-season turnaround of all time. Oregon currently sits at number one on the list for their 10-win improvement between the 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons

Oregon State's 1-3-1 zone defense, which has been wreaking havoc on opponent offenses throughout the season, will need to be effective against the Ducks. Oregon plays at the fastest tempo of any team in the Pac-10 except for Washington, and they'll be looking to push the ball and take as many shots as possible. Oregon State, who plays at the fifth slowest pace in the nation, will be looking to do exactly the opposite: pass the ball, set screens, make back-cuts, and hit open shots.

The Ducks are led by Tajuan Porter, who is averaging 15 points per game and shooting 38 percent from three-point range this season. LeKendric Longmire, the sophomore from Mississippi, is scoring ten points per game. Freshman center Michael Dunnigan scores nine per game.

The Beavers are led by Cavin Haynes, but will need other guys to play well in order to beat the Ducks in Mac Court. Haynes averages 15.5 points per game, but Rickey Claitt's assists, Seth Tarver's steals, and Roeland Schaftenaar's leadership at the top of the offense will likely be the difference on Sunday night.

Game-time is scheduled for 7:00 PM tomorrow night on FSN HD.

--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)

Iowa State 63, Oregon State 50

Jake Bertalotto — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 01:52:59 -0000

Pardon my temporary absence. I think I'm all better now.

After cutting Iowa State's lead to six with three minutes remaining in the game, the Beavers couldn't mount a late surge, as Iowa State went on to defeat Oregon State 63-50 in front of 13,688 at hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa on Saturday night.

Fresh off their first win of the season at Fresno State, the Beavers (now 1-5) weren't able to keep up with Iowa State in the fifth game of this year's Big-12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series. Last season, the Cyclones defeated the Beavers 71-64 in overtime at Gill Coliseum.

Daniel Deane led the Beavers with 14 points and six rebounds, and was the only Beaver in double figures. He now leads the team in scoring with 60 points on the season, for an average of 10.0 per game.

In taking a glance over the stat sheet, there were some definite things that Coach Robinson has probably alrady addressed with his team:

Field Goal Percentage, specifically 3-point FG%

It's tough to harp on this team for having a low field goal percentage against Iowa State because they've done a fairly good job with shooting this season. Belive it or not, the Beavers came into the game ranked fifth in the Pac-10 and 38th in the nation in field goal percentage (48.7%).

Against Iowa State, the Beavers shot 20 of 50 (40.0%) from the field, which works out to be shy of their season average. However, the Beavers were just 2 of 19 from behind the arc, for a measly 10 percent. Just 2 of 19!

Both makes came in the first half, when the Beavers were 2 of 13. In the second half, the Beavers only attempted six three pointers, and missed every one.

The Beavers also underachieved from the charity stripe, where they'd been shooting 61.9% coming in. OSU was 8 of 15 from the line on the game, for 53.3%.

Oregon State's season percentage dropped from 48.7% to 47.2% over the course of the game, which isn't so bad after how horrendous the Beavers were from behind the arc. That puts the team at 62nd in the nation, and they maintain their spot at fifth in the conference.

Turnovers

Oregon State won the turnover battle, but didn't take advantage. The Beavers turned the ball over 11 times, the Cyclones 13. However, Iowa State scored 20 points off of Oregon State's 11 giveaways, and Oregon State only scored a half dozen points off of Iowa State turnovers.

Steals

Even though we didn't capitalize offensively on Iowa State's turnovers, it's good to see that we're applying strong pressure on defense. Oregon State stole the ball eight times from ISU (Seth Tarver had 3), compared to the goose egg Iowa State has in the steals column.

Assists

Iowa State scored 21 baskets, and 19 of them were assisted. Oregon State, on the other hand, scored 20 baskets, and only nine of them were assisted. It's tough to say just by primarily looking at the statsheet, and I didn't watch the whole game, but I think it's fair to say that the Cyclones were getting better ball movement to find the open man. Maybe it's a side effect of Coach Robinson's offense, but that was a glaring difference between the numbers of the two teams.

(image by Charlie Neibergall, via ESPN)

Basketball goes 2-0 in exhibitions, regular season starts Friday

Jake Bertalotto — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:00:07 -0000

The election is over, Robinson's brother-in-law is now the Presidential elect, and it's almost time for the Men's Basketball season to begin.

The Beavers took care of their two exhibition opponents, Saint Martin's and Concordia, and open the regular season on Friday in Washington D.C.

In the exhibition opener against Saint Martin's, the Beavers squeaked out a narrow four point victory, winning by the score of 80-76. The Beavers found themselves ahead by ten points with three minutes left, but the Saints closed the gap quickly. Jake Linton hit a three pointer with just over a minute left to cut the Beaver lead to three, but the Beavers hit several crucial foul shots with under a minute left to preserve the victory.

Omari Johnson led the Beavers with a double-double-- 18 points and 12 rebounds, followed by Daniel Deane with 15 points and 6 boards. Seth Tarver also earned a double-double with eleven points and eleven rebounds. In total, five players scored in double figures, and the team had 16 total assists.

After the game, Robinson commented that, "It was a good test. St. Martin's played a great game. They played different defenses and it gave us the chance to work on some stuff."

Six days later, the Beavers looked more improved against Concordia, winning 82-57. Six players reached double figures in the contest. Daniel Deane led the troupe with 15 points, followed by Omari Johnson with 14 and Lathen Wallace with 13.

The Beavers quickly amassed a lead against Concordia, and led at one point in the first half by the score of 29-9. Oregon State led 31-17 at halftime, and continued to dominate in the second half. With 2:31 left in the game the Beavers held a 37 point lead, but managed to win by only 25.

After the game, Coach Robinson commented on the distribution of scoring and free throw shooting. The Beavers were 16 of 22 from the line-- 71.5%, and 10 of 12 in the second half. Oregon State shot 64.9% from the free throw line last year, which ranked 294th nationally. Hopefully the improvement against Concordia is a sign of things to come.

It was definitely a positive to see the team put up more than 80 points in both exhibition games- the Beavers average 59.9 points per game (ranking 317th nationally) last year. Granted, the competition wasn't nearly what it will be come Pac-10 time, but we need to start somewhere, right?

Oregon State will open the 2008-2009 season and begin the Craig Robinson era this Friday in Washington D.C. against Howard University. The game will be played at 7:00 Eastern, 4:00 Pacific.