SB Nation - Lathen Wallace

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 65, Stanford 62: The Journey Continues with CBI Semifinal Win

Jake Bertalotto — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 04:07:47 -0000

The 2008-2009 Oregon State Men's Basketball season seemingly continues to get more and more and surreal with each passing moment. The Beavers now find themselves in the CBI Championship series after Craig Robinson's club knocked off Stanford 65-62 Wednesday at Gill Coliseum.

The incredible run Oregon State has experienced in the post-season marks the first time the team has won three post-season games since the Beavers went to the Final Four in the NCAA Tournament after the 1962-63 season. The Beavers defeated Seattle, San Francisco and Arizona State that year... this year, it's been Houston, Vermont, and Stanford.

The Beavers and the Cardinal got off to a hot shooting start in the game. Stanford led the charge, converting on five of ten three-pointers in the first half, but the Beavers countered with four of nine from deep. The Beavers were silenced for a six minute stretch towards the end of the first half, but the Beavers, down four at one point, went on a 6-0 run in the last two minutes of the half to take a two point lead into the locker room.

The Cardinal sent the game to overtime when Lawrence Hill hit a fallback jumper from 15 feet out as time expired in regulation. He was able to collect a rebound that went right over the hands of Roeland Schaftenaar after Anthony Goods missed a three pointer that would have potentially won the game for Stanford.

That shot by Hill and the near-rebound by Shaftenaar 'demoralized' the team in the eyes of Coach Rob... they felt that there was no way the game should have gone to overtime after Oregon State held a six point lead with 2:39 left.

The obvious momentum swing allowed Stanford to jump out to a quick lead in overtime: the Cardinal led 61-56 with two and a half minutes remaining in the extra period. Roeland Schaftenaar then hit a three-pointer and a layup and Seth Tarver added a layup a part of a 9-1 run that Oregon State amassed on their way to a three-point victory over their fellow Pac-10 counterpart.

With the win, the Beavers move to 16-17 overall on the season. If they manage to win two straight games in next week's championship series, the Beavers will finish the season with a better-than .500 record.

The Beavers had three players in double-figures: Lathen Wallace with 16, Schaftenaar with 14, and Calvin Haynes with 10. Anthony Goods scored 20 for Stanford, and Lawrence Hill added 14.

Oregon State has now won CBI games by margins of 4, 1, and 3 points, respectively, and have played into overtime twice in the past two games.

Said the coach: "These games are taking a toll on my longevity."

I can only imagine what the players are feeling. They'll get Thursday and possibly Friday off to rest. Coach Robinson said that "at this point, they know what to do. They don't need practice or conditioning." He knows that rest, rest, and more rest is important right now, and he's reminding his guys to have fun, but not too much fun-- there's still work to do.

It will be UTEP for the Beavers in the Championship Series, which begins Monday at Gill Coliseum.

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

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)

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.