Courtesy: Oregon State Sports Information
STANFORD, Calif. - Jared Cunningham scored 22 points, the third straight game with 20 or more, and Roberto Nelson added 19 points off the bench, but Oregon State ran into a hot-shooting Stanford Cardinal team in an 87-82 loss on Thursday night at Maples Pavilion.
In a rematch of the epic quadruple-overtime game the teams played in January, the teams traded punches throughout and went on runs in a game that included 12 lead changes and five ties. But the Cardinal (18-8, 8-6 Pac-12) had the biggest run of the game, an 8-0 spurt after the Beavers cut the lead to 56-53, to take a 64-56 advantage and hold on down the stretch for the win.
"I just came out of the locker room and told them that we blew this game," Oregon State head coach Craig Robinson said. "We had every opportunity. When it was time to make game-winning plays, we just couldn't do it."
The Beavers (15-11, 5-9) fell behind 32-24 with 7:39 to go in the first half before they answered with a 17-8 run to take a 41-40 lead at halftime. Nelson came off the bench to score 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field, including 3-of-3 from beyond the arc, to help Oregon State hold the lead at intermission.
But Stanford outscored the Beavers 16-6 to start the second half during a drought in which Oregon State went five minutes without a point. OSU rallied at the end with some desperation three-pointers but had a couple of turnovers in key situations late in the game that proved costly.
"Every time we needed a turnover, we'd get one but we couldn't convert it," Robinson said. "We had a couple of breakouts, including the missed dunk off of Jared's head that we didn't get that was important. Every single one of them was important."
Eric Moreland had another strong game with eight rebounds and four blocked shots, while Devon Collier scored in double-figures for the 11th straight game to finish with 13 points. Angus Brandt added 11 points and Joe Burton had seven points, eight rebounds and three steals off the bench.
Chasson Randle knocked down 6-of-7 three-pointers to finish with 24 points and Aaron Bright added 20 points and seven assists off the bench.
Cunningham had three steals, the 28th consecutive game with at least one swipe, to pass Brent Barry and move into third on Oregon State's career steals list with 200. But he knows the only number that matters is the final score and said some things need to change with four regular season games remaining.
"This is happening to us too much," Cunningham said. "We need to figure out something and a different way to approach this. We have to play hard from the beginning. Stanford came out and knocked down some shots and got going early. Our defense came back in the middle of the first half and we caught up to take the lead. But the second half they knocked down some more shots and we couldn't come back from there."
Oregon State goes for the season sweep of the California Golden Bears at 7 p.m. on Saturday at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley, Calif., in a game that will be televised on Comcast SportsNet California.
