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The Oregon State men's basketball team kept its season alive and advanced to the semifinals of the Pac-12 Tournament with an 83-79 overtime win over UCLA in the quarterfinal round Thursday afternoon in Las Vegas.

They say it's not how you start, it's how you finish, and there's no question the Beavers lived up to that mentality throughout the contest.

"Just great effort, super proud of our guys. What a gritty, gritty win. It was just kind of our whole season rolled into one game," head coach Wayne Tinkle said. "Very proud of our guys for the resiliency and the buy-in when things weren't going our way early and in the middle of the game and then late, we just kept rolling through it. We never stopped believing."

Oregon State couldn't buy a bucket in the first half and looked out of sorts against the Bruins' aggressive defense as they committed nine turnovers, shot just 29% from the field and spotted UCLA a 16-point lead.

However, the Beavers were able to go on a mini-run to close the first half and trailed just 34-24 at the halftime break.

Coming out of the break, the Beavers started to build momentum as they slowly chipped away at the Bruin lead and started to settle in and get better shots within the offense while committing far fewer turnovers.

Oregon State outscored the Bruins 46-36 in the second half and shot 57% from the field while holding UCLA 34.5% from the floor. The significant defensive improvement allowed the Beavers to get back into the contest as it was a far cry from the near 50% UCLA shot in the first half.

"We had to play with a lot more intensity on the defensive end. We told our guys if they did that and then started making unselfish plays, offensively, by executing our offense, the lid was going to come off of it," Tinkle said. "They defended, they started making plays for each other, and then we crept back into that thing pretty quickly. A lot of things went against us, but they never dropped their chins, they kept believing so unbelievable resiliency."

Once overtime kicked off, the two teams traded punches until Rodrigue Andela stepped to the line with 57 seconds remaining with the Beavers trailing 78-77. He sunk both free throws, giving OSU a 79-78 lead that they'd never surrender in the final moments as clutch free-throw shooting helped seal the deal for the Beavers.

Warith Alatishe led the way for the Beavers with 22 points and 10 rebounds, while Ethan Thompson added 18 (all in the second half) and Jarod Lucas added 17.

"Warith was a monster, we had to have a post presence, and he was big for us," Tinkle added.

Zach Reichle also reached double-digit scoring as he finished with 11 points, including three made three-pointers in the second half to help bring the Beavers within striking distance.

As a team, the Beavers outshot the Bruins from behind the arc as they went 10-of-25 (40%) to UCLA's 5-of-20 (25%).

With the win, the Beavers (15-12) have advanced to the semis for the first time since 2012 and have set up a rematch with rival Oregon (20-5).

"It's going to be a good one. They're a really good program, obviously, they won the league, they beat us a couple of days ago," Lucas said. "They're our rival, there's going to be a lot on the line, but I think we'll be up for the challenge."

The two teams most recently squared this past Sunday as the Ducks defeated the Beavers 80-67 in Gill Coliseum. OSU however defeated Oregon 75-64 in Eugene earlier this season... Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m. on Pac-12 Networks

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