Oregon State Beavers Basketball: Wednesday Notebook

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The Oregon State women’s basketball team dispatched of the Duke Blue Devils 71-57 before they broke for the brief holiday break, and in doing so, got back to their winning ways in front of a crowd of over 7,000 at Gill Coliseum. Behind stellar three-point defense and lights out three-point shooting themselves, the Beavers were able to put Duke away to earn another marquee non-conference win and gain momentum and confidence heading into their final non-conference game of the season.

The Oregon State men’s basketball team suffered its first loss in Gill Coliseum last Friday as the Beavers dropped a 66-63 decision at the hands of Kent State. The loss for the Beavers might have been a back-breaker to their NCAA Tournament hopes outside of a run in the Pac-12 Tournament as with the loss, the Beavers failed to notch a marquee non-conference win. OSU has dropped three of their last four games, with losses to potential NCAA bubble teams in Saint Louis, Texas A&M, and Kent State. While the Beavers figure to have an easy path to victory against lowly Central Connecticut State this Saturday, the Beavers would need to have a near-perfect run in the Pac-12 conference to move themselves back into the postseason picture.

1. Oregon State WBB leads the nation in three-point percentage. Who says it doesn’t rain threes in Corvallis? Scott Rueck’s Beavers have reached a new heights from behind the arc, leading the nation in three-point percentage (43.4). What’s perhaps most impressive, this is the second straight season the Beavers have lead the nation in three-point percentage, as they hit an NCAA leading 40.4 percent of their three’s last season… Steve Kerr and the Warriors would be proud.

2. Things don’t bode well for the Beavers when Stephen Thompson Jr. doesn’t shoot well. The Beavers’ four losses have come when Thompson Jr. has shot 29 percent (Missouri), 22 percent (Saint Louis), 18 percent (Texas A&M), and six percent (Kent State). Wayne Tinkle and the Beavers have to tweak things on offense to get him back in his groove because they’ve shown they can’t win when he struggles from the floor.

3. Lady Beavs lead the Pac-12 in field-goal percentage defense. If there’s one staple when it comes to OSU women’s basketball under Scott Rueck (other than a true family atmosphere), it’s playing the best defense in the conference year in and year out and 2018 is no exception. The Beavers have led the Pac-12 in field-goal percentage defense in each of the past five seasons and this year the Beavers are holding true to form as they’re allowing opponents to shoot just 33.5 percent from the field.

4. Oregon State men's basketball recent record is 2-3. That’s Oregon State’s record in the last five games without starting center Gligorije Rakocevic. After starting the non-conference season 5-1 with the 6-foot-11 senior Rakocevic locking down the paint, the Beavers have struggled with on-court consistency and leadership in his absence. When it was announced that Rakocevic would miss the rest of the non-conference slate with a stress-fracture in his left foot, Wayne Tinkle and the team noted that they would not only miss his presence, but also his leadership and the latter has shown during this recent stretch of games. Big G is a veteran leader with extensive experience in Tinkle’s system and the kind of player that you lean on. The Beavers badly miss G and it’s welcome news that he’s progressing towards a potential return against the Oregon Ducks on Jan. 5th.

5. Oregon State WBB has a dynamic bench. The best teams have deep and consistent bench production and that’s exactly what the lady Beavers have been getting on a nightly basis over the past few weeks. Ever since Rueck settled on the starting lineup of Destiny Slocum, Mikayla Pivec, Katie McWilliams, Madison Washington, and Taya Corosdale, the Beavers have been getting very good production from their rotation of bench players Kat Tudor (12.6 points per game, 4.3 rebounds), Aleah Goodman (9.1 and 48 percent three-point shooting), and Joanna Grymek (6.2 & 4.5).

- Kylor Kelley is first in the NCAA in blocks per game (4.0) and is fourth in the Pac-12 in field goal percentage (61.4 percent).

- Pivec still remains the lone guard in the Pac-12 to be in the top-five in rebounds per game (9.1).

- Rueck’s Beavers lead the Pac-12 in rebounds per game and rebounding margin as they’ve been the most dominant team on the glass in the conference. The Beavers have also broken the Pac-12’s rebounding margin record twice this season, against La Salle and Santa Clara respectively with a + 46 and +47 in those two back-to-back games earlier in December.

- Tres Tinkle is third in the conference in scoring per game (19.8), seventh in assists per game (4.3) and fifth in rebounds (8.7).

- Beaver WBB ranks ninth in the NCAA and 2nd in the Pac-12 in assists per game, dishing out just over 19 per contest.

- Tinkle and Thompson Jr. are shooting a combined 31 percent from behind the three-point stripe in their junior and senior seasons, respectively. If the Beavers are going to right the ship, their upperclassmen leaders will need to shoot the ball better from the outside. As a team, the Beavers have slipped to ninth in the conference in three-point shooting (32.8).

- Tinkle’s Beavers rank third in the Pac-12 in assists per game (15.5).

- Slocum (15.0), Pivec (12.9), Tudor (12.6) are the Beavers averaging double-figures in scoring on the season.

The Lady Beavs continue their homestand this Saturday as they play the first half of a double-day at Gill Coliseum, hosting Cal State Bakersfield at 1:00 p.m. The Roadrunners (4-7) enter Corvallis having lost five straight games, including seven straight on the road. Oregon State will be the first power-five opponent CSB has faced this season… The Beavers haven’t lost a home-game in December since 2015.

On the men’s side, Oregon State returns to action on Saturday night at 5:00 p.m., hosting Central Connecticut State in the back-half of a double-header at Gill Coliseum. The Blue-Devils (6-6) hail from the Northeast Conference is undoubtedly one of the lesser tiered opponents on the Beavers’ non-conference schedule. CC State has played just one power five team this season - Virginia Tech last week, a 94-40 defeat - and should give the Beavers an opportunity to exorcise some of the frustrations they’ve had in the past several weeks.