Oregon State Falls To Houston 67-61 in NCAA Tournament Elite Eight

Oregon State's Cinderella postseason run came to a close in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament Monday evening, falling to Houston (28-3) 67-62 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

The 12-seeded Beavers (20-13) had become the darlings of the Big Dance as they knocked off Tennessee, Oklahoma State, and Loyola-Chicago to reach the Elite Eight, but ran into a tough matchup in the Cougars that was ultimately too tough to overcome.

Like the previous matchup against LUC, the Beavers started slowly against one of the nation's-best scoring defenses and couldn't find their groove on the offensive end, struggling for good looks and turning the ball over.

However, unlike the matchup against the Ramblers where the Beavers were able to find their rhythm and close the half on an 11-0 run to seize momentum heading into the break, OSU never looked comfortable against Houston offensively in the first half and found themselves trailing 34-17 at the intermission.

Trailing by 17 at the break, it would have been easy for this team to get down on themselves and fold up the tent, but the Beavers did the exact opposite and kept fighting until the bitter end.

"Helluva an effort second half," head coach Wayne Tinkle said. "Just proud of the fight we showed. But for making a few more free throws and getting some rebounds, it could have been a different story. It was right there within our grasp with the effort we showed in the second half to get back to tie that thing up."

Ethan Thompson, who had been Oregon State's Mr. March during this run, was largely held in check by UH's DeJon Jarreau who was on Thompson's hip all game and made life difficult at every turn.

Thompson finished with 11 points, seven rebounds, and six assists, but had just one point in the first half and went 3-of-12 from the field overall, further illustrating just how much of a focal point he was of the Cougars' defensive attack.

"We got off to a pretty slow start, but in the back of our minds, we knew that a run was coming for sure," Thompson said. "I've been saying it this whole time. This team is full of competitors and winners, and at the end of the day, we want to do everything we can to win, and tonight just wasn't our night."

Maurice Calloo was the only other Beaver to finish in double-digit scoring as he finished with 13 points off the bench.

The Beavers slowly chipped away at the Cougar margin in the second half and ultimately ended up outscoring UH 44-33, but it wasn't enough as they couldn't secure enough rebounds or shoot a high enough clip from the foul-line to overcome the first-half deficit.

Coming into the contest, it was well-known that Houston boasted one of the best rebounding units in the country (+9.1 margin) and it showed. Time and time again, the Cougars always seemed to be in position for an offensive rebound (19-7 advantage) that led to 19 second-chance points.

The other Achilles-heel for the Beavers was an area that few could have predicted and that was at the charity stripe. OSU, who came into the contest 29th in the nation in free-throw percentage (77%) uncharacteristically missed freebies, going just 11-of-20.

While Oregon State's season has come to an end, the miraculous run that defined this group this postseason is something the program hopes will be become the standard.

"Super proud of our guys. It was a heck of a run," Tinkle said. "It's something we can really build off of. We had a helluva run, and we'll keep building this thing moving forward."