Courtesy: Oregon State University Athletics
CORVALLIS, Ore. — Oregon State set a school record for home victories in a season and clinched a winning season record on Saturday night with a decisive 72-58 decision over Colorado before a Gill Coliseum crowd of 7,117.
The Beavers (17-10, 8-7 Pac-12) held the Buffaloes (12-14, 5-9) to just 12 points on 3-for-21 shooting in the first half to take a commanding 34-12 intermission lead. Colorado recovered somewhat in the second half but never got closer than eight points and junior guard Gary Payton II punctuated the win with two thunderous dunks in the final 25 seconds.
Payton II had 24 points, a school-record seven blocked shots, five rebounds and four steals to help the Beavers snap a three-game losing streak and improve to 15-1 at home, the best in program history. OSU’s 13 total blocks also established a school record.
“It’s about their mentality and I couldn’t be more proud about how the guys came out,” said OSU assistant coach Gregg Gottlieb, who prepared the pregame scouting report. “We came out with tremendous effort and enthusiasm.
“The first half mirrored what we did against Utah defensively,” as the Utes managed just 16 first-half points in a 47-37 win here on Thursday. “But we said when we get some stops, we have to capitalize, we have to get out and run.
“The guys did a good job of that. We put pressure on them and made some shots. To score 34 points after only 37 in the Utah game, that’s a great job of playing with confidence.
“We shared the ball. A lot of guys carried us in that first half. We got tremendous effort by so many different guys. That’s what you look at there, a great team effort.
“Our guys really want to please. They do that every day in practice and they came out tonight with the same mindset.”
On a night when his father and the other members of OSU’s 1990 Pacific-10 Conference champions were honored, Payton II remained the only Pac-12 player with at least one steal in every game. He leads the conference, and is third nationally, in that category and his 81 steals ranks sixth on OSU’s all-time single-season list.
Junior guard Malcolm Duvivier added 17 points and five assists and junior center Daniel Gomis had 10 points, five rebounds, four blocks and two steals.
Colorado closed with 54-46 with 3:45 remaining after a 15-4 run, but the Beavers got a key 3-pointer by Duvivier to restore a double-digit lead. Colorado got no closer than 10 points thereafter and Payton applied the exclamation points with an alley-oop dunk from Duvivier and a driving slam of his own on OSU’s final two possessions.
“The game always favors the aggressor and we were the aggressor at both ends,” Gottlieb said. “In the second half we probably took our foot off the gas a little bit we got a little sloppy.
“We allowed them to make a run but the good job we did in the first half was too much for them to overcome.”
The Beavers completely handcuffed Colorado defensively in the first half in allowing a season-low 12 points. And offensively, they rebounded from a cold shooting night against Utah by hitting 13 of 25 (.520) in a first half that ended with Payton II burying a 3-point shot to establish the 22-point cushion.
“The coaches got us prepared,” Gomis said. “We took Thursday night’s loss hard and were ready to bounce back and really set the tone to come out and play hard.”
OSU head coach Wayne Tinkle has now posted a winning record in seven straight seasons, and in 8 of 9 campaigns overall since becoming a head coach at Montana in 2006-07 season.
The Beavers head to the Bay Area this week for their final regular-season road series. They play at Stanford at 8 p.m. Thursday and at California at noon on Sunday.
