Beavers Set to Face No. 24 Arizona, ASU

The first 500 fans that purchase a game program at Saturday’s contest vs. Arizona State will receive a Benny Beaver bobblehead collectible.

Roeland Schaftenaar had a season-high seven rebounds in his start at UCLA last Saturday. Photo: OSU Athletics

CORVALLIS - The Oregon State men’s basketball team (9-15 overall, 1-10 Pac-10) will try to turn things around this weekend when Arizona and Arizona State visit Gill Coliseum.

The Wildcats come in on Thursday as the nation’s 24th-ranked team, while the Beavers defeated the Sun Devils in their first meeting this season.

GAME #25 — Thursday at Gill Coliseum: Oregon State vs. Arizona (15-7, 6-5 Pac-10, #24 AP, unranked ESPN/USA Today) at 7:30 PM.

GAME #26 — Saturday at Gill Coliseum: Oregon State vs. Arizona State (6-16, 0-11 Pac-10, plays at Oregon on Thursday) at 3:00 PM.

TICKETS:

Tickets for all remaining Pac-10 games cost $20 for chair seats and $12 for bench seats.

They can be purchased by calling (800) GOBEAVS, by going on-line to www.osubeavers.com or by visiting the ticket office in Gill Coliseum.

ON TELEVISION:

Both the Arizona and Arizona State games will be televised locally by FSN Northwest as well as on FSN Arizona.

The Arizona game will be shown in the state of Oregon only (the rest of the market will see Washington-California).

Brian Davis and Bob Weiss are the regular announcers and they’ll be joined by Bob Elliott for the Arizona game and Tom Kuyper for the ASU game.

ON THE RADIO:

Oregon State’s games can be heard live on the radio on the Beaver Sports Network (which includes 18 stations throughout the Northwest, including KEX 1190 AM in Portland/Salem and KEJO 1240 in Corvallis/Albany.

ARIZONA SERIES:

The Beavers trail in the all-time series with Arizona, 17-45.

The home team has won the last four regular-season games. The Wildcats are ranked #24 for the second straight year when visiting Corvallis.

The Beavers will look for another upset, as they beat Arizona 75-65 at home last season.

Jay John has beaten his alma mater and former place of employment at home twice in his four years. OSU is 12-17 against Arizona in Gill Coliseum all-time.

LAST GAME VS. ARIZONA:

Back on Jan. 11th, Oregon State put together its strongest second-half offensive performance of the season, but #10 Arizona was too much in an 83-72 loss at the McKale Center.

The Wildcats opened the game with a 10-0 run and had another 10-0 run toward the end of the first half en route to a 42-27 halftime lead.

In the second 20 minutes, the Beavers shot 58.1% and scored 45 points, their most in the second half this season. OSU made things interesting, cutting what was once a 22-point lead at 55-33 down to nine points at 78-69 with under three minutes to play.

Marcel Jones scored 26 points and had eight rebounds to lead OSU. Sasa Cuic was the only other Beaver in double-figures with 16 points.

RANKED OPPONENTS:

The Beavers are trying to beat a ranked opponent for the fourth consecutive year.

So far, however, it’s been difficult and OSU is 0-7 against ranked teams this season. Two of the last three wins against ranked teams have been at home against Arizona, so the Beavers will try to keep that going this weekend.

At home this season, OSU has lost to #24 Nevada, #12 LSU (the last time OSU hosted two ranked non-conference opponents in one season was 1957-58), #20 Oregon (the last time OSU played three ranked opponents before the end of December was 1977-78) and #1 UCLA (OSU fell to 2-26 all-time against top-ranked teams).

On the road, the Beavers have lost at #10 Arizona (their 25th straight loss in Tucson), #20 Washington State and #5 UCLA.

ARIZONA STATE SERIES:

OSU leads the all-time series with Arizona State, 37-31.

OSU has won two straight in the series.

The Beavers came back from a 15-point second-half deficit without three injured starters to beat ASU at the 2006 Pac-10 Tournament, 71-68, and then won in Tempe earlier this year. In Gill Coliseum, OSU is 20-10 against ASU.

LAST GAME VS. ARIZONA STATE:

Back on Jan. 13th, the Beavers won their first Pac-10 game in their fifth attempt and ended an eight-game losing streak in Tempe with a 67-59 victory at Arizona State.

ASU led for much of the first half and took a 35-27 lead two minutes into the second half while the Beavers were on a nearly seven-minute scoring drought. But OSU came alive, going on a 13-2 run to take a 40-37 lead with 12:52 to go. Sasa Cuic’s basket gave the Beavers the lead for good at 46-44 with 7:48 to play.

Holding a six-point lead with less than two minutes to play, the Beavers were sent to the free throw line on each of their final seven possessions and went 11-for-14.

Marcel Jones had a double-double with 19 points and 12 rebounds and Cuic scored a game-high 20 points.

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