Men's Basketball: Oregon State, Fresno State Meet Saturday in Corvallis

Fresno State is 6-0 in non-conference action.

Seth Tarver is coming off an 11-point performance against Montana State. Photo: OSU Athletics

CORVALLIS - The Oregon State men’s basketball team begins a stretch of nine straight home games -- including its final six non-conference matchups of the season -- this Saturday against Fresno State.

The Beavers won’t leave home during the month of December. The nine-game homestand will equal the longest in school history (1949-50).

TICKETS:

Tickets for the Fresno State game cost $20 for chair seats and $12 for bench seats. They can be purchased at either the Gill Coliseum Ticket Office, by calling 1-800-GOBEAVS or by going on-line to www.osubeavers.com.

FRESNO STATE:

OSU is 6-6 all-time against Fresno State, with a 2-2 record in Corvallis. Last year’s game in Fresno (the Beavers led by 11 at halftime but it ended in an 80-73 Bulldog victory) was the first meeting since 1994-95, which was also the last time the two teams met in Corvallis (a 72-67 OSU victory).

The Bulldogs won their first five games of 2006-07 by an average of 21.8 points, with victories over Winston-Salem State, South Alabama, UC Irvine, San Francisco and Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

LAST GAME:

The Beavers ended their two-game road trip against Big Sky Conference opponents with a 72-63 win at Montana State on Sunday.

Marcel Jones again led the way with 24 points. Josh Tarver scored 14 and Seth Tarver and Jack McGillis each posted career highs of 11 and 10 points, respectively. T

he Beavers shot 53.8% from the field, a great mark after hitting 31.7% of their shots the previous three games. OSU led by eight at halftime (35-27) and eventually had a 16-point lead in the second half (last at 50-34).

The lead was trimmed to five points with less than 2 1/2 minutes to go but a short jumper by Seth Tarver and a layup by Jones helped rebuild the lead and put the game away.

CUIC:

Head coach Jay John announced on Tuesday that Sasa Cuic had been reinstated after being suspended indefinitely. The suspension lasted one week and Cuic missed the road trip to Northern Colorado and Montana State.

JONES:

Marcel Jones helped shoulder the load during last week’s two road victories, as he averaged 29.5 points in the two games. With 35 points against Northern Colorado, Jones ended a long drought in the Beaver record book as he became the first OSU player to score at least 30 points since Brian Jackson put in 32 against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Jan. 4th, 2000. The last Beaver to score more points in a game was Corey Benjamin with 36 points against Oregon on Jan. 31st, 1998.

PAC-10 STATS:

As of Nov. 27th: OSU is third in the Pac-10 in turnover margin (+3.4). Marcel Jones is fourth in scoring (18.3 ppg) and 19th in rebounding. Kyle Jeffers is seventh in blocked shots (1.3) and 14th in rebounding (6.7). Wesley Washington is eighth in steals (1.6). Josh Tarver is ninth in minutes (32.3).

TURNOVERS:

OSU has a positive turnover margin at 3.4. The Beavers have committed more turnovers than their opponent only once, and are forcing 18.0 turnovers per game. Through seven games last season, the turnover margin was a negative 1.1, and the Beavers committed fewer turnovers than the opponent just twice.

WIN SOME, LOSE SOME:

OSU opened with a 1-1 record for the sixth straight year, a 2-2 record for the fourth straight season and a 3-3 record for the second straight year

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