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Oregon State Hands 20th Ranked Washington Second Straight Loss

The Oregon State Beavers hit key free throws down the stretch to clinch a 68 - 56 victory over the 20th-ranked University of Washington Huskies.

After losing to the Huskies by 31 points at Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle just four weeks ago, coach Craig Robinson and his Beavers handed the Huskies their second straight loss this season.

Coming off an 87-80 loss to the Washington State this past Sunday, the Huskies looked to regain their winning ways; after jumping out to a quick 11-4 lead, however, the Huskies let the Beavers back into the game courtesy of a three-point  basket from OSU's Omari Johnson. It was all downhill from there for UW.

Isaiah Thomas, the Washington guard who was making a name for himself as a possible Pac-10 player of the year, may have lost all hope at that award on Thursday evening with four unforced turnovers as the Huskies fell to 7-3 in conference play and possibly out of the top 25 for the third time this season.

When UW outshoots its opponent the Huskies are virtually impossible to beat, but when UW is outshot on the floor, the Huskies are regularly defeated, and Thursday night that was the case with Washington, which shot just 32.3 percent while the Beavers shot 43.8 percent from the field.

Scott Suggs scored a career-high 18 points including five three-point baskets - he picked up the offensive load for the Huskies. Isaiah Thomas and Matthew Bryan-Amaning, who are averaging 17.1 and 15.7 points per game, combined for a total of 21 points against the Beavers.

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The Beavers snapped their three-game losing streak behind the 19 points of Jared Cunningham in a game that came down to the final minutes of play. Even after UW got into the double-bonus early in the second half, the 47.4-percent free throw shooting rate from Lorenzo Romar’s Huskies was a big reason why UW failed to surge past the Beavers. Capitalizing on what has clearly been the Achilles heel for Washington for the past few seasons, the Beavers hit key free throws in the final minutes to solidify their upset win over the Dawgs. What was particularly prominent in this OSU uprising was a foul shot from Calvin Haynes with 1:48 remaining that pushed the Beavers to a three-possession lead at 62-54. Haynes finished the game with 11 points off the bench for Beavers.

This marks Oregon State’s first victory over Washington since Feb. 22, 2007, when they defeated the Huskies 73- 65 in Corvallis.

The Huskies look to salvage their road trip and stop their losing streak at two games as they head down to Eugene, Oregon, to take on the Oregon Ducks on Saturday at 1 p.m. Pacific time at Matthew Knight Arena.

By Ganelle Swehla
DFN Sports Staff Writer