Beavers Defeat Western Oregon In Exhibition Game

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(Corvallis, Oregon) - The Oregon State men’s basketball team opened its season with a 71-43 win over Western Oregon in an exhibition game Tuesday night at legendary Gill Coliseum.

“This game doesn’t mean anything, but it means something if you lose it,” Oregon State head coach Craig Robinson said. “It’s good to win this game. We had no idea what they were going to do because we hadn’t seen any tape of them this year and they played us completely differently last year. It was interesting to go against a 1-3-1. It’s not the same as ours, but it was very interesting to watch our guys do something that we didn’t practice at all.”

Senior Lathen Wallace led the Beavers with 13 points on 4-of-5 shooting and made all three of his 3-point attempts, while sophomores Jared Cunningham had 11 points and five steals and Joe Burton had six points, 12 rebounds and five steals.

Oregon State shot 50.9 percent from the floor and 12 players scored as the Beavers pushed the ball on offense from the opening tip.

“We have better athletes,” Robinson said. “I don’t think we’ve caught up yet to everyone else in the league. But with the better athleticism we can take advantage of some opportunities. I’ve said since I got here that this is how we want to play.”

Four freshmen played for the Beavers as Ahmad Starks (four assists), Devon Collier (six rebounds), Eric Moreland (five points) and Chris Brown (two points, one rebound) all contributed.

The Beavers forced 26 turnovers and had 17 steals in the game and forced Western Oregon to 28.6 percent shooting from the field. Blair Wheadon led the Wolves with 20 points.

Oregon State will open its regular season on Sunday against UT-Arlington at 1:30 p.m. at Gill Coliseum.

Source: Oregon State University