Beavers 2-0 for first time in 12 years

By comparison, the 2010-11 Oregon State University men's basketball team lost its second game of the season to Seattle University.

For the record, Seattle U. finished the season 11-20.

In game number two of the 2011-12 campaign, the Beavers defeated West Alabama 93-60 Monday night in front of a Gill Coliseum crowd of 3,208.

The 2-0 start is Oregon State's first in 12 years.

"That's surprising," said head coach Craig Robinson. "There's probably going to be a lot of firsts with this group."

Not only did the Beavers improve to 2-0 for the first time since the 2000, when they started the year 4-0, but they did so in convincing fashion.

Monday's win was a start-to-finish domination of an undersized, less athletic West Alabama team. It followed an 86-62 trouncing of Cal State Bakersfield Saturday.

"To come out and play a complete game feels really good," said junior guard Jared Cunningham.

Play a complete game they did, extending a 24-point halftime lead to 41 at one point in the second half before the reins were turned over to the second- and third-teamers.

Last year's Beaver squad didn't win a game by more than 22, so the fact that this year's bunch was able to grab an early lead and continue to play well impressed Robinson.

"In a way, these are the toughest games to play," Robinson said. "You have to find a way to build on your lead and we did that today, so I was pleased to see that."

Robinson said he even forgot the score at one point due to the fact that his teams of the past hadn't been in similar situations all too often.

"In the first half, when they made a little bit of a run to cut it down to 23, I thought it was 13," Robinson said.

"I wasn't used to having a lead like that, so I didn't even have the score right."

Robinson didn't have to worry about the score much. It seemed like every possession — at least for the first 30 minutes of the game — somebody in a white uniform was finishing a fastbreak with a thunderous dunk or laying in an uncontested putback.

All five Beaver starters finished in double-figures, led by Cunningham's 17. Sophomore forward Devon Collier and junior forward Joe Burton each scored 14, while junior Angus Brandt chipped in 13 on 6-of-7 shooting. Sophomore Ahmad Starks added 10.

Redshirt sophomore Rhys Murphy, who spent his first two years in Corvallis battling injuries, scored his first points as a Beaver, connecting on 3-of-5 attempts from beyond the arc.

In all, 10 of the 13 Beavers to play scored in a game that had many in attendance wondering if Oregon State would crack the 100-point plateau.

With just over 10 minutes remaining in the second half, the Beavers led 87-46 and it looked as though they were on the verge of reaching triple digits for the first time since 1997.

They managed to score just five points the rest of the way — similar to the offensive slump they endured at the start of the second half in their 64-33 exhibition win over Pacific University last week — but it was a moot point by then.

"You tend to take your foot off the gas in situations like that," Brandt said.

The fact that Oregon State was able to take its foot off the gas and still cruise to a 33-point win meant Robinson got to relax — but only for bit.

"You don't get to relax in a game like this until under 10 minutes in the second half, but that's when you have your younger players in, so the turnovers increase and that gets you all wound up again," Robinson said.

At one point, with just under four minutes to play, Robinson inserted Cunningham, who sat for large portions of the first and second half, back into the game to play with the second team.

The reason, Robinson said, was to make a statement on the defensive end and take care of the ball.

Oregon State finished with 15 turnovers, but many of those came in the final 10 minutes.

"Our goal is to have under double-digit turnovers every game, no matter who is in, so there's definitely room for improvement there," Robinson said.

For now, though, it's so far so good for Robinson's squad, who wraps up its three-game homestand against Hofstra Wednesday.

"We're hitting a lot of firsts here, this is new territory for these guys, to be going into a game 2-0," Robinson said. "But these past two games don't mean a thing now."

Grady Garrett, sports editor

sports@dailybarometer.com