Men’s hoops can’t maintain lead, now 1-7 in Pac-12 play

It was the Washington State game all over again.

For the second time in two games, Oregon State (11-10, 1-7 Pac-12) had the ball while down three points in the waning seconds and came up short — falling to California, 71-68, on Thursday night in Berkeley, Calif.

Just like against Washington State, the Beavers outplayed Cal in the first half — leading 41-33 at halftime. The Beavers hung tough in the second half, leading by as many as 12 points at one point, but saw their lead dwindle as the Golden Bears went on a 22-8 run, finally taking a two point lead with 4:59 left in the game.

It was back and forth from that point on, but Cal sealed the deal on a Solomon Richard dunk with 17 seconds left.

The Beavers, led by junior guard Roberto Nelson with 25 points, had four players — Nelson, Joe Burton, Ahmad Starks and Devon Collier — score in double figures. The other four OSU players who saw action only managed to scrape together seven points in a combined 67 minutes of playing time.

Oregon State will do its best to shake things off and prepare for a red-hot Stanford team fresh off a Wednesday night upset of No. 10 Oregon.

Head coach Craig Robinson hadn’t seen the Cardinal play the Ducks yet, but at Tuesday’s press conference he did say he expected Stanford to be tough.

“[Stanford] looked real good against Utah,” Robinson said Tuesday. “I didn’t see the whole game, but they were making shots, which they hadn’t done in a while.”

The Cardinal have won three out of four after starting off 1-3 in Pac-12 play. While they are in the middle of the pack in all the major conference statistics, they do have the conference leader in free throw percentage, Aaron Bright, who is shooting 90.7 percent from the charity stripe.

sports@dailybarometer.com