Oregon State men's basketball loses to Washington

The Oregon State men’s basketball team went into Saturday’s game against Washington trying to do something they’ve failed to do since the Pac-12 season began in January.

The Beavers (13-13, 3-10 Pac-12) haven’t won two games in a row since mid-December, and haven’t won a game in Seattle since 2003. Both of those streaks will have to wait to be broken as OSU fell to the Huskies, 72-62, on Saturday night.

Plagued by their worst shooting performance of the season, the Beavers only managed to make 33.9 percent of their shot attempts. Oregon State’s previous low was 34.8 percent against Towson on Dec. 29.

It didn’t help the Beavers that Washington (14-12, 6-7) shot 50 percent from the field. Prior to Saturday’s game, no Pac-12 team had shot 50 percent or better against Oregon State, and only two other teams have done it all season. C.J. Wilcox — who scored 23 points the last time the two teams met — led the Huskies with 24 points and six rebounds.

In a familiar story for OSU fans, the Beavers saw a two-point halftime lead evaporate quickly as the Huskies opened up the second half on a 14-5 run and never looked back. After losing their small lead at the 18:09 mark of the second period, the Beavers never led again.

Junior guard Ahmad Starks made two 3-pointers to move his career total to 181, becoming the Oregon State all-time leader in 3-pointers made. Overall, Starks had a quiet night, finishing with eight points — his two 3-pointers were the only field goals he made.

The Huskies did a good job limiting junior guard Roberto Nelson, too. He came into the game shooting 57.9 percent over the Beavers previous six games, but only shot 18.8 percent from the field on Saturday — his lowest field goal percentage since the Beavers played Kansas on Nov. 30, 2012. Still, Nelson finished with 19 points and has been Oregon State’s leading scorer in the last six games.