“Did that just happen?” Moment of the Year

Winner: Shoeless Ro[berto]

Crawford: Midway through the first half of the epic four-overtime game against Stanford, Roberto Nelson knocked down back-to-back threes wearing only one shoe.

Nelson lost a shoe when he got tangled up with Devon Collier going for a rebound. Coach Craig Robinson assumed the officials would call a timeout, but he wasn’t too displeased when it was Stanford who had to call the timeout because Nelson was red-hot and only wearing one Nike.

Unfortunately for the Beavers, Nelson was wearing both shoes at the end of the game when he missed the game-winner.

Runner-up: Trevor Romaine’s
missed game-winner vs. Sac St.

Garrett: Everyone remembers the football team’s loss to Sacramento State on Sept. 3. But does anyone remember that Oregon State had a 4th-and-4 from the Sac St. 5-yard line with four seconds left in the fourth quarter? At that point, everyone at Reser was thinking, “I can’t believe we ALMOST lost to Sac State!” Then Romaine’s 27-yard attempt hit the right upright and everyone thought, “Holy crap, we might actually lose to Sac State.” If it’s any consolation for Romaine, Alexis Serna’s career started out in similar fashion and he turned out OK.

Honorable Mention: Ahmad Starks’s
14-point run against Colorado
Garrett: With 15:05 left in the regular-season finale against Colorado, Ahmad Starks had two points and the Beavers led 41-36. Two minutes and 35 seconds later, Starks had 16 points and the Beavers led 55-36. Yeah, you had to see it to believe it.

Honorable Mention: End of regulation vs. Stanford

Kilstrom: After Stanford missed a potential game-winner with just a few seconds left in regulation, freshman Eric Moreland grabbed the rebound and inexplicably — in attempt to save the ball as he was falling out of bounds — threw it directly to Stanford’s Dwight Powell, who promptly laid-in the game-winner at the buzzer. It was eventually ruled that the ball left Powell’s fingertips after the buzzer sounded, but for the minute or so that the refs were reviewing the play, Gill Coliseum was left to think: “What a HORRIBLE way to lose a game.”