The Aggies travel to Corvallis to play the Beavers at 7 pm on Thursday.
The Ags are coming off a lackluster loss to Sac State on Sunday and will be looking to find some scoring help for Pepper and Johnson. OSU will have a significant height advantage as they have 6 players over 6'9 on their roster including one at 7'2 and another at 7'0. The series between OSU and the Aggies is tied at 1-1 with the Aggies winning their last meeting 71-64 in 2021 in Corvallis.
The game will be carried live on the PAC12 Network. Go Ags!
Hard to tell how good Oregon State is at 3-3 with all their victories were against low level schools (although they barely beat a weak Troy team by 1 point in Corvallis) and they lost badly to very good teams with a combined record of 19-2. I think the Ags have more than a fighting chance, though.
I think that the Ags must find some offensive balance in their line up. I know I sound like a broken record but we can't just have Pepper and Johnson carrying 50% or more of the scoring in every game. Pepper usually scores consistently right from the start of the game but TY has been quiet in the first half but then goes on a heater later in the game. If either of them are having an off night, we're going to struggle offensively and, if each of them are off their game, we're going to be in deep trouble quickly. We need at least one more player in scoring in double figures and a couple more adding 8 points or so.
I believe this will get you to the live stream at 7 pm:
1. Go to: https://pac-12.com/live
2. Select the filter tab and select Men's Basketball and then scroll down to the UC Davis at Oregon State basketball game.
3. Once you select that game, it will ask you to select your TV provider (Comcast, DirectTV etc.) from a drop down menu.
4. That will link you to your provider website where you must log in after which it will automatically redirect you back to the Oregon State live stream and you can watch the game.
5. It's easier than it sounds!
The game starts out here at 5:30 which cuts through my dinner time, so I'll only watch the first half in real time, but see the end well after it's over.
the lineup of bora, tomba, debruhl, manu and milling played really well down the stretch. Good defense but the ball seemed to move well on offense too.
Yes, it's nice to see the bench contribute 18 points. Borra is looking more comfortable and aggressive inside. We've controlled the boards which is a surprise given size advantage of the Beavers.
OSU wins 71-59 in an ugly basketball. Unfortunately, it was uglier for the Aggies especially in the second half. The two teams combined for 50 fouls, 25 apiece. Both teams were careless with the ball too. OSU had 22 TO's and the Aggies had 18. The Aggies also continue to shoot a poor percentage from the line.
The Ags were 4-21 from 3 for 18% and they continue to shoot a poor percentage from the line. Pepper was 2-13 for 9 points and Johnson only had 9 also which is far from their 36 combined points per game.
Something needs to get better soon because, what we've seen so far this year, does not bode well for being competitive in the Big West.
If I were superstitious I would say that my not watching the game in the second half jinxed the Aggies, since they got outscored by 19. But I'm not superstitious, just incredulous that they could play so poorly in the latter 20 minutes. It's not like OSU played especially well, except for their big man, Chol Marial, who seemed to be everywhere, and #4, Dexter Akanno, who did a nice job defending Pepper. That dry spell hurt the most. Not only did they go 9:30 without a basket, but 6:54 without any score. Sad.
I'm not as pessimistic as fellow Aggie. Even if the scores do't indicate it, the Ags have been in every game in the sense that we could have, should have won, with better free throw shooting and fewer turnovers in other words better focus. We all agreed that we needed more balanced scoring and I note that Milling and DeBruhl hit in double figures yesterday. Pepper and Johnson won't both be that cold very often in the future.