Oregon State
Arizona State
Oregon State Drops Pac-12 Road Game To Sun Devils, 76-66
January 14, 2012 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 14, 2012
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TEMPE, Ariz. - Four Oregon State players scored in double-figures, led by Devon Collier's 21 points, but the Beavers were unable to hold a slim halftime lead and fell to Arizona State, 76-66, in front of a crowd of 5,068 Saturday night at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe, Ariz.
The Beavers (11-7, 1-5 Pac-12) shook off a sluggish start to end the first half on a 17-4 run and take a 34-31 lead into the locker room at the break. But Arizona State (6-11, 2-3) shot 63 percent, including 55 percent from three-point land, in the second half to outscore the Beavers 45-32 and cruise to the victory.
"I thought the way we handled their defense in the second half is that we stopped what we were doing in the second part of the second half," Oregon State head coach Craig Robinson said. "We were really attacking it and really moving the ball and we got satisfied with that. Secondly, we couldn't find their shooters in the second half. We did a good job in the second half of that first half so I was really disappointed with that. We need to go back to work and figure out how to prevent that."
Ahmad Starks (14), Roberto Nelson (14) and Jared Cunningham (13) also scored in double-figures, the 10th consecutive game in double-digits for both Starks and Cunningham. Nelson had career-highs with six assists and three steals, while Cunningham tied a career-best with a game-high nine rebounds.
The Sun Devils went on a 17-7 run to start the second frame and took a 50-41 lead before Oregon State cut it to 50-46 on a layup by Collier and a three-pointer by Starks. ASU responded with a 13-5 run to take a 63-51 lead and made their free throws down the stretch for the 10-point win.
Chanse Creekmur hit six three-point shots and notched a career-best 24 points to help the Sun Devils with for the third time in 10 home games.
The Beavers return to Gill Coliseum on Thursday to play UCLA at 7:30 p.m. in a game that will be televised nationally on FSN.
"We are hoping that helps us," Robinson said about returning home to play the L.A. schools. "We have to be better and that's what we are going to be focused on is getting better. We are just going to go back to the fundamentals and start from scratch and remind ourselves how we got to where we were before the conference started."
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