STANFORD, Calif. (AP) - Jarod Lucas heeded his coaches’ words and looked for ways to take the pressure off Oregon State’s top scorers Tres Tinkle and Ethan Thompson.
“I felt good, that was probably the main thing,” Lucas said after scoring a season-high 21 points in the Beavers’ 68-63 victory over Stanford on Thursday night. “Early on, Stanford was helping on Tres and Ethan, which is what a lot of teams do. Coach told the rest of us that we have to step up and make some shots, so they’re not all over Tres and Ethan. Hopefully I did that.”
Lucas scored 11 of his points in the final 4:05 of the first half, helping to give Oregon State (13-8, 3-6 Pac-12) a nine-point edge at halftime.
“We finally showed the toughness we were capable of,” Beavers coach Wayne Tinkle said. “This time we got a real boost from the guys off the bench; it had been a little while.”
Kylor Kelley matched his season-high with seven blocks and Oregon State ended a four-game losing streak to Stanford with the victory.
“He’s the key to our success,” Tinkle said. “When he’s locked in on both ends, we are a different team. We played through some shaky spots. But that guy was huge on both ends at the rim.”
Tinkle added 15 points and Thompson had 14 for the Beavers, who also ended a four-game slide.
Oscar da Silva scored 22 points and had eight rebounds to lead Stanford (15-5, 4-3), which has lost three straight. Tyrell Terry added 13 points and Daejon Davis had 12.
“We’re facing a bit of adversity right now these last three games,” Stanford coach Jerod Haase said. “We’ll see how we respond.”
Kelly, who also scored 10 points, moved into first place all-time with 185 career blocks. He ranks second in the nation in blocked shots.
“Kelley is a good shot blocker and he definitely changes angles and makes some shots tough,” da Silva said. “But we should have been able to work around it.”
An offensive rebound and layup by da Silva brought the Cardinal within 65-63 with 20 seconds left but Oregon State made its free throws.
Isaac White’s putback with 12:48 remaining to play brought Stanford within 46-44 but Lucas answered, converting a three-point play.
Terry hit a layup to make it a one-point game, but the Beavers scored 12 unanswered points to open a 13-point edge with 8:35 to play. Tinkle scored the final two points of the rally on a pair of technical fouls shots.
Oregon State outscored the Cardinal 15-3 over the final 4:05 and the Beavers took a 31-22 lead into halftime.
BIG PICTURE
Oregon State: Lucas scored 19 points in his previous nine games combined before breaking out against Stanford. The freshman was a prolific scorer in high school, setting a CIF SoCal record with 3,356 career points. Lucas entered the contest shooting 25.9% from the field in nine games away from Gill Coliseum. … Kelley has recorded multiple blocks in 19 of his 21 games. … Tinkle reached double figures in scoring for the 86th consecutive game, three off the school record set by Mel Counts.
Stanford: Freshmen Tyrell Terry and Spencer Jones are two important reasons why the Cardinal are performing better than a team picked to finish 10th. They’ve combined on 32 3-pointers during Pac-12 play entering Thursday on 47.1% shooting. Overall, Jones leads the conference with a 45.6% 3-point percentage and is ninth nationally.
UP NEXT
Oregon State: Plays at California on Saturday.
Stanford: Hosts Oregon on Saturday.
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