March 6, 2008

Corvallis, OR (UWIRE) -- The Oregon State men's basketball team is two games away from making history. Unfortunately it is not the kind of history you want to be associated with. The Beavers (6-22, 0-16) have two chances left to avoid becoming the first team in Pac-10 history to go the entire season without a conference win. It will not be easy as OSU welcomes the Arizona schools to Gill. Thursday's game features the always tough Arizona Wildcats (17-12, 7-9).

To say that Oregon State has struggled against Arizona the past two decades would be a bit of an understatement. In fact, the last 22 years have yielded only five wins, compared to 44 losses, for OSU. On paper this would seem to be an ominous stat for Oregon State, but there is hope.

The Beavers have won four of the last nine games at Gill against Zona and most of those wins have come against much better Arizona teams. Another confidence booster is that Oregon State played one of its better games of the season earlier this year when they played down in Tucson.

The Beavers were ahead by six at the half and led 48-47 with nine minutes to go before Chase Buddinger and Arizona finally pulled away down the stretch. Buddinger scored 11 of his 20 points in the last seven minutes to lead Arizona to victory.

The bad news for the Beavers is Arizona's leading scorer, Jerryd Bayless, did not play in the first meeting. The freshman guard from Phoenix, Ariz. averages 20.3 points and has scored 30 or more points four times this season.

Bayless and company have to win this game if they want to keep their streak of consecutive trips to the NCAA tournament alive, which currently stands at 23. No team has ever reached the NCAA tournament from the Pac-10 with a losing conference record. One more loss will almost definitely keep them out and the Beavers are well aware of this.

Saturday's game against Arizona State (18-10, 8-8) will be the final home game for OSU's lone senior Marcel Jones.

Jones is currently the No. 21 highest scorer in OSU history with 1,143 points and has been the face of the program for the last two years. Barring a win on Thursday, this will be the last chance for Jones and company to get a conference win. The Beavers are not going to give up.

"We know we are better than this," Jones said. "I know numbers don't lie, but 0-16 is not who we are. We've worked too hard. Knowing that we have two more opportunities to get one is going to keep us going.

Arizona State is going to be another tough challenge for Oregon State. The Sun Devils are one of the biggest surprises in the Pac-10 this year. They won only two conference games a year ago and are now on the verge of making it to the NCAA tournament. A loss to Oregon State might cripple their chances, so they will undoubtedly bring their best game to Corvallis.

ASU is led by freshman James Harden. The guard from Los Angeles averages 17.9 points and 5.1 rebounds a game. Harden shoots 53 percent from the field and 41 percent from three. If the Beavers are going to have a chance, they have to find a way to slow him down.

This is pretty much what it all comes down to for Oregon State: two games left with one victory needed to avoid infamy. The players are well aware of it and they know it is now or never.

"It's getting down to crunch time," Josh Tarver said. "I wouldn't say guys are worried, they are eager to get a win. We've got two games left to do it. We don't want to be the first team to go 0-18. We're going to come out and play as hard as we can on Thursday and Saturday."

Game time tonight is scheduled for a 6 p.m. tip-off while Saturday's contest will start at 2 p.m.

(C) 2008 OSU Daily Barometer via UWIRE