Everyone from an Oregon State perspective got what they wanted out of Thursday’s men’s basketball exhibition against St. Martin’s at Gill Coliseum.
The fans saw the team in person for the first time in nearly 20 months.
The team, with seven first-year scholarship players and nine newcomers overall, got to experience its first win together.
And the coaches came away with some teaching points to work on heading into next Tuesday’s regular-season opener against Portland State at Gill.
It was far from a perfect effort, but a Dashawn Davis contested 3-pointer from the right wing with two seconds remaining gave the Beavers an 83-80 victory.
“In my estimation it couldn’t have gone better for us,” OSU coach Wayne Tinkle. “They came in here and played their tails off, gave us all we wanted. We showed some early signs of getting off page a little bit, not playing with the amount of urgency that the Beavers play with. But then we found a way to pull it out in the end, had some guys really step up.”
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Oregon State got all it could handle from St. Martin’s, an NCAA Division II school in Lacey, Washington, that plays in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, which also includes Western Oregon.
The Saints, who led by as many as 14 in the first half, made seven 3-pointers and won the rebounds 21-19 on their way to a 41-36 halftime advantage.
The visitors quickly pushed it to 10 out of the break and later answered a Beavers rally to back ahead by 11, at 72-63, on Kyle Greeley’s 3 with 12:31 to go. But a quick 9-0 OSU run, including five from newcomer Dexter Akanno, got the home team back in it.
St. Martin’s made three more 3-pointers (among 15 for the game) and still led by eight with less than seven minutes left. But the Beavers turned up the defense, forcing the Saints to shoot 2 of 9 from the field down the stretch.
Tinkle and his staff went with a group in the closing minutes that included first-year players Tre Williams, Glenn Taylor Jr., Akanno and Davis.
“This is my first DI game. I’m still getting my jitters out, I’m still getting comfortable,” said Davis, a junior guard who was a junior college All-American last season at Trinity Valley Community College in Texas. “So it’s good that coach has got confidence in me.”
A late 9-0 run, capped by a Taylor layin with 2:59 remaining, gave OSU its first lead since the first nine minutes of the game. Gianni Hunt, who made a string of impactful plays for the Beavers in crunch time, found Warith Alatishe for a dunk. Davis then drove and scored to make it 80-77 before the Saints’ Tyke Thompson tied in on a 3-pointer.
Taylor was blocked in the lane, but St. Martin’s big man Brett Reed missed two free throws on the other end with 25 seconds remaining. After a timeout, and with the clock ticking down,
Hunt found Davis on the wing near the Beaver bench. Davis took a dribble to gain separation from a defender and let it fly.
St. Martin’s took a timeout to set up a play, but Hunt picked off an inbounds pass to secure the win.
Davis said it felt good to have that kind of result and hit such a shot in the first game with his new team. Tinkle joked that he was yelling at Davis to drive, “but it tells you what I know.”
“I kind of knew the play that he drew up wasn’t going to work,” Davis told the assembled crowd in the media room, drawing some chuckles. “I knew they were going to deny that side. I knew (Hunt) was going to end up passing it. So I was just ready before the play even started.”
OSU's Maurice Calloo scored 14 of his team-high 21 points in the first half and developed some cramps after a strong spurt after halftime. Alatishe had 14 points and seven rebounds and Davis seven points, seven rebounds and seven assists in his OSU debut.
All of the new scholarship players got a chance to show their skills. Taylor, the only true freshman in the group, had eight points, two rebounds, one assist and one steal in 12-plus minutes in the second half.
“I feel like we’re coming together well. Coach, he’s emphasizing togetherness and I feel like we’re starting to grasp that,” Calloo said. “Day by day we’re taking that step by step in practice and it’s going good.”
The Beavers got contributions from their returners as well. Hunt had seven points, six assists and three steals and Rodrigue Andela nine points.
Veterans Jarod Lucas and Roman Silva didn’t start as they did a majority of games last year because they’re not 100% healthy, Tinkle said.
“What we saw is we have a lot of depth. When we can all put it together and put the team number one, we feel like that will be a strength of ours. But obviously we’re not there yet. What’s good is we’ve got guys to go to,” the coach said, noting that Lucas and Silva started on the bench. “But we had other guys that stepped up. Next game it might be a different group. We’ve got to challenge the maturity in handling that and this thing will keep building.”
Alex Schumacher had 22 points and Christian Haffner 21 for St. Martin's as the two combined for 11 of their team's 3-pointers.
