Wayne Tinkle and the Beavers have plenty of tape to study from Monday night’s foul-fest.
EUGENE — In the first few minutes of Saturday’s 87-75 loss to Oregon, the fouls piled up for Oregon State.
Big man Noah Amenhauser picked up his first foul 30 seconds in. And his second a few minutes after, with the team trailing 11-0.
Then, Johan Munch picked up his second. Moments later, Yaak Yaak did the same.
“We were hacking them to start the game,” OSU coach Wayne Tinkle said. “Pushing guys going to the screen. You can’t do that. That’s not being tough. Tough is putting a body on a guy, clearing space on a box out, setting a good, legal screen, fighting through screens. And those guys won that battle tonight.”
The Beavers (3-1) played from behind most of the night due in large part to their fouling issues. Questionable as some of those 27 total calls (to 17 against Oregon) might have been, Tinkle sees it as more of a discipline and readiness issue on his team’s part.
“I’m disappointed we weren’t ready to come out of the gate ready to play,” Tinkle said. “I’ll take the heat for it. I mean, I thought we had done a great job of preparing them for what we were going to see, but they took it to us. Jumped us. And then, the differential ends up 12 points, so shame on us for not coming out with our hair on fire.”
OSU had skated by in its first three games — all decided by three points or less — against North Dakota State, UIC and North Texas. But even as the Ducks (4-0) still ironed out the kinks on their side and couldn’t quite pull away Monday night, they exposed the Beavers’ early-season flaws.
The Ducks had the size advantage inside with Nate Bittle and company, and won the rebounding battle, 38-27. While the Beavers battled back and took Bittle out of the game for stretches, they still lacked the urgency and — according to Tinkle — toughness to get the job done.
“As we’re putting this new team together, we lacked a little bit of toughness,” Tinkle said. “We said, ‘Hey, we don’t need to match the fight. We need to go down there ready to start it.’ In a basketball sense, of course.”
Josiah Lake II showed plenty of fight, despite his own foul trouble. Tinkle called him the “heart and soul” of this Beavers team. He finished with 10 points on 4 of 5 shooting in just 18 minutes.
Munch was a difference-maker when he wasn’t in foul trouble, and Yaak showcased serious shooting touch from midrange just when OSU needed baskets to stay in the game. Isaiah Sy poured in 14 of the Beavers’ 40 bench points, and freshman Matija Samar is beginning to look more and more comfortable as a volume scorer.
“I think the bench should a great job tonight showing some energy when me and Johan got in some foul trouble,” Lake said. “We had to sit longer than we wanted to, but the guys had our back, they hung in there, and I’m proud of them for that.”
But it’s the simple things, like discipline, that were the Beavers’ undoing in their first loss of the young season. Now, OSU has a loss to learn from and plenty of tape to study, rather than a narrow win to celebrate, which might paper over the cracks.
“Valuable lesson to our guys, and we’ll learn from this,” Tinkle said. “I didn’t want to have a self-fulfilling prophecy, but after those first few games, we were worried about a false sense of security. We found a way to pull out the wins late, but we knew we weren’t playing anywhere near to our potential. This one’s going to be good for us moving forward.”
Next game: Oregon State (3-1) vs. Evansville (2-2)
- When: Friday, Nov. 21
- Time: 5:00 pm PT
- Where: Paradise Jam tournament (Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands)
- Stream: ESPN+
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