Oregon State looks to snap a nine-game losing streak and build momentum for the Pac-12 season when it hosts Texas A&M on Saturday in Corvallis, Oregon.
COVID-19 has had an impact on the Beavers over the past few weeks. How the team copes will determine if it can turn around its season.
That will be a difficult task against a very good Texas A&M team.
The Beavers (1-9) are looking to rebound following a 71-64 loss at home to UC-Davis on Tuesday. Jarod Lucas led Oregon State with 14 points, while Dashawn Davis added 13 and Ahmad Rand racked up the first double-double of his career with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Oregon State led by two points at the break but surrendered the advantage in the first two minutes of the second half and did not regain it. The Beavers played without three key players because of COVID-19 and contact tracing.
“We get ourselves healthy, we come together, we’ve got to right the ship,” Oregon State coach Wayne Tinkle said after the loss. “It’s going to be a big test of character to how we respond to everything that’s happened here early.”
The Aggies head to Oregon after a 68-64 loss to former Southwest Conference rival TCU in Houston last Saturday.
Marcus Williams led the Aggies (7-2) with a season-high 16 points in the defeat while Quenton Jackson added 13 for Texas A&M, which had a three-game winning streak snapped. The Aggies were just 8 of 18 from the free throw line, a huge stat in a game that was decided by just four points.
Texas A&M trailed by 10 points at the half but rallied to take a brief lead with under seven minutes to play. From there, it was a matter of which team would execute the best, and the Aggies did not.
“It’s just really bad math and hard to overcome,” Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams said. “We played too many empty possessions of not getting extra opportunities on the offensive glass and then not preventing extra opportunities on the defensive glass. So, the combination of the two, particularly when we add the turnover rate was too much.”
Saturday’s game is the fifth meeting all-time between the two teams, with the series tied at 2-2. The Aggies have captured the past two contests, most recently a 64-49 home victory on Dec. 21, 2019.
–Field Level Media
