Oregon State had the magic formula last season when it made a stunning dash to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.
The victory potion has been in short supply this season as the Beavers (1-5) try to snap a five-game losing streak when they meet Penn State (3-2) on Saturday in the third-place game of the Emerald Coast Classic at Niceville, Fla.
Both teams fell in overtime on Friday. The Nittany Lions lost 68-63 to LSU before Oregon State fell 80-77 to Wake Forest.
The Beavers did battle back from a 19-point halftime deficit to force the extra session. However, the end result was another setback, with the last three of those coming by a combined five points.
After a recent home loss to Samford, Oregon State coach Wayne Tinkle touched on how the success of last season was weighing on his club.
“We’re very selfish right now,” Tinkle told reporters. “I’ve done a bad job, obviously, of not bringing this group together quick enough.”
Rodrigue Andela scored a team-high 16 points against Wake Forest. Warith Alatishe, who fouled out after scoring 10 points Friday, leads Oregon State with a 12.3-points-per-game average.
Penn State allowed LSU to score the first six points of the extra session en route to the loss.
While the result was disappointing, Penn State coach Micah Shrewsberry was pleased with the defensive performance. LSU averaged 85.4 points over its first five games, and the Nittany Lions held the high-powered squad 17 points below its average.
“If you look at the scores that (LSU has) had, if you look at what they do, we turned this into a Big Ten game,” Shrewsberry said. “If we defend like this, you give yourself a chance every single night. These are going to be the wars like this in the Big Ten.”
Jalen Pickett scored 14 points and made four 3-pointers for Penn State. Sam Sessoms also fared well with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
Sessoms leads the Nittany Lions with a scoring average of 18 per game. Pickett is fourth on the squad with a 9.8 average but is shooting just 31.1 percent from the floor.
Shrewsberry is looking to get Pickett untracked. Pickett is a former Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Player of the Year at Siena who transferred to Penn State prior to this season.
“He’s trying to get too deep sometimes, getting all the way to the rim instead of taking what the defense gives him,” Shrewsberry said. “But you’re gonna continue to see him get better and better the more comfortable he gets.”
Penn State won its lone previous meeting with Oregon State, 64-61 in double overtime on Dec. 23, 1966, in Lexington, Ky.
–Field Level Media
