Jordan Pope scored a game-high 16 points as Oregon State opened its season with an 82-46 victory against Linfield College on Monday in Corvallis, Ore.
Tyler Bilodeau and Dexter Akanno added 11 points apiece for the Beavers. Bilodeau and Thomas Ndong each grabbed a game-high seven rebounds. Freshman Josiah Lake II had seven assists and didn’t commit a turnover.
Joshua Ryan led Linfield with nine points. The Wildcats, who were limited to 28.3 percent shooting from the field (15 of 53), had four players score six points apiece — Jake Downing, Jack Greenwood, Nick Tripaldi and Jackson Dupree.
It was the first meeting between Linfield, an NCAA Division III school located about 50 miles away in McMinnville, Ore., and Oregon State since the 1947-48 season, when Slats Gill — for whom the Beavers’ coliseum is named — was the coach.
Oregon State forced four turnovers while opening the game with a 7-0 run, and the Wildcats, under first-year coach Levi Sieg, never threatened.
Pope and freshman DaJohn Craig both scored nine points in the first half as the Beavers built a 39-22 lead.
Craig drew the ire of coach Wayne Tinkle in the second half, as the coach demonstrably pointed out the newcomer’s mistakes during a timeout with 11:44 remaining and Oregon State up 55-28.
The Beavers led by as many as 38 points in the second half.
Pope, who was named to the Pac-12’s preseason all-conference second team, led all of the league’s freshmen with an average of 12.6 points per game last season. He made all four of his field-goal attempts in the first half Monday and finished 7 of 13 from the field.
Linfield forward Reece Gibb, the team’s top returnee who averaged 8.5 points and 4.2 rebounds a game last season, didn’t play.
The Beavers forced 18 turnovers, outscoring Linfield 25-7 off miscues. Oregon State had a 41-30 rebounding edge, with a 21-5 advantage in second-chance points, and outscored the Wildcats 30-12 in the paint.
–Field Level Media
