Corvallis Gazette-Times

LOS ANGELES n A youth movement was used out of necessity and it showed promise for the future.

Forward Sasa Cuic went down with a high ankle sprain early, but the rest of the players on the Oregon State men’s basketball team rallied to compensate for his loss.

An inspired group defeated Arizona State 71-68 in the first round of the Pacific-10 Conference Tournament on Wednesday night in the Staples Center.

It was a glimpse of next season with Jack McGillis, Wesley Washington, Brett Casey, Angelo Tsagarakis, Marcel Jones and Kyle Jeffers being featured. And it was a pretty good lineup now.

Two seniors are already on the sidelines with injuries, and now the team’s leading scorer is hurt.

“I’m very proud of our guys and their fight,” coach Jay John said. “We have been a banged-up team. We lost Sasa Cuic four minutes into the game and he has been playing great for us.

“And the guys hung in there. There were a couple times in the first half and in the second half where it could have been over.”

The Sun Devils (11-17) controlled the first half and appeared on the way to an easy victory because of Cuic’s injury. They led by 15 (45-30) early in the second half.

However, the Beavers (13-17) chipped away at the deficit and took the lead 60-59 with 7:04 left. That occurred as ASU forgot how to shoot, rebound and hold on to the ball.

“I thank God for that,” OSU guard Chris Stephens said. “I wasn’t ready go home, being a senior. And I know the guys weren’t either.”

Cuic went down with 15:54 left in the first half. He was battling with Serge Angounou for a loose ball under the hoop, and eventually scored.

He landed on the side of his right ankle on his final leap and went down hard clutching his foot. Cuic was helped off the court and it was quickly determined he was done for the night.

“We are a team and if one player goes down, another player has to step up,” Stephens said. “That’s just the way it is. We can’t hang our heads at halftime and say, ‘Sasa is down.’

“We have Mike (Johnson). We have Jack and other players who work hard in practice. And they showed it here.”

Cuic won’t be able to play today in the quarterfinals. That places the Beavers in a tough position when they face the No. 1 seed UCLA at 2:50 p.m.

He was playing at his peak at the end of the season, scoring 20-plus points in six of the last 10 games. Cuic averaged 15.1 points in Pac-10 play.

“He has a high ankle sprain,” John said. “Those are worse than the regular ones. He’s going to be on crutches the rest of the time down here.”

That left Jeffers, Jones and Stephens as the main scorers, and they combined for 43 points. Jason Fontenet was sharp with 11 points.

After Cuic was hurt, John dug deep into his bench and used a steady rotation of players. Johnson was asked to play a career-high 15 minutes for Cuic.

“We made some offensive adjustments the last couple of weeks because of (the string of injuries),” John said. “We’ve been trying to maximize our guys and their strengths.”

Jeffers continued his hard-nosed approach, while dealing with several aches and pains. He scored a career-high 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds.

“I thought I had to shoot the ball more,” Jeffers said. “Sasa is a good offensive player and someone had to pick up the slack.

“It’s sad to hear because it’s so late in the season. But everybody was more fired up in the second half to keep on playing.”

Kevin Kruger haunted the Beavers again, as the ASU guard scored 22 points, 15 off 3-pointers. Bryson Krueger scored 16 points, but Jeff Pendergraph was held to seven because of Jeffers defense.

For more on the Beavers and the game go to the Oregon State blog at www.gazettetimes.com/sports.