Missed free throws, turnovers cost Beavers again

By Cliff Kirkpatrick
Gazette-Times reporter

PULLMAN, Wash. — It has become a recurring nightmare.

Missed free throws and a lack of execution down the stretch led to another loss for the Oregon State men’s basketball team.

The Beavers hope to wake up soon and stop the horror.

OSU’s latest setback was a 70-55 Pacific-10 Conference loss to No. 20 Washington State on Thursday night before a crowd of 6,816 in Beasley Coliseum.

“Free throws got us again,” point guard Josh Tarver said. “It’s something that’s killing us right now. It would have been a lot closer if we hit free throws. We played a good 35 minutes with them. They made plays at the end and we didn’t make plays.“

OSU was 6-for-19 on free throws, lowering its conference-worst percentage to 61.

Going to the line is when the cold sweats start in the Beavers’ nightmare. And they weren’t close on many of their attempts.

“There is nothing wrong with shot technique or repetitions,” forward Sasa Cuic said. “We shoot well in practices. At this point it has become a mental thing.”

The Beavers (9-12, 1-7) lost their sixth game to a ranked team this season. They have been good for one upset the last three seasons.

At least there are more chances to keep the streak alive with another daunting trip through the Pac-10 ahead.

“It’s always something,” Cuic said. “One game it’s turnovers. One game it’s mental breakdowns then it’s free throws. There’s this and there’s that. It’s always something. Everything needs to be better.”

Making the night worse was 36 percent shooting from the field. There were poor shots because the Cougars (17-3, 6-2) played strong defense.

There were nine blocked shots and 32 of their 41 rebounds were defensive.

“For the third Pac-10 game our inability to make free throws cost us an opportunity to win the ball game,” coach Jay John said. “Along with that is finishing layups. Those are things as coaches, you execute offense and you get your kids free throws, layups and offensive rebound opportunities, you are doing your job with respect to offensive execution.”

And the remedy?

“You need to have better shooters in the overall scheme of things,” John said. “But at this particulate point in individual development of guys, with layups you have to go up with authority. There shouldn’t be that many blocked shots from behind. With free throws it’s a putt. You have to walk up and make the putt. These are college guys. They’ve been shooting free throws since grade school. You just have to keep getting fouled. Getting fouled is a good thing. You just have to make them.”

Cuic started after missing last Saturday’s game with an elbow injury, and it may have hurt his offense. He scored 17 low-percentage points and struggled with his outside shot.

Wesley Washington played through his wrist pain to score three points and hand out three assists. His sprain is a long-term problem.

Marcel Jones had an off night, scoring 14 points. That’s three off his average. However, he missed shots and free throws he normally makes.

Washington State started slow offensively, which led to a six-point lead by OSU in the middle of the first half. Defense kept the game close and turned the momentum as WSU went into intermission with a seven-point lead.

The Beavers are haunted by spells during games when the offense goes cold. If they could have kept scoring at that point, they may have put the game away early.

However, 25 percent (2-for-8) from the free-throw line and 17 percent (1-for-6) from 3-point range that half made it difficult to catch up in the second half.

There was a slight run after intermission to get within two, but the Cougars settled down and finished out the game.

“We were taking bad shots at the end,” Tarver said. “We hacked up 3s early when we should have been doing that later in the time. That’s a mistake we made, but we can learn from it.”