Oregon State
Oregon
Nelson Joins 1,000-Point Club In 85-75 Loss To No. 24 Oregon
February 28, 2013 | Men's Basketball
March 1, 2013
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EUGENE, Ore. - Roberto Nelson scored a game-high 31 points, and in the process became the 38th player in Oregon State history to reach the 1,000-point mark, but the Beavers were unable to hold a halftime lead in an 85-75 loss to No. 24 Oregon Thursday night at Matthew Knight Arena.
Oregon State (13-16, 3-13 Pac-12) battled hard in the first half in front of a raucous crowd of 10,621 to take a 41-34 lead to the locker room when Nelson nailed a long three-pointer at the buzzer. The Beavers built the lead to 45-36 and looked to have a possible three-point play when Eric Moreland threw down a monster dunk on Tony Woods. But Moreland was hit with an offensive foul and technical for taunting.
E.J. Singler made both free throws after the technical for a five-point swing, and Oregon (23-6, 12-4) went on a 19-7 run after the controversial call, taking the lead for good when Dominic Artis hit a three-pointer that made it 55-52 at the 11:29 mark.
"There's no reason to get a technical, but it was an emotional play," Oregon State head coach Craig Robinson said. "I need to take a look at the tape and see exactly what happened if it was a real charge or if the guy was in the restricted zone. You can't get caught up in the emotion of the game and get a technical. He knows that so I don't have to really dig in on one of my guys. He knows it right now and he feels horrible about it."
The starting front line of Joe Burton, Devon Collier and Moreland got in foul trouble and the Beavers committed 12 second-half turnovers that the Ducks took advantage of to score 51 points for their second come-from-behind Civil War win this year.
"We had a couple of plays that sort of changed the momentum of the game," Robinson said. "You have to give them credit. But when you're playing against a team that is ranked in the Top 25 and going for a Pac-12 championship and NCAA situations, you can't play one half of a game. I thought we played a really good first half, and I thought in the second half we got tentative, we turned the ball over and we missed a couple of foul shots right when they were making a run."
Nelson scored his 1,000th career point on the game's first basket, a breakaway layup, and added the free throw after he was fouled to give him 1,001. He put on a show in the first half with 22 points on 9-of-13 shooting and added nine more in the second frame to give him 30+ points for the second time this season and third time in his career.
"I thought he played a very composed game given the fact he was scoring a lot of points," Robinson said. "He was playing within himself and he was helping other people, even though he was scoring points. He didn't force any shots, I thought. I thought he did a good job managing the game and we need games like that from him more regularly."
Collier got the start and was the only other Beaver in double figures with 14 points, while Burton added eight points and eight rebounds and Moreland finished with seven points and seven boards. Burton was 14 points away from joining the 1,000-club entering the game and now needs only six more to join Collier and Nelson as Oregon State players to make it this season.
Arsalan Kazemi had 17 points and 12 rebounds, Woods added 16 points, and Johnathan Loyd scored 12 points for the Ducks.
The Beavers make a swing through the Rocky Mountains for their final two regular-season games, beginning with a stop in Salt Lake City, Utah on Thursday for a 6 p.m. PT game against the Utah Utes in a contest televised on ESPNU. The regular-season finale is Saturday at 1:30 p.m. PT against Colorado in Boulder in a game televised on the Pac-12 Networks.
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