Oregon State
Colorado
Payton II Leads Beavers in Season Finale
March 12, 2015 | Men's Basketball
Las Vegas, Nev. – Junior guard Gary Payton II and sophomore guard Malcolm Duvivier scored 17 points each but the Beavers fell 78-71 to Colorado on Wednesday in the opening round of the Pacific-12 Conference tournament at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Junior forward Olaf Schaftenaar added 16 for the Beavers, who did not advance in the tournament for the third consecutive year. They led 40-38 at halftime but wore down and were outscored 40-31 in the second half.
OSU (17-14) finished coach Wayne Tinkle's first season by losing 7 of its final 8 games after a 16-7 start. It played the final 16 games with just six scholarship players seeing significant minutes.
The Buffaloes used an 8-0 run midway through the second half to pull away. Colorado led 55-54 with 10:52 remaining but the Beavers were scoreless for two minutes and Colorado capitalized with the decisive run, bookended by 3-pointers from Askia Booker, to go ahead 63-54.
The Beavers drew within 67-63 and had possession when a controversial away-from-the-ball foul on Payton resulted in a lengthy video review and two free throws for Colorado. That seemed to sap OSU's momentum, Colorado went on an 8-2 run for a 75-65 lead and the Beavers never got closer than xx points thereafter.
Payton added five rebounds, three assists and three steals. The Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year had multiple steals in 26 of the 31 games and was the only player in the conference with at least one steal in every game.
His streak of 31 consecutive games with a steal is the second longest in school history, second only to a 37-game streak authored by his father, All-American Gary Payton.
Duvivier scored in double figures in 8 of his final 10 games, and 18 times overall after reaching that mark just once in 32 games in 2013-14. He had three assists, boosting his team-high total to 105, and had a 3-pointer for the seventh game in a row.
The Beavers got 13 points from Duvivier and seven 3-pointers in the first half to build a 40-38 halftime advantage. They were 7-of-16 from beyond the arc and surged ahead in the back-and-forth game on Schaftenaar's 3-pointer with 50 second left in the half.
Schaftenaar had 27 points and was 7-of-13 from deep in his final two starts after scoring just 26 points in the previous 10 games.
Tinkle has now posted a winning record in seven consecutive years and in 8 of his 9 years as a head coach. He has also signed a top-20 recruiting class for 2015-16, anchored by his son, Tres, and Stephen Thompson Jr., the son of assistant coach Stephen Thompson.
“We are very excited for the future of OSU basketball with the next [signing] class and the classes beyond that,” Tinkle said.
