Rivaldo Soares swished a contested jumper from just inside the 3-point line with 0.6 seconds to play, capping Oregon’s late rally past in-state rival Oregon State for a 69-67 win on the road in Corvallis, Ore., on Saturday night.
Oregon trailed by five with just over two minutes to play but rallied to draw even on Soares’ corner trey with 44.3 seconds left. After Soares rebounded a Beavers miss at the other end, the Ducks held the ball for the winning shot.
Oregon State had an inbounds pass with 0.1 seconds remaining, but Soares got a hand on it to run out the clock before the Beavers could get off a shot.
Oregon (16-13, 10-8 Pac-12) got 16 points and 18 rebounds from N’Faly Dante and moved into fifth place in the conference. All five of Soares’ points came in the last minute of the game.
Oregon State (10-19, 4-14) lost for the sixth time in seven games.
The Ducks led by 10 points early in the second half, but the Beavers trimmed the lead to four. Will Richardson’s lob to Dante for a two-handed dunk gave Oregon a 52-45 lead with 10:46 to play.
Then the Ducks went cold, and Oregon State surged ahead. Dzmitry Ryuny knocked down a 3-pointer for a 55-54 Beavers lead at the 7:29 mark.
Oregon State went ahead 60-58 on a steal and layup by Dexter Akanno, then 65-60 with 2:10 to play after two Jordan Pope free throws and a jumper from Rodrigue Andela.
The Beavers couldn’t hang on.
Oregon led by as many as seven points in the first half but lost that lead after the midway point of the first 20 minutes. During a stretch of cold shooting for the Ducks, the Beavers took a 29-27 lead on Akanno’s 3-pointer with 3:54 to go. Akanno’s 17 points led the Beavers.
Those would be Oregon State’s final points of the half, however, as a Dante jumper, a surprise triple from seldom-used Lok Wur and a 3-pointer from Quincy Guerrier sent the Ducks into halftime with a 35-29 lead.
–Field Level Media
