After a near upset of No. 8 Duke, Oregon State coach Wayne Tinkle is eager to see how his team responds when it takes on Florida in the Phil Knight Legacy tournament Friday in Portland, Ore.
“Now let’s flip the switch and see what it leads to (Friday),” Tinkle told The Oregonian afterward. “The big test is how we respond. Do we have everybody feeling sorry for themselves, or are we gonna wake up, take the game plan, and get after it?
“That’s the challenge.”
After leading for nearly the first 12 minutes of the second half, the underdog Beavers had a chance to take the Blue Devils to overtime late, but Jordan Pope missed a 3-pointer in the closing seconds and Duke escaped with a 54-51 win.
That puts the Beavers (3-2) into the consolation round against Florida (3-2), which lost its opener to Xavier 90-83. Teams in the four-day event take a break Saturday before wrapping up the tourney in a series of Sunday matchups.
The Beavers simply couldn’t match Duke’s power on the boards as the Blue Devils had a 45-29 advantage in rebounds, including 22 at their offensive end that gave them an 18-7 advantage in second-chance points. Pope, a freshman, with 14 points and senior Dexter Akanno, with 12, were the Beavers’ only double-figure scorers.
“This team’s hungry,” Tinkle said. “They’re not satisfied with a great effort.”
Florida got a big game out of Trey Bonham with a season-high 23 points and Will Richard scored 18. Bonham, a transfer from VMI, has scored 34 points in Florida’s last two games.
“I believe he will continue to build on this and be really effective and a good piece for us moving forward,” coach Todd Golden said.
But Florida’s leading scorer, Colin Castleton, was held to a season-low 11 points on 5-for-14 shootings. Golden said the 6-foot-11 forward didn’t “look comfortable” against Xavier’s inside defenders.
“I thought there were some times down there might have been a little contact that he didn’t get an opportunity to go to the line,” Golden said. “But credit to them. They were the more physical team.”
–Field Level Media
