Days after Arizona humiliation, Oregon State defense responds to shut down USC in 58-56 win - OregonLive

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Just five days ago, Oregon State couldn’t stop Arizona at anything the Wildcats’ offense wanted to do inside. It wasn’t the first time this season.

“There have been games where it’s just a layup line for the other team,” OSU coach Wayne Tinkle said.

Clearly, the Beavers are fixing the defense. Oregon State contained the Pac-12′s best interior attack Tuesday afternoon, holding USC big men Evan and Isaiah Mobley to 13 shots and 18 points in a 58-56 win at Gill Coliseum.

Turns out shame and humiliation are powerful motivators at the defensive end.

Oregon State appeared as if it didn’t want to defend in giving up 98 points to Arizona last Thursday. It improved some Saturday, when OSU beat Arizona State 80-79. But the defense brilliantly showed up for most of 40 minutes against USC, which towed a six-game winning streak and an offense averaging 78 points a game into Gill.

The Beavers imposed their wills on USC by blanking the Trojans’ offense for the game’s final 2 minutes, 19 seconds.

When Tinkle turned on the video of the Arizona debacle, it was hard to watch.

“I know our guys were disgusted with it,” he said. “It’s the last time we’re going to let that happen without putting up a fight.”

But in Tinkle’s mind, the seeds of improvement were sewn during the second half against Arizona. Despite the lopsided second-half score, seniors Ethan Thompson and Zach Reichle were going all out defensively, as if their effort might lead to something.

It did. Just not Thursday night. The defense made a difference against Arizona State, and handcuffed USC for most of Tuesday’s game.

Tinkle said he told the players during Friday’s video session that Thompson’s play down the stretch against Arizona “were some of his best defensive minutes we’ve seen him play.”

Thompson is not just the Beavers’ leading scorer.

“It’s an amazing thing when a player, especially your best player, realizes how cool it is to dominate at the defensive end as much as offensively,” Tinkle said.

Circumstances were a part of the defensive — and team’s overall — maturation, too. Against Arizona, the Beavers were coming off a COVID-19 shutdown, as the program was paused for a week due to players and coaches testing positive and in contact tracing protocol. The big guys were a mess; Roman Silva was inactive for more than two weeks because of COVID-19, while Rodrigue Andela was slow to recover from a foot injury against Stanford on Jan. 4.

Silva and Andela were key contributors against USC. The 7-foot Silva went 6 of 7 from the floor and scored 12 points, while Andela hit two free throws with 1:49 left to break a 56-56 tie.

Silva went 0-for-2 against Arizona in his first game since Dec. 22, then went on an offensive tear, hitting 10 consecutive shots collectively in the ASU and USC games before missing his final attempt Tuesday.

“It makes you hungry to get back, sitting down for so long,” Silva said. “When you start doing good things offensively, your teammates, your coaches start getting more confidence to put you in successful situations.”

As for Andela, he was among the interior defenders putting the clamps on 7-foot freshman Evan Mobley, the Trojans’ top scorer at 16.2 points a game. In 36 minutes, Mobley had 12 points, taking only eight shots.

But Andela’s most important contribution came at the free throw line, where he’s anything but a sharpshooter. Among Beavers with at least 10 free throw attempts this season, Andela is the team’s worst with a .565 shooting percentage.

When things are rolling, though, anything is possible.

“When I stepped up there for my free throw, I had confidence, like I’m going to make it and we’re going to get the win and everybody’s going to be happy,” Andela said. “I wasn’t scared. I was confident.”

Oregon State, picked to finish last in the Pac-12 before the season started, is suddenly 3-3 and in the middle of the conference standings. This is a difficult stretch, however. Arizona, ASU and USC are in the rearview mirror, but up next is Oregon in Eugene on Saturday, then a road trip to conference leader UCLA and USC.

The Beavers would be thrilled to win any of the next three in similar fashion to Tuesday.

“As one of the coaches said, ‘I love frickin’ winning games closing out on the defensive end,’” Tinkle said.

-- Nick Daschel | ndaschel@oregonian.com | @nickdaschel

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