Not all wins are pretty. If the score held, the Beavs would have won ugly. But a desperate three-point heave by Santa Clara’s Christoph Tilly was rebounded by his teammate Bryan Tyeree with three seconds left in overtime. Tyeree stole the Beaver lead on a layup, and the host Broncos shocked Wayne Tinkle’s Oregon State men’s basketball team, 82-81.

The ending was incredible. The story leading up to it was equally entertaining.

Before the Beavers could blink, Santa Clara raced ahead to a 19-7 lead, with 7 different Broncos shooters scoring points.

With 6:42 remaining in the first half, a Michael Rataj layup clawed Oregon State within 5 at 25-20, but Santa Clara fought off the early comeback effort. With under 5 minutes till halftime, an Oregon State turnover led to a three-pointer from Santa Clara forward Johnny O’Neil, and the Broncos led by 10.

Then the Beavers climbed back. Damarco Minor nailed a jumper inside the paint. A Santa Clara turnover blossomed into a Parsa Fallah fastbreak layup. Minor and Fallah would score five more buckets between them, and the score was tied at halftime 32-all.

Michael Rattaj led all Beavers with 9 points in the first half, followed by 8 from Parsa Fallah, and 6 from Damarco Minor.

Early in the second half, Broncos guard Adama Bal lifted the home team ahead on a free throw. Keizer’s own Nate Kingz responded with a layup, and the Beavers led 34-33 after less than a minute expired.

At that moment, the struggle intensified. Santa Clara quickly swung the lead back in their favor, and Beaver shooting froze up: with 12 minutes remaining, the score stood 54-46 Santa Clara. A three pointer by Santa Clara forward Elijah Mahi extended the deficit to 12.

Then Michael Rataj erupted. The standout German wing earned 5 points in 2 minutes, and helped the Beavers cut the margin in half, 62-56.

With 5:19 remaining, Josiah Lake found Isiah Sy open beyond the arc. The sophomore from Marseille France nailed a three-pointer, and gifted Oregon State their second lead of the second half, 67-65. The brief lead was silenced by a quick Santa Clara run, with a Christoph Tilly slam and Johnny O’Neil layup.

Rataj evened the score on a layup with 1:58 remaining, but neither team landed a finishing blow.

The Beavers started overtime with a 3-0 run, behind free throws from Fallah and Lake. With 1:29 remaining, Isiah Sy struck three-point paydirt once again, and the Beavers advantage was 79-75. After Santa Clara dug the score down to 81-78, Sy fouled Bal, who hit two of three free throws before Tilly & Tyeree combined for last-second heroics.

After a gut-wrenching defeat, the Beavers drop a place in the West Coast Conference standings, now 6th place at 2-2. They are 12-5 overall. Oregon State returns to action Saturday night at the University of Pacific. Coverage will stream on ESPN+, with a radio broadcast across Oregon State radio affiliates, and the game will tip-off at 7 PM PST.

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