Brown Scores Career High In Loss At Oregon State
CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) – Glenn Taylor Jr. scored a career-high 28 points, Michael Rataj scored the last four points of the game and Oregon State beat California 69-66 on Saturday night in a Pac-12 Conference regular-season finale.
“Just a heartbreaking loss,” Cal head coach Mark Fox said after the game. “I thought our young people played really hard.
“I thought they played really well defensively in the first half and I thought we responded late in the second half when Oregon State made a run. We executed perfectly in late clock to get the lead at the end of the game. We just didn’t get the stop to go with it.
“I feel awful for everybody because they did everything we asked them to do...that responsibility goes on the coach. It’s not the players’ fault. They have done what we’ve asked them to do and let’s give credit to Oregon State for making the play.”
Grant Newell's jumper gave Cal a 66-65 lead with 28 seconds left before Rataj's layup made it a one-point lead for the Beavers with 15 seconds left. On the ensuing possession and without any timeouts, Sam Alajiki stepped out-of-bounds to give the ball back to the Beavers.
Dzmitry Ryuny tossed an inbounds pass to Rataj, who caught the ball past midcourt and scored on a two-handed dunk. Cal's Joel Brown heaved a deep 3-pointer that hit the top of the backboard to end it.
Taylor was 6 of 13 from the floor and 15 of 16 from the free-throw line. Jordan Pope added 17 points and Tyler Bilodeau had 11 for Oregon State (11-20, 5-15), which shot 42% (20 of 47) overall and 83% (24 of 29) from the line.
Brown finished with a career-high 22 points, four assists and two steals to lead Cal (3-28, 2-18), which led by as many as 16 points late in the first half.
Cal jumped out on a 15-3 run and built a 36-28 lead at the break. Brown scored 13 points and Newell added eight as the Bears shot 54% (13 of 24) from the field over the first 20 minutes of play.
UP NEXT
Cal heads to Las Vegas next week for the Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Tournament. The Bears are the 12th seed and will play the fifth seed at 2:30 p.m. PST on Wednesday at T-Mobile Arena.
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