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CORVALLIS – The Oregon State men’s basketball team opened conference play with an 89-79 win over Portland Monday evening at Gill Coliseum.
With the win, the Beavers move to 11-3 on the season and 1-0 in WCC play.
Michael Rataj set a career-high with 28 points on 12-for-15 shooting, and knocked down his first nine shots of the game. The forward recorded five rebounds, five assists and two steals. Liutauras Lelevicius had 15 points on 5-for-8 shooting, while Nate Kingz had 15 points, four rebounds and two steals.
Parsa Fallah went 6-for-10 to end his night with 15 points. Isaiah Sy hit five of eight shots to score 14 points off the bench.
As a team, the Beavers shot 61.4 percent from the floor. Oregon State held a 29-19 advantage in rebounding.
Portland got off to a strong start, opening up a 9-2 advantage to start the contest. Rataj scored 13 of Oregon State’s first 17 points as the Beavers evened the score at 17. The Pilots extended the lead to 10 at 36-26.
Oregon State answered by scoring 10-straight to claim its first lead at 41-39 with under two minutes to go before the break. The Beavers ended the half on a 15-0 run to head to the break up 46-39.
Rataj led the Beavers with 18 first-half points.
The Beavers extended the lead to 12 early in the second half, but the Pilots battled back to get back within five. The teams traded punches for the bulk of the closing frame, before Oregon State took a 15-point lead with 3:10 to play.
Oregon State held on from there, taking the win by 10.
The Beavers will hit the road Thursday to take on LMU.
OSU Athletics
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