Men's Basketball osubeavers.com

Beavers Best Bears in Berkeley

BERKELEY, Calif. The Oregon State men's basketball team earned a road victory Sunday afternoon, as the Beavers took down California 68-48.

Dexter Akanno sparked the Oregon State offense early, as he finished with 16 points on 6-for-10 shooting (4-for-7 from beyond the arc). Jordan Pope recorded 19 points on 8-for-12 shooting to go with four assists in his return to his home region.

Glenn Taylor Jr. rounded out a trio of Beavers in double-figures with 11 points on 4-for-5 shooting, while Michael Rataj tallied eight points and six rebounds.

As a team the Beavers shot 54 percent from the floor, compared to 37.5 percent or California. Oregon State held a 30-27 advantage on the glass, and a 11-4 edge in second-chance points. OSU knocked down 13 3-pointers, its highest total since the 2018-19 season.

The defenses clamped down through the first four minutes, as Cal took a 4-2 edge into the game's first media timeout. The Beavers held the Golden Bears without a point for a stretch of over seven minutes to take a 9-4 lead.

Akanno began to heat up in the latter stages of the first half, hitting back-to-back 3-pointers to put Oregon State in front 19-15 three minutes before the intermission. The Beavers scored the final 13 points of the first half, capped off by a Pope buzzer beater to send OSU to the locker room up 27-15.

Oregon State kept the momentum rolling in the second half, scoring nine-straight points to extend the lead 19. Cal answered with an 8-0 run to get back within 11, but OSU continued its hot shooting to go up 24 with eight minutes to play. The Beavers controlled the game from there, taking the win by 20.

Oregon State will return to Gill Coliseum next week to host the Mountain schools, beginning Thursday against Utah.