Oregon St. Beavers Related Links: Team Page City Page Schedule Stats

Arizona Wildcats Related Links: Team Page City Page Schedule Stats

TUCSON, Arizona (Ticker) -- Arizona may have gotten complacent after clinching the Pac-10 Conference regular season championship, and coach Lute Olson was none too happy about it.

Channing Frye totaled 24 points and 12 rebounds as the top-ranked Wildcats struggled to a 72-60 victory over Oregon State, then received a tongue-lashing from their coach during a closed-door meeting.

"I just didn't feel mentally that we were with it like we have to be," Olson said. "You can say it was the long road trip or that we had already had wrapped up the Pac-10 championship, but we have to be more mentally ready than we were tonight."

Arizona (24-2, 16-1), which was coming off a three-game road trip, stretched its winning streak to nine games.

Guard Jason Gardner was asked what Olson discussed in the locker room.

"Coach O told us you can not just try to turn it on and turn it off," Gardner said. "We weren't moving the ball well and we were giving them too many open looks. We knew (Oregon State) coach Jay (John) would have them well prepared, and they were."

A Tucson native, John spent the previous four years as an assistant under Olson at Arizona and was making his first appearance at the McHale Center since taking the Oregon State job.

"The whole experience of playing back here at McHale has been surreal, unique, odd and novel," John said. "I play to win and I want my program to not be intimidated by anybody and we weren't. If you play as hard as you can, you won't fail. You may not win, but you won't fail. We will grow."

The Beavers gave the Wildcats a major test, closing to 58-54 midway through the second half on a 3-pointer by Brian Jackson, who led Oregon State with 16 points.

Luke Walton hit 1-of-2 from the line to make it 70-60 with 1:56 left and Frye capped the scoring with a dunk with six seconds remaining. He was 10-of-14 from the field.

"Channing is playing well, but he has to get open more and we have to get him the ball more," Olson said. "Only taking 14 shots isn't enough. It's a two-way street. The way he's been shooting it, we have to get him the ball more."

"My teammates got me the ball in the open spots, but I'm not happy with this game," Frye added. "We have to play harder as a team."

The Beavers might have made things even tougher for the Wildcats had they done better than shooting just 44 percent from the foul line (9-of-21).

"Arizona is the No. 1 team in the country, there's no doubt about it," John said. "The two things that stick out in my mind are our inability to shoot free throws, and the other part is our inability to defend Channing. That's the thing about Arizona - so much firepower."

Both teams got off to sluggish starts as the contest was scoreless for more than two minutes and tied at just 8-8 nearly seven minutes in.

Walton's 3-pointer with four seconds left capped an 8-0 spurt that gave Arizona a 40-28 lead at the intermission. Oregon State opened the second half with a 10-3 spurt, closing to 41-38. Phillip Ricci's 3-pointer made it 56-51 with 11:32 remaining.

"We just have to hit our free throws to take that game down to the wire," said Ricci, who contributed 15 points. "If we would have hit our free throws, we could have put ourselves in position to win."

Walton was the only other player in double figures for Arizona with 12 points and reached the century mark in assists for the fourth straight season.

Jimmie Haywood contributed 12 points for the Beavers, who need to win Saturday at Arizona State to clinch their first winning regular season since 1990.

Olson improved to 6-1 against his former assistants.