So long, seed
Stanford wanted a No. 1 seed, but not after Oregon St. loss
Posted: Sunday March 07, 1999 01:37 AM
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Carried away: Sasa Petrovic cruises through the crowd as fans carry the Oregon State senior after the Beavers' upset over No. 6 Stanford. AP |
CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) -- Stanford blew any chance it had to gain a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
Josh Steinthal scored 19 points and Deaundra Tanner added 17 as Oregon State upset the No. 6 Cardinal 59-45 Saturday night.
Losses by Auburn and Maryland earlier in the day may have opened the door for Stanford to grab the top seed in the West. But the Cardinal didn't play like a team that had already clinched the Pac-10 title.
"We felt coming into the weekend that if there was going to be any consideration for the No. 1 seed, we had to win two," said Stanford coach Mike Montgomery, whose team beat Oregon 73-61 Thursday night. "Obviously, this takes us out of that."
Oregon State (13-14, 7-11 Pac-10) isn't going to any tournament without tickets. But the Beavers, who had lost seven of their previous eight games, used a methodical offense and strong zone defense to snap the Cardinal's five-game winning streak and beat their third Top 10 team of the season.
"If you can't end the regular season headed to the tournament, I can't think of a better way than we did tonight," Oregon State coach Eddie Payne said.
Stanford (25-6, 15-3) shot just 27 percent in the second half and 33 percent overall. The Cardinal also missed 17 of 18 3-point shots and finished with its lowest point total of the season.
Tanner outplayed Stanford guard Arthur Lee, who was held to six points after scoring a combined 50 in his last two games.
Stanford center Tim Young had 13 points and 14 rebounds, and Mark Madsen had 12 points and 12 rebounds.
Oregon State led 31-25 at the half and stretched its lead to 10 with 11:29 to play. Tanner scrambled after his own rebound and hit a short baseline jumper, and after a steal by Ramunas Petraitis, Steinthal hit a 3-pointer to make it 44-34.
A difficult reverse layup by Clifton Jones pushed the lead to 47-36 with 6:37 remaining, and another 3-pointer by Steinthal made it 50-38 with 5:48 left. Steinthal hit 5-of-9 from 3-point range.
The Cardinal, playing a rotation of just eight players because of an injury to Jarron Collins against Oregon, withered down the stretch, turning the ball over and missing four free throws in a stretch of 3:38.
A 12-foot jumper by Iyan Walker essentially put it away for the Beavers at 53-41 with 2:47 left.
"We pretty much got outplayed," said Montgomery, who was named Pac-10 coach of the year on Saturday. "I'm not going to make a big deal out of it. I know you guys [in the media will]. They beat Arizona here, and they're a great basketball team."
Oregon State finished the season 12-2 at home, including victories over then-No. 7 UCLA and then-No. 9 Arizona in January.
"We knew it was our last game, and we still came out fired up with a lot of energy," Tanner said. "It just really carried over into our defense and our mentality through the entire game."
The Cardinal led 16-9, but Oregon State responded with a 19-4 run. Tanner hit two jumpers with the shot clock winding down, and Steinthal hit two 3-pointers and a jumper in the last 3:25 to give the Beavers a 31-23 lead with 55 seconds left.
Collins, whose brother Jason was knocked out of the lineup earlier this season, sprained his left ankle during Thursday night's 73-61 win at Oregon.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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