History beckons for the Oregon Ducks who will look to clinch at least a share of a second straight Pac-12 regular-season championship when they face the Oregon State Beavers later this evening. The Ducks won five regular-season conference championships in their illustrious history, but never in consecutive seasons. Oregon is currently in tied for first place with Arizona at 15-2. If the Ducks and the Wildcats end up sharing the regular-season conference title, Oregon would get the No. 1 seed in the Pac-12 tournament because it beat Arizona 85-58 last month in the teams’ only meeting this campaign.
The Ducks may be coming off close victories against California (68-65) and Stanford (75-73) last week but they will have no problems dispatching the hapless Beavers tonight. Oregon destroyed Oregon State, 85-43, in Eugene last January to give the Beavers their most lopsided defeat this season. The Ducks started that contest like a house on fire, scored the game’s first 21 points. Oregon’s 42-point margin was its largest in 161 Civil War victories.
The Ducks are 7-3 SU and 6-3-1 ATS in their last 10 road games.
Betting on the Oregon State Beavers (5-25, 1-16 Pac-12)
To call Oregon State’s 2016-17 NCAA basketball campaign a disappointment would be a severe understatement. The Beavers are dead-last in the Pac-12 conference with an abysmal 1-16 slate. If they can’t record a shock victory against crosstown rivals Oregon on Saturday, they will become the eighth school to win no more than one conference game since the Pac-12 schedule expanded to 18 in 1978.
Beating the Ducks will be easier said than done, though, with Oregon State losing six of its last seven games against Oregon. The Beavers, however, can take comfort in the fact that they have won two of their last three meetings with the Ducks at Gill Coliseum. Also, monumental upsets aren’t that surprising in this time of year. Just ask Gonzaga who was shocked by lowly BYU in their final regular-season game last week.
The Beavers will need to play a perfect game if they are to stun the Ducks tonight. Oregon State will need their sophomore duo of Stephen Thompson Jr. and Drew Eubanks to play the game of their lives against Oregon. Thompson Jr. leads the Beavers with 16.4 points and 3.2 assists per game while Eubanks averages 14.9 points and a team-best 8.4 rebounds.
The Beavers are 6-4 ATS in their last 10 home games.
