Dec. 9, 2006

Corvallis, Ore. - Marcel Jones and Wesley Washington provided a deadly arsenal of points from the paint and perimeter in order to lead Oregon State to a decisive 72-49 victory over visiting Bethune-Cookman College today in a men's basketball contest played inside Gill Coliseum in Corvallis, Oregon.

OSU (5-4) shot 45.9 percent from the field and limited B-CC (2-3) to just 34.5 percent from the floor on the night ... forcing the Wildcats into 16 turnovers. The Beavers also outrebounded the `Cats by a margin of 41-35 in order to win the battle of second chance points, 10-5.

OSU ran out to a 9-2 run behind the shooting of Washington and Sasa Cuic as they never looked back from that point on. The lead would swell to as many as 14 (20-6) before the `Cats rallied midway through the half to bring the lead under double digits.

Jimmy Hudson, who shot a season-low 1-for-12 from the field on the night, connected on his only basket of the game, and Dewayne Pettus hit a lay-up to bring the `Cats back to within seven points at 20-13 with 7:43 remaining in the half.

OSU would hold a 34-23 halftime advantage, however.

In the second half, Washington and Jones went to work from all areas of the court for the Beavers to put the lead out to an insurmountable margin of 20 just under six minutes into the second half.

"We have to be a better defensive team," expressed B-CC head coach Cliff Reed following the game. "To me, it doesn't matter what the score is, but I want to run what I draw up and I feel we didn't do a very good job of that today."

With the lead swelling to as many as 32 (67-35) with four minutes left in the game, Bethune-Cookman used a heavy full court press to get the score back to a reasonable distance. Walter Murray gave a spark off the bench with a quick three-pointer, and Damitrius Coleman stripped away two Beavers passes and drove for easy lay-ups to make the score 70-44 with 1:35 remaining in the game.

A bright spot for the `Cats was Coleman, who in his first game as a B-CC player after transferring into the program from Mercer a year ago as the nation's leader in assists, collected a team-high 10 points and three assists. He also had a game-high three assists. Also playing well for the `Cats was Pettus with nine points and two assists.

OSU was paced by Jones--coming into the game averaging right at 15 ppg, with a game-high 20 points and 10 rebounds. Behind him was Washington with 15 points, five rebounds and three assists.

"Of all the teams we will play on this trip, Oregon State is probably the least talented, but that is contributed to the fact that they are young at key positions in their league [Pac-10]," added Reed. "This trip is going to prepare us for when we come back into MEAC play in January. We got a taste of it against FAMU a week ago, but this is really getting us ready, and we need to take advantage of this opportunity and earn some valuable experience out here against great teams."

As a side note, in attendance tonight was former B-CC All-MEAC performer on the softball field, Katie Finn. Finn, a native of the great state of Oregon and a pitcher for the `Cats from three MEAC title squads, was there to support her Wildcats along with her family and friends.

Bethune-Cookman will now prepare for the second of their four-game, nine-day road trip on the west coast on Monday when they travel 35 minutes to the west of Corvallis to nearby Eugene to tangle with the undefeated Oregon Ducks at 7 p.m. local time (10 p.m. EST). B-CC radio personalities Mike Johnson (play-by-play) and Darryl Nattiel (color) will call the action live beginning with a 6:30 pm pre-game show.