via Oregon State Athletic Communications
HONOLULU, Hawai’i – The Oregon State men’s basketball team fell to Nebraska 78-66 in the championship game of the Diamond Head Classic Wednesday evening in Honolulu, Hawai’i.
Damarco Minor paced the Beavers with 16 points, five rebounds and four assists on his way to All-Tournament honors. Nate Kingz finished the night with 19 points. Isaiah Sy hit a pair of 3-pointers to end his day with eight points off the bench.
Michael Rataj, Parsa Fallah and Liutauras Lelevicius tallied six points apiece. As a team, the Beavers went 15-for-16 from the free throw stripe.
Oregon State now sits at 10-3 on the season.
Minor converted a 4-point play at the game’s first media timeout to give the Beavers an early 9-7 lead. Back-to-back 3-pointers from Lelevicius and Josiah Lake II put Oregon State in front 19-15 midway through the opening half. Nebraska led 32-26 with three minutes to go before the break, but six-straight Oregon State points evened the score before the Huskers headed to the break up 34-32.
Kingz scored five-straight to kick-start the Beavers in the second half. Nebraska countered to take a 44-42 lead with 15 minutes remaining. The teams traded punches with the Huskers in front 64-60 with 3:49 left on the clock. Oregon State battled to the end, but could not overcome the late deficit as Nebraska took the win by 12.
Overall the game featured 10 lead-changes and was tied seven times.
Oregon State will open conference play on Monday when Portland visits Gill Coliseum.
