Arizona came away with the W last night in Corvallis by 3 points and was lucky it didn't go into overtime. The cats gottheir first win and continue to blaze through their Pac 10 schedule with their fourth win in a row and their 3rd conference win in a row. The Cats had a nice 13 point lead in the 2nd half, only to watch the Beavers claw their way back into it. Budinger made the front end of a 1 and 1 and after the miss on the 2nd shot, the Beavers got the ball back down by 3 with 30 seconds to go. Roeland Schaftenaar missed a 3 pointer and Oregon State even got another crack at it with another 3 pointer by Roeland Schaftennar, which rattled in and out.

Chase Budinger added 17 points and 8 boards while Jordan Hill had 13 points and 5 boards.  Nic Wise chipped in 14 and had 5 assists. Budinger said it best after the game:

We should have won by more, but a win is a win. In the Pac 10, you can't take anything for granted.

The Outcome was: A win is a win, right? Arizona got its first road win this year, and I'll take it. We are now in sole 6th place in the Pac 10 and get to play Oregon tomorrow. How things have changed over the last two weeks. Corvallis is a tough place to play, and last night was no exception. Building up a 13 point lead in the 2nd half was great, but watching it dwindle towards the end shows that we need to finish, and finish strong.  

The Offensive MVP was: Chase Budinger. 17 poitns on 7-13 from the field. 2-3 from the FT line. 8 boards, and 3 assists. Great game Chase. Jordan Hill is an honorable mention here with 13 points. The only downside? We scored just a total of 56 points. 

The Defensive MVP was: Jordan Hill. I thought in the Preview that we needed to keep Schaftenaar limited because we already had to deal with Haynes. Jordan Hill did a nice job on him last night, limiting him to 10 points and more importantly, only 6 rebounds in the game.

Bench: Jamelle Horn came off of the bench and provided 7 rebounds, 3 points, and 1 steal in 28 minutes. That's not great offensive production, but we haven't been getting ANYTHING in the past few games. 28 minutes is a lot of time to give the starters some rest and I'll take 7 rebounds in that time any day. Again, Lavender and Onobun were meaningless in this game.

Stat of the game: Calvin Haynes: 4-15 shooting. I can't imagine what would have happended to us if he would have been on.

Overall:  I am very satisfied with the game performance. Winning in Corvallis was not going to be easy and we built up a 13 point lead to sustain us until the end. I am a little disappointed that Kyle Fogg only had 5 points on 3 attempts. Why didn't he pull the trigger more? We need that guy to step it up and start playing like he should be playing: with confidence. I am extremely worried about our depth and wish that Onobun could get more minutes. He can rebound, slash, and has the ability to put in quality minutes while letting Jordan get a rest. Let's use him more against Oregon, I say.....

Next Game: At Oregon 1:30 M.S.T., Saturday, February 7, 2009.