SEATTLE (AP) — With how much attention he’s drawn from opponents, it’s been rare for Washington’s Noah Dickerson to have a night where he found the space and freedom to be a threat on the offensive end.
Oregon State chose to play Dickerson straight up, and Washington’s bruising forward answered with one of the best games of his senior season.
“I love that Noah,” Washington coach Mike Hopkins said. “Yes please, we’ll take two of those.”
Dickerson scored seven of his 22 points in overtime, David Crisp added a key 3-pointer with 48 seconds left in the extra session, and Washington held off Oregon State 81-76 on Wednesday night for its 15th conference victory.
The Huskies (24-6, 15-2 Pac-12) have already wrapped up the regular season conference title and No. 1 seed at the conference tournament next week in Las Vegas. But it was another uncomfortable night for the league champs, being forced to overtime for the first time this season by the Beavers.
Oregon State (17-12, 9-8) struggled to slow Dickerson most of the night and he carried Washington in the extra session, twice scoring over a defender and adding a dunk off a nice feed from Crisp. His basket with 1:42 left gave Washington a 74-69 lead, but Tres Tinkle answered with a 3-pointer to pull the Beavers within 74-72. Crisp hit fourth 3-pointer of the game from the wing to push the lead to five and the Huskies escaped.
Crisp finished with 22 points and Jaylen Nowell added 16. Dickerson also grabbed 17 rebounds.
“They’ve been like that all four years. All our games are close,” Dickerson said of the Beavers. “They’re just a tough team that are always there. They always hang around. They always have a chance.”
Tinkle led the Beavers with 31 points, one off his career-high, and scored 19 of the final 22 points for Oregon State in regulation and overtime. Kylor Kelley added 16 points, but Stephen Thompson Jr., who has tormented Washington in the past, was held to nine points on 3 of 10 shooting.
Thompson had a chance to add to his previous history of two game-winners against the Huskies, but his forced 3-pointer at the end of regulation missed. Oregon State needs a win over Washington State on Saturday to clinch a first-round bye in the conference tournament.
“It’s a tough one. It’s going to hurt,” Oregon State coach Wayne Tinkle said. “We had our chances in regulation and we made mistakes defensively when we went on our own page instead of doing things the way we work on them and w then we didn’t deliver any of those finishing plays on the offensive end.”
Washington seemed on the verge of putting the Beavers away after taking a 54-48 lead, only to watch Ethan Thompson score underneath and Zach Reichle complete a 4-point play to pull Oregon State even at 54-all with 7:03 left. Washington pushed the lead back to six but was unable to pull away.
Tinkle scored eight straight points, capped by a deep 3 to pull Oregon State even at 62-all with 2:14 remaining. Crisp answered with a driving layup that counted due to basket interference, but fouled Stephen Thompson at the opposite end and his two free throws kept the game tied with 95 seconds left.
Dickerson scored underneath to put the Huskies back in front, but Tinkle answered while being fouled with 53 seconds left. He was unable to complete the 3-point play and kept the game tied at 66. Stephen Thompson, who hit game-winners as a freshman and junior in Corvallis against the Huskies tried a similar move to get free and Crisp remembered.
“He kind of made the same exact move,” Crisp said. “I played it better this time and then he stepped around and got a little space and my heart was in my stomach looking. The shot looked off, but I was like, ‘Please don’t let it somehow go in.'”
