March 16, 2010

Listen | Watch | Gametracker | Game Notes | Postseason Central

BOSTON - Looking for its first postseason victory since 1959, the Boston University men's basketball team visits Pac-10 member Oregon State Wednesday night for the first round of the College Basketball Invitational with tip-off slated for 10 p.m. ET. The America East tournament runner-up Terriers (19-13, 11-5 AE) have won eight of their last 10 games, while the defending CBI champion Beavers (14-17, 8-10 Pac-10) are on a two-game losing skid.

A year after helping assist Villanova to the NCAA Final Four, first-year head coach Patrick Chambers has led BU to its 12th postseason trip and first appearance since the 2005 National Invitation Tournament. The Terriers are 0-5 in the NIT and 2-6 in the NCAAs with the 1959 squad earning both wins en route to a quarterfinal contest against Jerry West's West Virginia.

Oregon State and BU are meeting for the third time with both contests taking place during the 1980s at the Far West Classic in Portland. Overall, the Terriers are 2-9 against Pac-10 teams with the victories coming against USC (75-53) in 1987 and Oregon (67-56) in the 1985 Far West Classic. They last faced a Pac-10 opponent in 2002-03, losing at Stanford (57-61) in the preseason NIT and at Arizona (71-85) in the Fiesta Bowl Classic title game a day after defeating Florida State.

Coincidently, both BU and OSU's last two losses have come against their respective conference tournament champion. America East winner Vermont slipped by BU, 76-75, on Feb. 9 before defeating the Terriers, 83-70, in the title game last Saturday. Washington ended OSU's regular season with a 82-70 victory and then six days later eliminated the Beavers, 59-52, from the Pac-10 tournament.

The game will be a match-up of contrasting styles, as the up-tempo Terriers feature the AE's top scoring offense at 70.8 ppg. First-team all-conference honoree John Holland became the program's fourth player to surpass 600 points in a season at Vermont and is set to become the first-ever Terrier to lead the league in scoring at 19.0 ppg. Corey Lowe was named to the all-tournament team after averaging 24.7 ppg in three games and is two treys away from becoming the league's No. 2 all-time 3-point shooter.

The Beavers are well-known for their 1-3-1 defense and feature Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year Seth Tarver, who ranks 21st in the NCAA for steals at 2.26 per game. OSU ranks 37th in the nation for steals at 8.1 per game and third in the conference for field goal percentage defense at 42.6 percent. Ranked 28th in the NCAA for scoring defense at 61.1 points per game, the Beavers are also 33rd in 3-point field goal percentage defense at 30.8 percent.

Led by Calvin Haynes' 12.4 points per game, OSU is averaging 59.7 points, having only scored more than 80 points once this season, an 80-64 victory against Cal. The Beavers entered the 2009 CBI with a 13-17 record before finishing the tournament at 18-18 with the title after going through Houston, Vermont and Stanford to reach the best-of-three championship series against UTEP.

The winner between BU and OSU will advance to the quarterfinals against either Colorado State or Morehead State on Monday, March 22.

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