Howard Falls To Oregon State on the Road
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Howard fell behind early, battled back and stayed close, but in the end the Bison ran out of gas and fell 69-53 to Oregon State at Gill Coliseum Wednesday night.
Oregon State (8-2) jumped out to a 14-2 lead as Eric Moreland had eight quick points and six from Devon Collier, who made his first start of the season.
But then Howard (3-9) regrouped and used an 11-4 to get to within 18-15. Oregon State then countered with a run of its own to take a 33-23 lead to the locker room.
"I'm sure the faithful, as did I, thought this game was going to be over early with the start we had," Robinson said. "I give a lot of credit to Coach (Kevin) Nickelberry for picking players to leave open on defense. But I thought we handled it relatively well because that was not something we were anticipating. When they switched to man-to-man to zone it caused us some problems and we had to make an adjustment.
Because Howard was not able to match the Beavers' depth, fatigue set in and led to foul trouble. Oregon State substituted liberally and played 12 players.
"Early foul trouble was the difference in this game," said Howard head coach Kevin Nickelberry. "I was proud of how we fought out of the early deficit with our reserves. But ultimately down the stretch, their depth took its toll on us. I am proud of the fact that we played with passion no matter who was on the court."
Howard got 15 points from senior forward Mike Phillips, who has now reached double figures in scoring seven straight games, and 13 from sophomore Prince Okoroh. Senior guard Anton Dickerson came off the bench to score eight points in five minutes. Senior guard Calvin Thompson, the Bison's leading scorer, failed to score for the first time in his career.
"They did a good job of taking Thompson out of the game by putting their center on him to make him a passer first," explained Nickelberry. "We will learn from this experience and only get better."
Moreland led his team with 14 points and 10 rebounds, Roberto Nelson also equaled Moreland's tally and Collier finished with 12.
Howard has little time to recoup as they take on the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers on Friday in New Brunswick, NJ at 7:30 pm.