Arizona @ Oregon St. preview

Last Meeting ( Feb 28, 2019 ) Arizona 74, Oregon St. 72

Oregon State looks to knock off a top-25 ranked team for the first time since 2016 when it hosts No. 24 Arizona on Sunday night. Both the Beavers and Wildcats will be trying to salvage a split of their weekly conference games after losing close contests Thursday night.

The Wildcats, who crushed in-state rival Arizona State, 75-47, in their conference opener, had ninth-ranked Oregon on the ropes for most of their game Thursday night in Eugene, building a 66-60 lead on a jumper by freshman forward Zeke Nnaji with 1:47 to go before the Ducks rallied to send the contest into overtime where guard Will Richardson hit a jumper with 15 seconds left for the winning basket in a 74-73 victory. Arizona, which led by as many as 11 points in the contest, missed two shots on its final possession to win it and turned it over on an inbound pass under its own basket in the final seconds without getting another shot up. "Oregon got more of those plays, made more of the those plays, and in a game like the one we just played, in many ways that can decide it," Arizona coach Sean Miller told tucson.com. "Did we make a lot of great plays? No doubt. But those six, eight plays -- rebounding, scrum for the ball, loose ball at the top of the key ... it just seemed like they were better than us in those plays." Oregon State meanwhile fell behind by as many as 17 points before cutting the deficit to four points with 21 seconds left in a 82-76 loss to hot-shooting Arizona State.

TIME: 10 p.m. ET. TV: Fox Sports 1

ABOUT ARIZONA (11-4, 1-1 Pac-12): Miller benched starting center Chase Jeter, who went 0-for-3 with one rebound in 12 minutes, with over 13 minutes to go in regulation Thursday. "He didn't get it done," Miller said. "We're only playing guys who are going to help us win the game, and if you're not up to the task, we're moving on to the next player. ... We went tonight with the guys we thought gave us a chance to win. And we had a chance to win." The 6-11 Nanji, who finished with 11 points and 14 rebounds in Thursday's loss, leads the team in both scoring (16.2) and rebounding (8.5) while freshman point guard Nice Mannion, who had 20 points but also committed six turnovers, is second in scoring (14.7) while dishing off a Pac-12-best 6.1 assists per game and another talented true freshman, guard Josh Green, is also averaging in double figures (13.3).

ABOUT OREGON STATE (11-4, 1-2): Coach Wayne Tinkle was upset with his team's defense and focus after Arizona State, which was just 3-of-21 from 3-point range in its loss to Arizona last week, shot 48.3 percent from the field, including 8-of-16 from behind the arc, and also outrebounded the Beavers, 38-31. "For whatever reason, we didn't come out with the focus and fire, and that's my job," Tinkle told oregonlive.com. "That's my No. 1 job. Didn't happen tonight, and that's on me." Tinkle's son Tres, a 6-7 forward, leads the team in both scoring (19.9) and rebounding (6.9) while junior guard Ethan Thompson, who like Tinkle finished with 22 points in Thursday's loss, is second in scoring (16.7) with 7-foot senior forward Kylor Kelley also averaging in double figures (11.1).

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Oregon State's last win over a top-25 team came on Jan. 24, 2016 against No. 21 USC, 85-70.

2. Thompson needs nine points to become the 43rd player in school history to join the 1,000-point club.

3. Arizona holds a 65-21 edge in the series with Oregon State including 25-15 at Gill Coliseum where the Beavers have defeated them six times when they were ranked in the top-25, most recently on Jan. 11, 2015 (58-56).

PREDICTION: Arizona 74, Oregon State 69