(Corvallis, Ore. - Nov. 4, 2024) - The Utah Tech men's basketball team opened the 2024-25 season on Monday night fighting tough at Oregon State, falling 80-57 to the Beavers at Gill Coliseum.

How It Happened
An even first six minutes of action saw the Trailblazers take a slight 12-11 lead after a three-pointer from redshirt senior guard Justin Bieker.

The Beavers, who will play the next two seasons as part of the WCC, responded with 12-0 run over the next nearly four-and-half minutes to go ahead by 11.

With OSU continuing to lead by double digits with 2:25 to play in the opening half, the Blazers cut that lead in half with a dunk by senior center Sammy Howlin to make it 36-31 in favor of OSU. Two free by OSU at the end of the half gave the home team a seven-point lead heading into halftime.

Coming out of the break on fire, the Trailblazers ripped off a 12-2 run, capped by a Beon Riley layup, to jump ahead 43-40.  

Oregon State responded with a 14-7 run to jump back in the lead 54-50 as a jumper by Riley with 9:18 to play in the second half condensed the Beavers' lead down to a pair.

Unfortunately for the Trailblazers, the Beavers ended the game on a 26-5 run to win by a comfortable 23-point margin.

Key Numbers

• Led by a career-high 14 points from Bieker, the Trailblazers also got a double figure scoring performance from senior guard Noa Gonsalves, who finished with 10 points and a pair of assists.
• Riley nearly missed a double-double finishing with nine points and team-leading nine rebounds adding five assists in 25 minutes of action before fouling out with 2:26 to play in the second half.
• With 13 Trailblazers seeing action, eight Blazers made their Utah Tech debuts with four more joining Bieker in the scoring column.
• UT got a career-best six points from redshirt junior forward Samuel Ariyibi while Howlin (5 pts.), Pavle Misic (3 pts.) and Britton Berrett (2 pts.) also scored in their first action as a Trailblazer.
• Hunter Schenck, Dallin Grant and Hakim Byrd also saw their first action as a Trailblazer.
• Utah Tech falls to 1-4 in both season openers and road openers in the Division I era while dropping to 8-11 overall in season openers in the NCAA era.
• Gonsalves played a team-leading 37 minutes while all five starters totaled 24 minutes or more. Schenck saw a team-high 10 minutes off the bench.
• The Trailblazers led the Beavers in free throws made (14-10), but Oregon State held an advantage in field goals made (32-19) and three pointers made (6-5).

Up next
The Trailblazers return home for their home opener on Saturday night hosting former WAC foe New Mexico State (1-0) at 7 p.m. at Burns Arena for the WAC/C-USA Alliance Game.