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Williams, Arizona extend home winning streak vs. Oregon St.

Jan 12, 2007 - 7:24 AM TUCSON, Arizona (Ticker) -- Marcus Williams made sure that Oregon State's annual trip to the desert continued to be a nightmare.

Williams scored a career-high 27 points as eighth-ranked Arizona continued its home mastery of Oregon State with an 83-72 Pac-10 Conference victory.

Bouncing back from their first league loss at Washington State on Saturday, the Wildcats (13-2, 3-1 Pac-10) captured their 25th consecutive win here against the Beavers.

"This (Arizona) is the best running team I've faced as a coach," Oregon State coach Jay John said. "I felt in other years we have come down here and got caught up in the frenzy, and this is one of our youngest teams."

The last time Oregon State won in Tucson was during the 1982-83 campaign, the season before Lute Olson became the coach for Arizona.

Having a three-game streak of 20-point efforts snapped with 18 in the setback against the Cougars, Williams shot 10-of-18 from the field and grabbed eight rebounds.

"I was able to be in the right spot at the right time and knock some shots down," said Williams, who is averaging 22.2 points in his last five games. "My teammates found me and I was able to hit the shots."

The 6-7 sophomore had 16 points in the first half as the Wildcats raced to a 42-27 lead. That advantage grew to 21 points in the second half, but the Beavers closed within 76-67 on a layup by Marcel Jones with three minutes remaining.

"We tried to jump on them and make sure they didn't get much confidence coming into the building," Williams said. "We did that, but let them back into it a bit in the second half."

"We knew Arizona was a great team that has runs," Jones said. "We had one of our own that cut the lead. We need to stay positive."

Williams struck again, penetrating into the lane and finding Jawann McClellan for a reverse layup and a 78-67 advantage 46 seconds later. The sophomore Williams, who finished with four assists, also set up Ivan Radenovic's layup with 1:12 to play.

Freshman Chase Budinger scored 16 points and pulled down 10 rebounds for Arizona, which shot 49 percent (28-of-57) from the floor.

"Chase Budinger did a better job on the glass tonight than he has done for a long time, so that was a plus," Olson said.

"That was an emphasis," the 6-7 Budinger said about recording his second double-double of the season. "The coaches wanted me to get on the glass more and get that double-double."

The Wildcats next will host No. 17 Oregon on Sunday, a club that brings a number of different challenges than the deliberate style of play of the Beavers. The up-tempo Ducks improved to 4-0 on the road with a 60-55 victory at Arizona State on Thursday.

"We'll be challenged on Sunday," Olson said. "Oregon will be the quickest team that we have faced as well as one of the top 3-point shooting teams."

"It's definitely going to be a big game," said Radenovic, who finished with 13 points and eight boards. "It's nice to have more time to prepare and to get rested for the game."

Jones finished with 26 points and eight boards for Oregon State (8-9, 0-4), which went 6-of-22 (27 percent) on 3-pointers and committed 20 turnovers.

"You can't be happy with a 0-4 start," Jones said. "It's just the fact that we could have competed harder. We lost by 11 with 20 turnovers. We played hard, they are just a better team."