No. 12 Oregon State upsets No. 5 Tennessee

The hangover will wait. Oregon State can’t go home just yet. The Beavers haven’t had this much fun in 39 years.

The team picked to finish dead last in the Pac-12, the team which sat at .500 one month ago, the team which needed to beat three NCAA Tournament-bound teams in three days to win the Pac-12 Tournament for the first time, is now a team with its first NCAA Tournament victory since 1982.

The 12th- seeded Beavers, 8½-point underdogs, added another remarkable chapter to their incredible run with a wireto-wire domination of No. 5 seed Tennessee, 70-56, Friday in the first round of the Midwest Region.

The Beavers (17-12) have won seven of their past eight games and next play No. 4 Oklahoma State with a chance to advance to the Sweet 16 in just their second tournament appearance since 1990. Oregon State had lost its previous seven NCAA Tournament games.

“In the preseason, when we saw that we were picked 12th, it really lit a fire under all of us,” said senior center Roman Silva, who scored a career-high 16 points. “To be picked 12th, to be seeded 12th, we keep seeing the number. It feels great to take this win. To have success on the biggest stage is amazing.”

Though the Beavers were expected to struggle against one of the nation’s top defenses, Tennessee (18-8) made it so that Oregon State never took a shot while trailing. The Volunteers scored just 11 points in the game’s first 16 minutes and fell into a 19-point hole, missing their first nine 3-pointers.