Oregon State’s NCAA tournament run continues with a win over Loyola Chicago in the Sweet 16

Once the Beavers put their toothy zone defense on mighty Loyola Chicago to win, 65-58, in a Midwest Region semifinal, and the Ramblers most certainly could not shoot over it, an Oregon State team that faced the all-or-nothing of having to win its conference tournament or else reached the doorstep of the Final Four. It’s the first Oregon State team to appear in an Elite Eight since 1982 when the Hall of Famer Ralph Miller coached it and the Hall of Famers John Thompson Jr. and Patrick Ewing throttled it.

Count it up: Operating from the country’s most frightening men’s basketball neighborhood, the Pac-12, starting in Las Vegas at that tournament, the Beavers have traveled the hard wilds of brackets through UCLA by 83-79 in overtime, Oregon by 75-64, Colorado by 70-68, a No. 5 seed Tennessee by 70-56, an excellent Oklahoma State with Cade Cunningham by 80-70, and a fellow darling in Loyola Chicago. They’re the second No. 12 seed ever to reach the last eight, and the first since Missouri in 2002.

Where Loyola Chicago had deprogrammed No. 1 seed Illinois, Oregon State deprogrammed Loyola Chicago. Harrowing numbers glared upward from the Ramblers’ stat box. Well into the second half, three-point percentages frowned with numerals like 7.7 and 13.3. With five minutes left in the game, the Ramblers had shot 11-for-42, 2-for-17 from afar. They did nibble to within 47-44 with 3:30 left, but the Beavers clearly have learned how to manage such things. They got an audacious 20-footer from Jarod Lucas, who later would provide an audacious three-pointer from the right side for a 56-49 lead 70 seconds left.

All of that, mind you, happened for a team that stood 11-11 (now 20-12) as recently as Feb. 25, and which began its Pac-12 tournament on March 11 as the afterthought of afterthoughts nationally. Now Ethan Thompson, their leading scorer and 6-foot-5 junior from Los Angeles, had this commanding look as he collected 22 points. Now they’ll play either Syracuse or Houston in a regional final.

That’s all after two teams only the most churlish of churls could resent played a regional semifinal, having spent so much of their histories as if they played in separate countries, even if Oregon State Coach Wayne Tinkle did have a father who served as vice president and dean of students at Loyola Chicago. They had not met since Loyola Chicago’s 31-19 win on Dec. 31, 1927, back when people used to spend New Year’s Eves watching 31-19 basketball games.

As they began anew 93-plus years on, it looked like forgivable nervousness when nobody could score. After the score stood 5-1 at the first media timeout and 9-3 at the second, it grew clear nobody could score because defenses excelled. The scoreboard video, accustomed to showing highlights of offense, ran the risk of having to run clips from the Pacers.

Shot clocks whittled mercilessly toward zero. The Beavers suffered two violations. The Ramblers suffered two occasions when the ball wandered out of bounds with either a second or two left to shoot. Defenders pasted themselves to offenders. Three-point tries clanged, especially from the Ramblers. It started to look like tumbleweed might roll across.

Halfway through the half, the teams were 2-for-10 and 2-for-11, Loyola Chicago the latter. By the end of the half, 35 of 47 shots had featured sad endings.

But as the half wore on and Loyola Chicago reached a desolate 16-13 lead, things turned. The Beavers scored the last 11 points to halftime, ending it when Warith Alatishe made a strong move to the right, held himself in the air for a defender to fly by, and plunked in a short bank shot.

That made it 24-16 and that made it look like the Ramblers were hopeless unless they could improve upon their 1-for-9 shooting from long. Yet Oregon State had cobbled together some offense here and there against the country’s No. 1-ranked defense. It got a three-point shot from the right corner from Thompson, two more free throws from Thompson, a tap-in of yet more misses from Roman Silva, another two free throws from Thompson and Alatishe’s move.

By then, Oregon State had reached 8-for-24 from the floor, while Loyola Chicago stood parked in a heap at 4-for-23.