Oregon State defeats Illinois-Chicago 74-54

CORVALLIS, Ore. — Jared Cunningham scored 22 points and Roberto Nelson added 14 to lead Oregon State to a 74-54 win against Illinois-Chicago on Wednesday night.

In their final tuneup before Pac-10 Conference play, the Beavers (5-6) led by 20 at halftime, and Illinois-Chicago got no closer than 17 afterward.

Robo Krebs had 21 points and seven rebounds, and Paul Carter scored 19 points for the Flames (5-8), who defeated then-12th ranked Illinois four days earlier.

Nelson, a redshirt freshman guard, had the best of his four games as a collegian. After 18 months in eligibility limbo, the highly-touted recruit from Santa Barbara, Calif., was finally cleared by the NCAA earlier this month.

The Beavers, who lost four of its previous five games, used a 7-0 run during in the first six minutes of the second half to build a 51-26 advantage.

Cunningham added the exclamation point late with a dunk off a long outlet pass from Devon Collier, giving the Beavers a 69-45 lead with 3:54 remaining.

Oregon State shot 27 of 58 from the floor, while Illinois-Chicago was 19 of 57.

The Beavers, who entered the game second in the country in steals with 11.9 per contest, had nine.

Nelson scored seven straight points to give Oregon State a 16-6 lead. The Beavers went on a 12-0 run to go ahead 30-9.