Oregon State Beats Cal; Arizona Is Next

When Oregon State guard Eric Knox was growing up in Inglewood, he dreamed of playing basketball at the Forum.

“I have a little tree house in my back yard, and every day when I was a kid, I used to climb up there and look at the Forum,” Knox said. “I always wondered what it would be like to play at the Forum.”

He can stop wondering.

Knox played well in his Forum debut, scoring 27 points as Oregon State defeated California, 79-66, Friday in a Pacific 10 Conference tournament game.

Oregon State plays No. 1-ranked Arizona in a semifinal game today at 1 p.m. Arizona beat Washington State, 62-54, Friday to advance to the semifinals.

Knox doesn’t fear Arizona.

“They’re Arizona, they’re not the Lakers,” Knox said. “They’re just a college team and they’re vulnerable also. We’re not going to back down. We’re going to play hard and we’ll see what happens.”

Ralph Miller, Oregon State coach, said he didn’t plan to scout the Wildcats, who defeated the Beavers by four and 21 points earlier this season.

“I’m not even going to waste time sitting around to watch Arizona,” Miller said. “I know what they do.”

Arizona is 25-3, and Oregon State is 22-6.

Gary Payton, Oregon State’s All-Pac-10 point guard, scored 21 points and had eight assists before fouling out. Payton scored Oregon State’s first 10 points to help the Beavers get off to a 16-2 start.

Knox took charge after Cal shut down Payton with a box-and-one defense in the second half.

Cal, which missed its first 11 shots, got into the game with a 17-4 second-half run to cut the deficit to 39-35 with 10:56 to play.

But Knox made a key four-point play, sinking a three-point shot and adding a free throw with 10:30 remaining, and Cal never recovered.

Center Leonard Taylor led Cal (19-12) with 16 points; forward Roy Fisher added 13, and guard Bill Elleby had 12.

“We hope to be playing basketball somewhere next week,” Cal Coach Lou Campanelli said. “We won 19 games this year and that’s a lot to feel good about. We’ll just wait and see what happens.”