SALT LAKE CITY — Amid a parade of players transferring from Utah at the end of each of the past three seasons, Jason Washburn made the decision to stay.
Washburn believed he owed it to the fans and his team to finish what he started. The senior forward was convinced something good would eventually come from his loyalty. His resilience paid off. Washburn became the 35th player in Utes history to score at least 1,000 points during his basketball career in a 72-61 victory over Oregon State on Thursday night.
He reached the milestone on his first basket of the game and finished with 15 points and eight boards for the Utes.
“It was really early in the game so I tried to stay focused," said Washburn, who now has 1,013 career points. “But I’m in the company with some of the greatest names in Utah history and it’s a really humbling thing to be honest. What makes it even sweeter is it came on a good night for the Utah basketball program."
Jordan Loveridge scored 17 points and collected 12 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season to lead Utah. Jarred DuBois chipped in 15 points and six assists for the Utes (12-17, 4-13 Pac-12) as they moved a step closer to wrapping up the 10th seed in the Pac-12 Tournament next week.
Roberto Nelson scored 18 points and Eric Moreland grabbed 11 rebounds for Oregon State (13-17, 3-14), which lost its fifth straight game.
Utah forced the Beavers to commit 15 turnovers and scored 21 points off those miscues.
“I didn’t like our energy level the whole night," Oregon State coach Craig Robinson said. “We couldn’t get our energy level up. I take most of the blame for that. I’ve got to have these guys prepared to hit the ground running, especially when we come up here."
Utah limited Oregon State to 37 percent shooting from the field before halftime. The Utes held a 21-16 edge on the boards over the Beavers.
In another game on Thursday:
No. 10 Michigan State 58
No. 22 Wisconsin 43
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Keith Appling scored 14 of his 19 points in the second half to help Michigan State pull away to beat Wisconsin and stay in the Big Ten race.
