After a rocky start to their conference season earlier this winter, Stanford men’s basketball (11-10, 4-5 Pac-12) seem to be gaining ground with their recent exploits both at home and away. Fresh off their recent 84-81 away win over Cal (5-16, 0-9), the Cardinal continue their three-game road stretch to face off against the Oregon State Beavers (14-7, 6-3) tonight.

The two teams will be meeting for the 145th time with the Beavers holding a 73-71 advantage, including a 38-28 advantage in games played in Oregon.

Stanford has won three straight in the series and nine of the last 11, including two straight victories at Gill Coliseum, the Beavers’ home turf. With the Beavers’ last home win over Stanford coming on Jan. 9, 2014 (81-72), the Cardinal will be looking to bank on their winning streak with the Beavers to continue their recent momentum, preventing the Beavers from having their best conference start to the season since the 1989-90 season.

The Cardinal picked up an 80-71 win exactly a year ago when these two teams met at Maples in February. Plenty has changed since then, though, with both teams planning on coming out guns blazing. The Beavers are trying to end a three-game losing streak to the Cardinal, and Stanford is simply trying to move up the ranks of the Pac-12 conference standings.

With both teams coming in with a two-game winning streak, the Cardinal will depend on their young core of lead-scorers – KZ Okpala and Daejon Davis – to turn the tables on the Beavers. With Okpala averaging 18.1 points a game and Daejon shortly behind at 12.7, these two showstoppers definitely have a game on their hands tonight.

Shortly after this highly anticipated game, the Cardinal will make a short trip over to Eugene, Oregon, to play the Oregon Ducks (13-9, 4-5) on Sunday at 5 p.m. PT.

Contact Amita Gondi at agondi ‘at’ stanford.edu