USC basketball vs. Oregon State preview: Lineups, odds, TV channel, live stream

USC basketball is looking for its first road victory of the season on Thursday night, taking on the Oregon State Beavers in Corvallis.

Gill Coliseum | Corvallis, OR8:00 p.m. PT | ESPNUSeries: USC leads 73-63Last meeting: USC 61, Oregon State 48 in 2018

USC basketball passed their first two test in Pac-12 play, besting Cal and Stanford despite suiting up just seven scholarship players in each of those contests. Now sitting 9-6 and on a four-game winning streak, the next big test has arrived: Win a road game.

They will attempt to accomplish that feat on Thursday night against the 9-4 Oregon State Beavers.

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Led by redshirt junior forward Tres Tinkle, who is averaging 20.5 points and 8.6 rebounds per game, the Beavers are fresh off a win over rival Oregon on Saturday.

The job of outpacing Tres Tinkle will fall to Nick Rakocevic and company. The Trojan forward is coming off one of his best stretches of the season. He was named Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Player of the Week while averaging 25 points and nine rebounds in the victories over Cal and Stanford.

Further bolstering USC is the potential return of two key freshmen. Kevin Porter Jr. has missed seven weeks with complications from a quad contusion, but he traveled with the team up north. Averaging 11.7 points in his first five games, Porter Jr. is considered a potential NBA lottery talent.

The Trojans could also get guard Elijah Weaver back for the action in the northwest.

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If USC comes away with a victory, it would be the first 3-0 start for the program since 2007.

Tip off is set for 8:00 p.m. on ESPNU. Roxy Bernstein is slated to handle play-by-play while Corey Williams supplies color commentary.

The live radio broadcast on ESPNLA710 will have Jordan Moore doing his usual play-by-play commentary.

Probable Starters

Oregon State: 

G #1 Stephen Thompson Jr., 6-4, 190, Sr. (14.2 ppg)G #5 Ethan Thompson, 6-5, 190, So. (12.3 ppg)G #11 Zach Reichle, 6-5, 205, So. (4.4 ppg)F #3 Tres Tinkle, 6-8, 225, RS-Jr. (20.5 ppg)F #24 Kylor Kelley, 7-0, 215, Jr. (8.0 ppg)

USC:

G #0 Shaqquan Aaron, 6-7, 195, RS-Sr. (9.8 ppg)G #2 Jonah Mathews, 6-3, 200, Jr. (12.1 ppg)G #5 Derryck Thornton, 6-3, 195, RS-Jr. (9.6 ppg)F #25 Bennie Boatwright, 6-10, 235, Sr. (15.8 ppg)F #31 Nick Rakocevic, 6-11, 225, Jr. (15.7 ppg)

Channel Listings: 

DirecTV: Channel 208Dish: Channel 141AT&T U-Verse: Channels 1605 HD/605 SDVerizon FiOS: Channel 573 HD/73 SDSpectrum TV: Channel 370 or Check your local listings

Live Stream: Watch ESPN

Odds: Oregon State -4.5

The Beavers are favored over the Trojans by 4.5 points, per the OddsShark spread consensus. The over/under for the game sits at 142.5 points.

When playing as the favorite, Oregon State has gone 8-3 this season. That’s bad news for USC, which has gone 0-4 as an underdog. The Trojans are also 0-2 on the road so far.