It was not a game Arizona should have won. The Wildcats lost Chase Jeter to an apparent knee injury and had a couple players foul out Thursday night. However, by the end of the game in Corvallis it was Arizona celebrating a win and not Oregon State. It took until the final seconds for the Wildcats (17-12, 8-8 Pac-12) to secure its second victory of the season over the Beavers as freshman Devonaire Doutrive tapped in a Justin Coleman miss to give UA the victory, it’s third in a row.

Doutrive was a bit of an unlikely hero for the Wildcats, but he has become the team’s best offensive rebounder this year. So, maybe it was fitting that he was able to get the tip-in play to work for his team at the buzzer.

“I just came in and did my role,” Doutrive told reporters after the game. “Coach just told me to get the rebound after the shot goes up and that’s what I did. ... actually when the ball came off the rim I looked at the rim and I was like, ‘this is it.’”

It shows some growth for the freshman, but it also is the latest piece of evidence for Arizona to point to as things falling into place heading into the end of the season. The Wildcats are playing well right when teams want to be playing well and Thursday night’s win over Oregon State is just the latest example of that.

Thursday’s game felt like UA’s season in itself. There was a lot of adversity to overcome, but Sean MIller’s team found a way to push through it and eek out a win.

“We played through a lot in that game for sure,” Miller told reporters after the game.

Arizona certainly didn’t put together its best performance, but when it mattered most the Wildcats came through. UA’s bench was a big part of Thursday night’s victory with a 29-9 edge on Oregon State in that category. Doutrive finished with nine points while Ira Lee and Brandon Williams both scored 10 points off the bench for the Wildcats.

Earlier in the season the bench was viewed as one of the weaker spots on the team, but as of late that group has stepped up and made the most of a bigger opportunities.

“We played them tough,” Doutrive said. “We had a lot of energy at the end especially when Chase got hurt and Brandon Williams fouled out. You’ve just gotta bring that energy at the end.”

For a while it looked like Arizona was bound for being on the losing end of a game to Oregon State for the first time in several games as the Beavers continued to have answers for any blow the Wildcats delivered.

OSU leaned on its big three of Tres Tinkle, Ethan Thompson and Stephen Thompson Jr. throughout the game with that trio eventually accounting for all but 13 of the team’s 72 points. The Beavers also had 13 more free-throw makes than Arizona and forced the Wildcats into 13 turnovers.

However, UA dominated the glass by a 35-19 margin and eventually shot a better percentage than OSU from the field.

It resulted in a victory for the Wildcats and helped the team continue to build on its previous week leaving just two more games in the regular season and continued confidence for Miller’s group.

UA will now look to complete an important sweep of the Oregon schools this weekend when it faces Oregon in Eugene Saturday evening.