GAME NOTES: The Washington Huskies hope to snap a four-game losing streak as they host the Oregon State Beavers for a Pac-12 Conference matchup at Alaska Airlines Arena.

The Beavers are coming off of a 58-56 upset of then No. 7 Arizona at home, which improved them to an 11-4 overall standing, including a 2-1 mark in league action. Coach Wayne Tinkle, in his first year with OSU after an eight- year tenure at Montana, has instilled a defensive-minded mentality in Corvallis that has turned the Beavers into a very difficult opponent. OSU is allowing just 56.8 ppg, the 15th best scoring defense nationally. Luckily for the Huskies, OSU has struggled tremendously on the road, where is has gone just 1-2.

Washington ended 2014 with a 62-57 home loss to Stony Brook and began conference play with three more setbacks to California (81-75), Stanford (68-60) and Washington State (80-77). Coach Lorenzo Romar's squad had won its first 11 games of the campaign before beginning its current losing slide. The Huskies are producing 70.8 ppg on 44.5 percent efficiency from the floor and rank 19th nationally with 40.1 rpg.

This will be the 296th meeting in history between these teams on the hardwood. Washington owns a 157-138 all-time series lead.

OSU has also been very impressive on the glass despite the fact that Gary Payton II (8.2 rpg) and Langston Morris-Walker (4.7 rpg) are the team's top two rebounders out of the backcourt. Payton is also ranked third nationally in steals (2.9), leads the team in scoring with 12.3 ppg and has blocked 14 shots. Morris-Walker, who made a go-ahead layup with 26 seconds remaining in regulation in the upset of Arizona, is chiming in with 10.6 ppg. The Beavers had lost seven in a row to the Wildcats and they have last 11-straight to Washington in Seattle.

The Huskies have a versatile guard of their own in sophomore Nigel Williams- Goss, who is the only Division I player averaging over 14 points, five rebounds and six assists per outing. Williams-Goss is handing out 6.7 apg to rank eighth nationally and third among major conference players. Washington has a pair of tough interior players making life easy for Williams-Goss in Robert Upshaw and Shawn Kemp Jr. Upshaw is averaging 13.0 points and 9.1 rebounds while shooting 60.0 percent from the field over his last eight games. Kemp is currently third all-time in school history in field goal percentage (.568) and adds 10.6 ppg. Andrew Andrews is scoring 11.9 ppg despite hitting on only 34.7 percent of his shows from the floor.

The Huskies are bound to snap their streak at some point. Until OSU proves it can win outside of Corvallis, it is hard to put too much faith in the Beavers against a team as solid as Washington. The Huskies have battled in each outing during their slide despite the unfavorable outcome.