An illness ran through the Oregon State men’s basketball team in the past week, keeping multiple players off the practice floor leading into Wednesday’s home game against Denver.

It started to take its effect three days earlier, as the Beavers defeated Green Bay 65-56 in another game where the defense led the way.

It was more of the same versus Denver, as Oregon State shot its worst percentage of the season (34.7) but finally found some offense late to erase an eight-point deficit with under five minutes to go and pulled out a 57-52 win. It was the Beavers’ third consecutive victory heading into their Dec. 31 game at Oregon.

“I think we definitely showed more character, especially since most of team was under the weather. We were a little sick and stuff,” forward Dzmitry Ryuny said. “But we keep our bond and we show that character that regardless of how we feel we’re going to push through and get the job done.”

The Beavers were without guard Christian Wright due to illness and center Chol Marial missed his fourth straight game due to an ankle injury.

OSU (7-6) outscored Denver (9-5) 17-6 in the last 4:33, with 10 of those points coming on free throws. The Beavers were shooting 13 of 44 from the floor before hitting four of their last five.

Nick Krass canned a difficult baseline jumper with 3:01 left to complete an 8-0 run that pulled the Beavers back even at 48-all. Ryuny’s 3-pointer from the top of the key later gave Oregon State a one-point edge before the teams traded the lead four more times.

Jordan Pope’s two free throws with 28 seconds left put the Beavers ahead for good. OSU was 10 for 11 at the line in the final five minutes and 19 of 24 for the game.

“I thought our execution the last six, seven minutes offensively was as good as it’s been, which has been a weakness of ours,” Beavers coach Wayne Tinkle said.

Krass had a season-high nine points, nearly doubling his scoring output in the first 12 contests, and was 5 of 6 at the foul line.

He’s one of six true freshmen on the roster, and redshirt freshman guard Justin Rochelin is seeing his first collegiate time as well. The Beavers have had to lean heavily on those seven players, as they’ve accounted for 44.5% of the team’s minutes to date.

”I think we’ve done a pretty good job. We just come into practice every day and we battle,” Krass said. “We’re trying to develop our chemistry on and off the court and I think it’s already showed.”

Oregon State has managed to shoot better than 48% just twice in 13 games, and both of those came in two of first three contests. One of those was against Bushnell, an NAIA school.

Wednesday, the Beavers missed their first eight shots and started 2 of 14 on their way to a 20-18 halftime lead. OSU had a 2-for-13 stretch in the second half before finishing strong.

“The offense is going to come. I know it looked rough there for a while, and we know what its solution is: ball movement, player movement,” Tinkle said. ”When we hold it, when we go 1 on 1, when we let the defense load, we get in trouble. Then you get out-of-character shots and you shoot low percentages.”

OSU had just eight assists against Green Bay and followed that with nine on 17 field goals versus Denver.

This year’s team draws some comparisons to Tinkle’s squad in the 2014-15 season, his first year leading the Beavers.

That team also relied heavily on its defense, holding opponents to 38.6% shooting overall, the ninth-best mark in the country. The Beavers went 17-14, and newcomer Gary Payton II led the team in points, rebounds and steals and was second in assists. OSU shot 42.2%, 238th of 345 NCAA Division I teams.

This year’s team is shooting 44% and allowing 40.1.

“There are some comparisons offensively,” Tinkle said. “I don’t think we’re quite there defensively yet because that team got really dialed into our zone, and they knew we had to play at a snail’s pace. We’re not trying to. It’s going to come. We’re not shooting it. We got great looks early (Wednesday). We missed shots at the rim. We just need to relax and keep our minds freed up.”

”We’re giving the effort defensively. We needed to get a little more nasty on the boards tonight. But the offense will come. We’ve just got to hang in there, free our minds up, keep that thing moving. Get a little more selfless and I think it will click.”