Pac-10 Tournament: Ninth-seeded Oregon State leads eighth-seeded Stanford at halftime, 26-18

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Ugly doesn’t say it. Hideous isn’t close. All you can say is thankfully there aren’t many people in Staples Center to watch the alleged basketball game that’s taking place here Wednesday night.

But then again, in a league that’s been down for two years, what did you expect from two of its worst teams this season? Well, if you expected next to nothing, that’s what you got.

Ninth-seeded Oregon State (10-19, 5-13 in league play) leads eighth-seeded Stanford (15-15, 7-11) at halftime, 26-18, in a play-in game of the quarterfinals of the Pacific Life Pacific 10 Conference Tournament.

The winner of this game advances to Thursday’s quarterfinal round to play top-seeded Arizona (25-6, 10-8) at 2:30 p.m.

From the looks of it, Arizona will be up 30 by halftime regardless of which team it faces.

Both Stanford and Oregon State struggled with shooting, and that’s putting it lightly.

At halftime, Oregon State has shot nine of 27 (33.3%) and Stanford has shot a putrid four of 34 (11.8%).

The score stayed within a few points until Beavers freshman guard Ahmad Starks, who has a game-high 11 points, got hot.

He scored 11 consecutive points during a stretch, nine of those coming on three-point jumpers, to key a 13-2 Oregon State run.

(On an aside, Starks is listed at 5 feet 8, so, if you read Wednesday’s editions of The Times, it should come as no surprise that he’s playing in the Pac-10.)

Stanford hasn’t been able to muster much. Guard Jeremy Green and forward Dwight Powell each have five points to lead the Cardinal.

-- Baxter Holmes