Arizona St. (20-9) led for all but one brief first half stint, and by as many as 15 points early in the second half, and eliminated Oregon St. 50-44 on the first day of the Pac-10 womens' basketball tournament at the Galen Center in Los Angeles Wednesday.
The Beavers mad a run late, trailing only three on two different occasions in the last 6 minutes, but could never get the stop and score to catch the Sun Devils.
Oregon St. got 10 points from both Sage Indendi and Alyssa Martin, while Earlysis Marchbanks and senior El Sara Greer, in her final game, both added 9 points. Dymond Simon led everyone, with 13 points for Arizona St.
The difference in the game was outside shooting. The Sun Devils shot just 26%, 5 of 19, on three point shots, but the Beavers were only 2 of 13 from behind the arc, 15%. The difference was enough to account for the difference in the game.
Oregon St. finished 9-21 for the year, after suffering their 14th. loss by a single digit margin.
The entire northwest pod of the Pac-10 had a rough day, and the entire contingent, who had populated the bottom four spots in the regular season standings, headed home afterwards.
USC sent Washington St. home with a 78-66 win on their home floor, and California conquered Washington 58-48.
Oregon came closest to surviving, outscoring Arizona by 14 points in the second half, and actually taking the lead with 2 minutes left, after being down 15 points at halftime. But the Wildcats retook the lead with 14 seconds left,while Oregon missed their last 3 free throws, and a last minute three pointer, losing 90-89.
Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com