Oregon State Women's Basketball defeats Oregon 63 to 53

The OSU women came out strong and took a 37 to 20 lead into halftime behind some solid shooting and excellent defense. The Beavs shot 40.6% from the field in the first half but even more impressive they held the Ducks to only 19.4%. Freshman Jamie Weisner had a huge game, hitting four three pointers for the game and scored 22 points to lead all scorers for the game, indeed scoring a balanced 11 points each half. Weisner just came off Pac-12 'Freshman of the Week' honors and it is a nice sign for this young OSU team to have one of their young stars to continue to step up play. Patricia Bright chipped in 10 points of her own, but even more importantly Bright was once again a force in the paint blocking six shots and grabbing seven rebounds.

As good as the first half was, the Beavs were able to come out in the second half to build the lead to 24 points, but behind a strong performance by Oregon's Liz Brenner (17 points and 8 rebounds) the Ducks were able to close the lead to seven points going into the last two minutes of the game. The Beavs held on though and we able to put the game away in the last minutes with some good overall FT shooting and for the most part smart handling of the increased full court pressure Oregon put together at the end. Still though the Ducks were able to outscore the Beavs 33 to 26 in the second half.

Really a key in that second half was not really that the Ducks shot all that much better, though they did bring up their shooting % to 31.4, it was more that Oregon State went a bit cold after building the big lead. Additionally Oregon's Brenner really started to assert herself in the paint and along with Jillian Alleyne's 13 rebounds the Ducks were able to get a nice selection of second chances on the offensive side of the ball. This got the crowd back into for the Ducks (as well as the rather UO-centric announcers). It was an impressive run for an understaffed Oregon team and showed some heart, but in the end though Oregon State showed enough poise and were able to take home the first OSU basketball Civil War win of the season by a 63-53 score.

With the win, Oregon State has won four consecutive games against Oregon for the first time in program history. Following last season's 68-53 win in Eugene, the Beavers also claimed their first-ever back-to-back road wins against the Ducks. [http://www.osubeavers.com/sports/w-baskbl/recaps/011613aab.html]

Additionally this game was a nice bounce back from a rather tough loss to Arizona State, where the Sun Devils had the Beavs number with some really dynamic defensive pressure. In that game last weekend the Beavs were coming off a solid win over Arizona and run into a defensive buzzsaw that did not allow OSU to establish any rhythm. As such it was refreshing to see OSU handle the late UO charge and the defensive pressure, and also to be the team in control of the lead throughout the entire game was a very nice bonus last night.

The win puts Oregon State at 2 and 3 in conference play and 8 and 9 overall.

Strangely enough we can look forward to a possible sweep over the Ducks sooner than usual as the two teams play each other again Sunday at 2:00 in Gill. Come out and bring the broom posters! Go Beavs!