OSU Women's Basketball: A quick sweep of the Ducks to go to .500 in Pac-12 play

In a different scheduling deal for the women's OSU and UO basketball teams, the Civil War series was decided over just a three-day span.  The two games allowed Oregon State to bounce back from a tough road trip the previous weekend against the ranked Cal and Stanford teams and gave the women's basketball team their first Pac-12 wins of the 2013-14 season.

In Saturday's game the Beavers were led by Ruth Hamblin who had a double-double with 27 points and 16 rebounds and was closely followed by Sydney Wiese who had a career-high of 24 points and also contributed nine assists.   It was a solid all-around team effort though as the Beavs were able to withstand an early Oregon run in which the Ducks were able to run up the score to 22 to 13 at the 11:01 mark with a Katelyn Loper three point field goal.  Oregon State was able to respond with a ten point run of their own to take the lead at the 8:29 mark with a Sydney Wiese three point field goal.

From there it became a bit of a back-and-forth game with each team taking the lead or tying the game.   Oregon though was able to create some separation with some sloppy Oregon State play and fouls, which allowed the Ducks to go back up eight points at the 5:14 mark.  Some strong rebounding and aggressive play by Oregon State kept things close and the Beavs were able to go into the halftime just down one point, 42 to 41.

In the first half Oregon State shot 42% from the field and were 6 for 21 in three point field goals.  The Beavs also were able to grab 28 rebounds but also turned it over 14 times.   Oregon shot 39% from the field and went 3 for 10 from the three point arc, they also grabbed 20 rebounds and only turned it over 6 times.   The leading scorers for Oregon State were Ruth Hamblin with 14 points and  Sydney Wiese with 12 points.   Oregon was led by Jillian Alleyne with 14 points.

The second half saw more sharp shooting by Oregon Sate who were able to shoot 56% from the field and 6 for 14 in three point field goals versus Oregon's 37% and 0 for 7 in three point field goal attempts.   The Beavers overall controlled much of the latter part of the second half with timely three point field goals and strong inside play on both sides of the ball for Hamblin.   It looked to be much in doubt though in the earlier part of the second half as the at home Ducks were able to build leads and withstand small scoring runs by the Beavers, but after a three point jumper by Wiese to put the Beavs up 63 to 62 at the 9:23 mark Oregon State was able to hold onto the lead for a strong 88 to 80 finish on the road to go to 9 and 6 overall and 1 and 2 in conference play.

The two teams did not have a lot of time to sit back and reflect on the Saturday game for they were matched up again, this time in Corvallis, Monday evening.  This game though was all Oregon State who lead for almost all the game and were able to hold off a couple strong second half Oregon rallies to win the game 84 to 70.  Ruth Hamblin continued to dominate in the paint on both offense and defense, but again it was a team effort as the Oregon State backcourt offense was strong in hitting some key three point field goals, making solid shots from the outside, drove to the basket well, and made some key assists to the frontcourt players who again were a mismatch for Oregon.

The first half saw the teams play to their strengths with Oregon State playing a solid half court game with strong inside play and sharp outside shooting early in the game, whereas Oregon kept the pace of their offense up-tempo and aggressive.   Oregon State though was able to take advantage of the inside mismatch, as well as poor Oregon shooting to get the lead up to 16 points at the 7:07 mark with a Jamie Weisner three point field goal to go up 38 to 22.   The Beavs led all the way after a Hamblin basket at the 16:16 mark to take a 9 to 7 lead, but the Ducks were able to chip away at the lead to only trail OSU 44 to 33 going into halftime.

The halftime stats broke down to OSU shooting 46% and 6 for 19 in three point field goals, and were able to grab 28 rebounds and turned it over six times; whereas Oregon only shot 30% with 3 for 15 three point field goals, and had 27 rebounds and 4 turnovers.   Oregon State was led by Jamie Weisner with 13 points and Oregon was led by Jillian Alleyne and Chrishae Rowe who both had 10 points.

In the second half the shooting for the Beavs stayed solid, but some sloppy ball handling (with Oregon full court pressure defense) along with some foul trouble for Hamblin and forward Deven Hunter allowed the Ducks to make a couple scoring runs to get within 3 points at the 12:07 mark and to one point at the 8:55 mark to a score of 62 to 61.   But a huge three point field goal by Gabriella Hanson put the Beavs back up by 4 points and allowed OSU to withstand the Oregon aggressive play to finally put the Ducks away in the last five and a half minutes, and the last second free throws by Jamie Weisner sealed the deal for the Beavs as they beat the Ducks 84 to 70.

Oregon State ended the game shooting 51% but just 8 for 28 from the three point arc, and were able to grab 49 rebounds and had 14 turn overs.   Oregon shot only 32% with 4 for 22 three point field goals, and the Ducks were also able to grab 49 rebounds and only turned it over 8 times.   The leading scorers for Oregon State in the game were Ruth Hamblin with 23 points (who had a triple-double with also 12 rebounds and 10 blocks), Gabriella Hanson with 19 points, and Jamie Weisner with 17 points; and for Oregon Jillian Alleyne had 18 points and Chrishae Rowe had 15 points.

With the second Civil War win Oregon State goes to 10 and 6 overall and 2 and 2 in Pac-12 play, and the Beavers will go to LA to play USC (11-6 and 4-1) Friday evening and UCLA (8-9 and 2-3) Monday at noon.   Oregon drops to 9 and 6 overall and 0 and 4 in conference play and will play UCLA Friday night.