Oregon State Does A Basketball Doubleheader

Women: Cal-Poly (6-5) at #11 Oregon State (8-1) / 3 PM PST / Pac-12 Stream / KEJO 1240 AM

Men: Ouinnipiac (4-5) at Oregon State (8-2) / 6 PM PST / PAC-12 Network / KEJO 1240 AM / KEX 1190 AM

Site: Gill Coliseum, Corvallis

Women's Game Notes / Men's Game Notes

Oregon State is staging a Christmas week basketball double header today. A ticket for the men's game also gets you in for the women's game, and for those only able to be at Gill in the afternoon, there are lesser priced tickets good for only the afternoon.

The women get things started at 3 PM, hosting Cal-Poly from the Big West. The Mustangs come in having dropped a couple of close ones the last few days on the first 2 stops on their pre-Christmas road trip that concludes today. Last Thursday, St. Mary's secured a hard fought 87-83 win in overtime, and then Saturday night in Bakersfield, Cal-State Bakersfield pulled out a 57-52 win, just their second win of the season.

It was a bounce back for the Roadrunners who were just in Corvallis last Tuesday, for the mid-day field trip game against Oregon State that the Beavers won 75-51.

The men follow at 6 PM, hosting Quinnipiac. It's the rubber match in a 2 for 1 series with the Bobcats, in which home court has prevailed so far. Oregon State won 76-68 on Dec. 29 2 years ago, and Quinnipiac evened the series with a 60-52 win exactly 1 year ago today back in Hamden, CT, that snapped a 5 game Beaver winning streak. The Bobcats held Gary Payton II scoreless in the process. What started out as a "Who?" scheduling event has turned out to be a very competitive and entertaining series.

The Bobcats, from the Metro-Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), have been off for over a week, and come into tonight's contest off a 64-57 home loss to Boston University that snapped a 2 game winning streak. If form holds, Oregon State should get the win, as Quinnipiac has been on a 2 game streak cycle all season. The Bobcats lost their first 2 games, then won 2, and then repeated that cycle, so if the pattern holds, they will lose tonight, but then bounce back to win both of their games next week back in the northeast.

The Oregon State women will be looking to bounce back after suffering their first loss of the season Saturday evening against Tennessee. The Beavers weren't ready to go in their first real test of the season, shooting terribly and falling 17 points behind in the first half. They fought back within 1 point 3 times in the second half, but could never get over the hump, falling 53-50 after missing 4 shots to take the lead, and then a pair of 3s, either of which would have sent the game to overtime. As a result, they fell out of the top 10, landing at #11 in the AP top 25 this week (though still the highest ranked Pac-12 team, 1 spot ahead of Stanford, who beat Tennessee last week).

Sydney Wiese won't play today for Oregon State, though the reason wasn't given in advance. Wiese's right wrist is wrapped, the result of a broken bone in her hand, suffered in a loose ball incident in the first half Saturday night. The full extent of the injury isn't yet known. Preliminary estimate is she will be out 3-4 weeks, but is officially "out indefinitely". It's the first time Wiese has missed a game in her career.

The Oregon State men had to stag a comeback as well Saturday night, but they were successful, overcoming a 10 point first half deficit against Tulsa to pull out a 76-71 win over the Golden Hurricane. It completed a weekend sweep of the revived Far West Classic in Portland, after a 19 year hiatus, that started with the Beavers beating Cal-State Fullerton 82-69 Friday night.

Note also the live stream and Pac-12.com/live are NOT available from on the Oregon State campus.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com