Sydney Wiese returns to Gill, Beavers decimate Wildcats

Sydney Wiese made her triumphant return to Gill on Friday night, helping the No. 9 Beavers overwhelm the Arizona Wildcats in a dominating 71-43 performance.

It was Wiese's first home game since breaking her hand against Tennessee back on Dec. 19, and she turned in a solid performance with 15 points, 11 rebound and seven assists, all with a wrap on her hand. Leading scorer Jamie Weisner was unable to play tonight due to sickness, but with the return of Wiese and a solid all-around team effort, she could afford to take the night off.

Wiese played like a jitterbug all night, using her speed and size at the point guard position to blow by defenders to the rack and score easy points. The offense looked like a well-oiled machine with Wiese back at the helm, and Ruth Hamblin was able to get several good looks down low. Despite missing a few easy layups, Hamblin still shot 5-10 from the field for 12 points.

Arizona played like a division three school on the evening, making multiple boneheaded mistakes and looking incompetent on both sides of the ball. In one instance, an Arizona player threw an inbounds pass directly out of bounds, missing her teammate by a good couple of feet. An Arizona assistant coach face-palmed for at least five seconds and then refused to high-five the girl when she was immediately checked out of the game. Needless to say, the Wildcats were not putting out good vibes.

Meanwhile, the Beavers collective ebullience shined throughout. It was all but over at halftime with a 47-19 OSU lead in hand, and the reserves were able to pick up some extra playing time in the fourth quarter. In a nice turn of events, everyone who entered the game for OSU scored.

The ladies were all smiles afterwards, laughing, high-fiving and looking genuinely happy. Hamblin even greeted a little kid after the game by picking her up and waving her through the air.

After all, there was cause for a bit of celebration- tonight's game marked their seventh straight win, and they are only just starting to round into form.

OSU now gets a few days off before their matchup with No. 8 Arizona State, which will be televised on ESPN2. The winner of the game will likely catapult up the national polls and be crowned as the alpha dog of the Pac-12. It's gonna be a big one.