Oregon State Women’s Basketball Falls to #16 Duke

Oregon State dropped a close contest at Duke, 72-65. The Beavers were led by Marie Gulich who was in foul trouble early and played with four fouls nearly the entire final quarter. Gulich was efficient, going 6-9 from the floor and 4-4 from the charity stripe, but pesky defense by Duke’s Erin Mathias frustrated the star-forward.

The Beavers were playing catch-up from 5 minutes into the first quarter after Lexi Brown put the Blue Devils up 11-10 on a three pointer. In the fourth the Beavers were able to cut the Blue Devils lead to one thanks to a steal by Mikayla Pivec that resulted in a tough lay-up and then a three pointer by Kat Tudor. But back to back turnovers hurt the Beaver’s comeback attempt, and then they were finished off by Lexi Brown’s back-to-back steals and layups.

The three-ball was not working for the Beavers as they started 4-14 and finished 9-25, but it was for the Blue Devils as they hit nearly 50% from downtown. Turnovers also hurt the Beavers badly as they doubled the amount that Duke had, 18-9. The Beavers also racked up 18 personal fouls as a tight game was called against the visiting team early on.

Gulich finished with 16 points, while Pivec and Tudor each finished with 13. Duke was led by Brown who finished with 19, but had plenty of help from Rebecca Greenwell and Leaonna Odum who had 17 and 16 respectively.

The Beavers head to Hawaii for the Maui Classic next week and will open against Nevada on Friday, December 1st, for a 9 PM PST tip.