Oregon State Women’s Basketball Beats Colorado, 86-71

The Oregon State Women’s Basketball team used a 29 point third quarter to erase a one point halftime deficit and beat Colorado to finish off the Mountain sweep. Kat Tudor led the charge with 23 points on 50% shooting for her seventh game as the team’s leading scorer, and fourth in the last five.

There didn’t look to be any weary legs in the first quarter as the teams combined for 39 points and eight three-pointers. Both teams hit a lull as they both went scoreless for the first two minutes of the second quarter before finding their rhythm again and scoring 36 together. Oregon State couldn’t quite pull away after getting up seven points with 1:50 left and allowed Colorado to score the last eight points of the half.

Colorado picked up the pressure in the second half, first through defense by creating turnovers as Oregon State tried to bring to ball up the court, and then by offense driving to the basket to create shooting fouls. The Beaver offense responded though, erupting with a 13-2 run sparked by a couple of three-pointers by Katie McWilliams in the middle of the third quarter to put the visiting team ahead for good.

Tudor connected on three shots from downtown and found success driving the ball for several layups. With teams locking down on her at the three-point line, Tudor has been finding ways to drive to the basket and finish with the soft hand. Marie Gulich was disruptive again with her second straight game with six blocks while collecting her 10th double-double of the season with 12 points and 10 boards plus five assists. McWilliams hit five three-pointers for 15 points and Taylor Kalmer provided a spark off the bench with 11 points and four assists. Mikayla Pivec may not have scored much (six points), but her fingerprints were all over this game with 10 assist and eight rebounds.

The Beavers were able to weather a career high from Colorado freshman forward Mya Hollingshed who scored 22 for the home team while connecting on 6-of-10 from beyond the arc. Junior guards Kennedy Leonard and Alexis Robinson scored 19 and 10 respectively to keep the Buffaloes within striking distance.

The Beavers move to 16-5 on the year and 7-3 in conference play, while Colorado drops to 11-10 overall and 2-8 in conference. Next up, Oregon State will host Stanford on Friday, February 2nd. Come back to Building the Dam for more on the Beavers!