Oregon State Loses Heart-breaker at USC, 65-61

The Oregon State Women’s Basketball Team couldn’t evade Southern California’s rally in the second half and lost in heartbreaking fashion 65-61. Ball-handling once again doomed the Beavers as they coughed up the ball 27 times, leading to 26 points off of turnovers.

While the three point shot wasn’t working for the Beavers on Friday night, they were finding their range early today. After Marie Gulich headed to the bench in the first quarter with two fouls, Oregon State started hitting it from downtown, making three in the first quarter (one more than they made during their entire game against UCLA), including a half-court shot to end the frame.

The shots kept falling in the second quarter as the Beavers added four more to finish the first half 7-for-14 from long range to head into halftime up 40-28. Interestingly, the Trojans didn’t utilize the full court press in that first half to create more turnovers since it had been such a struggle for the Beavers in their previous game.

Towards the end of the third, the Trojan defense started to find its rhythm with six steals in the last three minutes to propel a 12-0 run heading into the fourth. Aliyah Mazyck had three of those steals in a row and took two of them straight back for layups. What had been a 17 point lead in that third quarter was down to four.

The Trojans kept chipping away in the fourth quarter and grabbed the lead with a minute and a half to go on Kristen Simon free throws. The teams traded layups from their leading scorers, Gulich and Simon, to make it 61-60 for the home team with 50 seconds to go. Oregon State couldn’t convert on the next possession and Gulich was hit with a questionable over the back foul that put Moore at the line. Moore only made one of her two attempts to give the ball back to the Beavers with 30 seconds. But once again, Oregon State again couldn’t convert to end the road trip without a win.

Gulich ended the day with 16 points after starting 3-for-3 to score the team’s first six points. USC was fortunate that Gulich headed to the bench early as she was obviously too much to handle for Simon when defending her one-on one. Pivec chipped in 14 points and a team leading eight rebounds. Simon lead the way for the Trojans with 21, while Sadie Edwards and Mazyck contributed 17 and 14 respectively.

This is the first time Oregon State has lost back to back games since 2014 (coincidentally against USC and UCLA). They will head back to Corvallis looking to how to correct their turnover problem as they had 48 over the road trip. The Beavers host the Arizona schools next, so stay tuned to Building the Dam for more previews and recaps.