Beavers Win Narrow Victory Over UCLA, 75-72

The Beavers got a nice Senior Day win, in what will be the final regular season home games for Katie McWilliams and Joana Grymek. UCLA came to town, and was playing tough after their big win over Oregon. In a bruising game, the Beavers got a 75-72 win to improve to 23-5 overall, and 13-3 in the conference.

The Beavers didn’t get off to as rough a start as they did against USC, but the first quarter was still not ideal. After a back and forth first five minutes, turnovers and iffy foul calls allowed the Bruins to pull away, with UCLA up 7 at the end of the quarter.

Fouls would be an issue all game long, and both coaches started getting chippy with the refs as the clock wound down.

In the second, OSU battled back and tied things up, but couldn’t get in front of the Bruins until Jo Grymek put the Beavers in front with layup. Another layup from Grymek and a three from Aleah Goodman kept the Beavers in front as the half ended, 39-35.

Oregon State couldn’t put the Bruins away in the third, with some good three point shooting keeping UCLA in the game. UCLA matched OSU all game in three point shooting. It was under the basket where the Beavers would find a way to separate themselves from the Bruins. UCLA realized this, and spent the back half of the game getting very physical with Jo Grymek, leading to fouls on both sides.

With the game tied heading into the final quarter. Aleah Goodman was fouled on a three point attempt, and made all her free throws. A minute later she sank a three to give the Beavers a bit of a cushion.

The game continued to be fought at the foul line, and pair of free throws followed by a three from Japreece Dean got things tied up with 3 minutes to go. Mikayla Pivec hit layup to get the lead back, and after a big Jo Grymek block kept UCLA from scoring, Aleah Goodman hit a three to put the Beavers up 5 with 40 seconds left. UCLA got that down to 3 with seconds left to go, and put the ball in the hands of Japreece Dean to try to tie things, but her shot bounced off the rim, and the Beavers won 75-72.

Aleah Goodman led the Beavers in scoring tonight with 21 points, which included four three pointers and being a perfect 5 for 5 from the foul line. She also had three rebounds and two assists.

Mikayla Pivec was close behind, with 18 points, 11 rebounds, and 5 assists. Both Seniors had great Senior Days, with Katie McWilliams scoring 14 points, one rebound, and one assist and Joana Grymek scoring 10 points and grabbing 6 rebounds.

The Beavers will travel to Arizona for their last regular season games next weekend. They’ll take on Arizona State on Friday, March 1st, and Arizona on Sunday, March 3rd. Check back with Building the Dam for previews of those games.