Stanford Defense Crushes Beavers in 61-44 Loss

The Oregon State offense put in one of the worst performances they’ve had in a long time in a 61-44 loss to 11th ranked Stanford. The loss drops the Beavers to 19-4 overall, and 9-2 in the conference.

Destiny Slocum got things started well for the Beavers, hitting a layup and a jumper to give OSU a 4-0 lead. Mikayla Pivec added two more, but then the Cardinal defense clamped down. It seemed like the Beavers couldn’t find an open look, while Stanford began to find some scoring. Stanford took the lead, and was up 12-8 at the end of the first.

The low scoring continued in the second. Pivec hit a jumper to trim the lead, but Stanford responded with a big 3 from Kiana Williams. The Cardinal continued to control the flow of the game, and maintained a solid lead until they went on a massive 13-0 run late in the second.

Poor three point shooting continued to dog the Beavers, as even when it seemed like they could find room, the shots would just not fall. Stanford did not have that problem, with Kiana Williams and Lacie Hull hitting big shots to keep Stanford’s lead large. Hull hit a huge three point buzzer beater to give the Cardinal a 36-20 lead at halftime.

Slocum finally broke the three point drought early in the third, but the Beavers had a long way to go. Stanford went right back to work, not letting the Beavers get anywhere near the basket while Alanna Smith scored the next six points. Oregon State continued to miss most of its shots, but Stanford also went cold for a spell. Jo Grymek started to get involved in the game, hitting a layup and a pair of free throws, but OSU couldn’t get the Cardinal lead down. Lacie Hull hit another buzzer beating three for Stanford, giving them a 50-29 lead.

The Beavers threes finally started falling in the fourth, although it was too little too late. Katie McWilliams gave the Beavers there second three a couple minutes into the quarter, and Destiny Slocum added a pair of her own over the next few minutes. Even with that impressive amount of scoring, the Beavers barely managed to cut down the Stanford lead, and the game finished with the Cardinal winning 61-44.

Of those 44 points, more than half came from Destiny Slocum, who finished the night with 23. She also had 8 rebounds on the night. With the rest of the team ice cold, Slocum still found a way to shine. The Beavers proved tonight that Slocum can’t do it alone, but it also looks almost impossible to contain Destiny, regardless of how the game’s going.

No other Beavers hit double digits in scoring. Jo Grymek was the next best scorer, with 8 points. Mikayla Pivec had 6 points, and 9 rebounds. The rest of the team looked pretty terrible tonight, with a team shooting percentage of 27.3%. Some of that is due to remarkably poor three shooting (19.7%), but with Stanford building a big early lead, it’s hard to avoid taking those shots.

The Beavers will look to get back to their game Sunday against California. That game will be at 1:00 PM PT, and air on the Pac-12 Network.