Beavers Fall to Washington In First Round of Pac-12 Tournament, 68-67

Oregon State’s shooting, especially from beyond the three point line, went ice cold in the second quarter, dooming them in a tough loss to Washington in the first round of the Pac-12 tournament. A good result in the conference tournament could have gotten the Beavers a #2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but with a loss this bad, the Beavers could potentially be out of a home game. The Beavers fall to 24-7, with a final conference record of 14-5.

Washington’s Darcy Rees and OSU’s Katie McWilliams traded threes to get the game started. Threes were everywhere in the first, with Mikayla Pivec and Destiny Slocum also hitting one each, and Washington matched with a drain from Missy Peterson, while Reese added a second shortly thereafter. Washington kept things close, but late in the quarter Mikayla Pivec powered an Oregon State run to get the Beavers a six point lead at the end of the first.

The Beavers kept things going in the second, including another three (this time from Taya Corosdale) before Amber Melgoza ended the run. Melgoza fought hard, but it wasn’t enough to cut into the Oregon State lead, especially with Destiny Slocum sinking two more three point shots.

Darcy Rees was ultimately the Husky cut the lead down, adding two threes of her own. That’s four in the first half for a player who had never hit more than 2 in a game before. The Beavers shooting went cold in the last 5 minutes of the half, with too many attempted threes bouncing off the rim. Rees led a 10-0 run that got the Beaver lead down from 14 to 4 at the half, 37-33.

Mikayla Pivec found Jo Grymek under the rim to finally end the Beaver cold streak with a layup. Washington continued to hang close, and an Amber Melgoza three tied things up at 41. Melgoza then gave the Huskies the lead with a pair of free throws. A Taya Corosdale three got the Beavers back in front, but Washington answered with a three from Hannah Johnson, and OSU continued to have a hard time hitting their shots.

An Amber Melgoza three put the Huskies up 5 with 1:22 left in the quarter, but a Mikayla Pivec answered with 5 points in the final minute to get the game tied up heading into the 4th. Things stayed tight in the final quarter, until a pair of Missy Peterson threes gave Washington a 4 point lead.

The Beavers couldn’t crack that lead, and the Huskies continued to be up by four with 40 seconds to go. OSU fought hard, and with foul shots they inched back into the game, until a Mikayla Pivec layup tied things up with just over 4 seconds left in regulation.

Then Missy Peterson hit one more three in just two seconds to put the Huskies up.

OSU had some hope left, as a premature celebration from Washington let Aleah Goodman hit a pair of free throws on a technical, but they had to travel the length of the court in an attempt to hit one more shot to win it, and they fell just short, losing 68-67.

Mikayla Pivec did everything she could to pull the Beavers out of the loss, but came up just short. She finished with 23 points, 11 rebounds, and 5 assists. Destiny Slocum had a fine game scoring, with 15 points, but only grabbed one rebound, and had 2 assists. Taya Corosdale rounded out the Beavers top scorers with 14 points, 12 rebounds, and 1 assist.

The Beavers will now wait in limbo to see what happens next. The Selection Show for the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament is a week from Monday, on March 18th.