Arizona women edge Oregon State in final seconds

The Oregon State (7-4) Women’s basketball team returned to action after nearly a month off by welcoming Adia Barnes and her 7th ranked Arizona Wildcats (12-1) to Gill Coliseum on Thursday night. The Beavers were looking for their first win since beating Northern Iowa at the Maui Jim Classic on Dec. 19 and their first home win since beating Pacific on Dec. 1.

The Beavers and Wildcats fought until the final seconds of the game and a Shaina Pellington jumper for Arizona was the difference late in the contest to give the visiting team a 55-53 win.

Fifth-year senior Taya Corosdale had a monster night for Oregon State recording a near double-double with a career-high 19 points and 8 rebounds. While Bendu Yeaney led the scoring effort for Arizona with 15 points.

Corosdale got it going early after making a three-pointer to give the Beavers a quick 5-0 lead in the opening quarter. The next four minutes saw the Wildcats go on an 8-0 run to grab the lead following a made free-throw by Ariyah Copeland. Talia von Oelhoffen found her rhythm on offense with a couple of minutes left in the quarter, assisting on two Beaver buckets and scoring one of her own to give Oregon State a 15-10 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Ellie Mack found Corosdale for the three-pointer in the first couple minutes of the second quarter to get the Beavers back to five at 18-13. Arizona tied up the game at 19 with six minutes left in the half after a made free-throw by Yeaney. For the rest of the half, neither team was able to separate more than four points following a made jumper by Mack assisted by von Oelhoffen. Arizona was able to make the Oregon State lead only two at the half after Yeaney made a pair of free throws in the final six seconds of the half. The Beavers took a slim lead into the locker room over the Wildcats 27-25.

After scoring 10 points in the first half for Oregon State Corosdale continued to be the driving force on offense as she opened the scoring for the Beavs in the second half. The Wildcats were able to grab their first lead since 2:37 lead in the second quarter after back-to-back layups by Pellington to give Arizona a 35-34 lead. Von Oelhoffen assisted on a Mack three-point basket in the last minute of the third quarter to cut the lead to only three as Arizona held a 45-42 advantage going into the final quarter.

With nearly five minutes left in the game, von Oelhoffen and Corosdale combined for four free throws to get the deficit back to only one at 49-48 and Arizona holding a small lead. In the ensuing minutes, both von Oelhoffen and Corosdale would score five quick points to take the lead back for the Beavers 53-49 with three minutes to go in the game.

Yeaney’s pair of made free throws for Arizona tied the game at 53-53 with only a minute and 15 seconds left.

In the final minute, the Beavers got an offensive rebound off a Jelena Mitrovic miss but Oregon State was called for a shot-clock violation after Mitrovic’s missed shot never hit the rim and the shot-clock ran out. Arizona advanced the ball after a timeout and ran the clock down to the last seconds. Pellington started her attack with close to five seconds left and pulled up at the free-throw line and knocked down the jumper with less than a second left and gave the Wildcats a 55-53 lead. The Beavers had 0.05 seconds left on the clock and used a timeout to advance the ball. But a deflection by Arizona’s Sam Thomas on Oregon State’s inbound pass ran out the clock and the Beavers weren’t able to get a final shot off.

Oregon State shot 37.5% from the field and from three-point land while Arizona shot 40.4% from the field and only 30% from three. The Beavers will now have some more time off in between their next game after they were originally scheduled to play Arizona State on Saturday. But the Sun Devils entered health and safety protocols earlier this week and that game will now be rescheduled to a later date. Oregon State will get their next conference action on Monday, Jan. 17 at 2 p.m. when the Colorado Buffaloes come to town.