Oregon State
Arizona St
OSU Thumps Arizona State, 64-51
February 04, 2000 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 4, 2000
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon State overcame a horrendous start Friday night at Gill Coliseum to bounce back with vengeance to defeat Arizona State going away, 64-51 for its second straight Pac-10 victory and take over sole possession of fifth place.
The Beavers improved their overall record to 9-11, but more important, hiked their conference record to 5-3. OSU was tied with the Sun Devils in the conference standings entering the game. ASU falls to 11-7 and 4-4 in the conference.
It was a great night for senior center Sissel Pierce for the Beavers. Oregon State was trailing the Sun Devils 17-7 with 8:51 left in the first period after playing a nightmare 11 minutes of action. Then enter Pierce who finished the half by making six straight field goals and hit 7 of 8 and had 15 points in 11 minutes as she fueled the Beavers into a 29-25 halftime lead.
When the dust settled, it was a record night for Pierce. She entered the game with 141 career blocked shots and needed only three more to break the all-time OSU record of 143 held by All-American Carol Menken-Schaudt.
Pierce not only broke the career record, but she also shattered the one-game mark as she blocked 8 shots during the evening, giving her 149 career blocks. Pierce had held the career mark with 7 blocks prior to Friday night.
"I thought our kids came out tonight very tentative," said Coach Judy Spoelstra. "But we came back and regained our focus and overcame a lot of adversity. We were taking a lot of bad shots early and then we settled down and took shots in rhythm and they started to fall for us."
Once the Beavers got the lead they were relentless and keep applying the pressure to ASU. OSU had 13 steals on the night and held the Sun Devils to a paltry .242 (8-33) shooting percentage in the second half.
Meanwhile, the Beavers shot .538 (14-26) in the second half and dominated the boards. OSU finished the game with a 43-31 advantage in rebounds, including 16 on the offensive glass.
Pierce finished the game with 16 points, 8 blocked shots, 3 assists and 3 rebounds while hitting 7 of 11 shots from the floor in 25 minutes. She had plenty of help, however. Reda Petraitis contributed 12 rebounds. Felicia Ragland added 18 points and 7 rebounds, while Chassie Wiersma produced 12 points, 9 rebounds and 4 steals.
Arizona State had pretty much everything its own way in the first 13 minutes of the game. The Sun Devils shot .500 from the field in the opening half, but when OSU applied the pressure in the second half, they cooled off.
Oregon State is now on a three-game Gill Coliseum winning streak and will entertain the 15th ranked Arizona Wildcats on Sunday afternoon at 1:00 p.m.
The victory over the Sun Devils snapped a five-game ASU winning streak over Oregon State.
When the Wildcats come visiting on Sunday, Arizona owns a five-game winning streak over the Beavers.
OSU has also won five of its last six games and is playing solid basketball.
