Oregon State
Montana State
Marchbanks' Career Day Sparks Beavers' 83-53 Win over Bobcats
November 13, 2011 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 13, 2011
Corvallis, Ore. – Senior Earlysia Marchbanks (Salem, Ore.) scored a career-high 21 points with a game-high tying eight rebounds as the Oregon State women's basketball team (2-0) defeated the Montana State Bobcats (1-1) 83-53 in Gill Coliseum on Sunday.
“I feel more confident to take a shot because I know that I have a 6-7 and a 6-4 teammate down there to get the rebound and put it back up,” Marchbanks said. “Having such a big presence down low allows me to get a more open shot. Threats on the outside allow me to get the ball in the middle, have a more open shot, and get the chance to drive. If I do get trapped, we have such tall and athletic girls on the inside that I can pass to. We work on lobs every day in practice because they are so big. That is going to help us as we run our offense through them. We are an inside-outside team, and I believe having such a bigger team this year will definitely help us succeed in the Pac-12.”
Freshman Ali Gibson (Woodbridge, Calif.) also reached the 21-point mark with a game-high four steals, adding three assists and three rebounds. Sophomore Alyssa Martin (Portland, Ore.) was the other Oregon State player to reach double-digits in the points column with 16, tallying a game-high tying five assists and six rebounds.
“I was really proud of our effort today,” head coach Scott Rueck said. “Montana State is a great program that's well coached, disciplined and they played really hard. We knew that going in. This is the first Division I game for half of our team, and I thought our returners and Ali [Gibson], really set the tone for us early in this game. From the first minute we had a purpose offensively, and we went to our strength, which was the middle of their zone with Earlysia [Marchbanks], and she made plays from the beginning.
Defensively I thought we really swarmed them with very few mistakes in the first half. They have a great shooter out there, and for the most part I thought we did a good job on her, but we let her get free a couple of times. I just liked how we were prepared to play today; I thought our leaders did a great job getting them ready.”
Despite Montana State scoring the first points of the game on a three-pointer by Ashley Albert, Oregon State quickly erased the deficit, going on a 12-0 run behind two big three-pointers by Gibson, and shutting down the Bobcats to just two field goals on eight attempts before the first media timeout.
Montana State scored five points to get within four, but Oregon State responded again with a 12-2 run to lead by as many as 14 at the 24-10 mark.
The Beavers struggled to string together runs after that point through most of the rest of the half, but still never let the Bobcats in closer than eight. But a final 8-2 push to close out the half gave the Beavers the 16-point advantage going into the locker room.
Coming out of the break, Oregon State only allowed five Montana State points through the first quarter of the second half, while scoring 17 of its own, to build its lead to the most of the game at the 57-29.
Eight straight Martin points, Gibson's fifth three-pointer, a junior Quortni Fambro (Decatur, Ga.) pair o of jumpers in the paint and a junior Mollee Schwegler (Rainier, Ore.) three-pointer put the Beavers up 83-51. A final shot by Montana State's Kalli Durham made the final score sit at an even 30-point win by the Beavers.
Oregon State outshot Montana State 50.7 percent (35-69) to 32.3 percent (21-65), counting 20 assists on the 35 made field goals. The Beavers chalked up 14 steals to the Bobcats' three, while only turning the ball over nine times to Montana State's 18.
Montana State was paced by Rachel Semansky with 12 points, while Ashley Albert pulled down a game-high tying eight rebounds.
Oregon State is back in action on Thursday, Nov. 17 against Cal State Northridge in Gill Coliseum at 7:00 p.m.
Oregon State Notes – Senior Earlysia Marchbanks scored a career-high 21 points … Sophomore Alyssa Martin tied her career-high for assists with five … With the win today, the Beavers break the .500 mark with a 501-500 all-time Oregon State record … Oregon State is now 12-0 all-time against Montana State … Head coach Scott Rueck has recorded a perfect 2-0 start each year in his two seasons.
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