Oregon State
Eastern Washington
Gibson's 21 Paces Women's Basketball Past Eastern Washington
November 22, 2011 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 22, 2011
CHENEY, Wash. - Ali Gibson (Woodbridge, Calif.) tied her season-best with 21 points to pace the Oregon State women's basketball team to a 74-60 victory over Eastern Washington Tuesday night at Reese Court.
With the win, the Beavers improved to 5-0 for the first time since the 2000-01 season. Tuesday night's game was Oregon State's first victory from Gill Coliseum this season.
Gibson was 8-of-12 from the field and connected on three three-pointers to tie her season-best, which was set earlier against Montana State on Nov. 13.
Overall, the Beavers shot better than 50 percent from the field and held Eastern Washington, which dropped to 2-2 on the year, to 35.4 percent shooting. Gibson's three three-pointers led Oregon State from beyond the arc as the Beavers were 7-of-13.
Oregon State also controlled the boards, out-gaining Eastern Washington, 42-35. Earlysia Marchbanks (Salem, Ore.), Patricia Bright (Phoenix) and Thais Pinto (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) all tied for the team lead in rebounds with seven apiece.
Pinto also set a season-best in scoring with 13 points, surpassing her previous high of 11.
Bright scored 14 after connecting on 7-of-9 shots from the floor.
Oregon State held the lead the entire game; Eastern Washington forced a tie just once, at 5-5, with 16:48 remaining in the first half. The Beavers' biggest lead of 18 points came at the 4:22 mark of the second half.
Brianne Ryan led all Eastern Washington scorers with 22 points. She was backed by Chene Cooper's 11 and 10 points from Laura Hughes.
Oregon State used a 13-0 run late in the first half to take a 38-29 lead into the break. Eastern Washington nearly matched it as the half expired, going 11-3 over the final 2 ½ minutes to pull within single figures.
The Beavers utilized strong shooting from the field to take the 9-point advantage. OSU was 15-for-26 from the field, a .577 clip, and made 5-of-7 from beyond the three-point line.
Gibson led Oregon State with 12 points, connecting on three three-pointers. Marchbanks also had nine for Oregon State, and led the team with six of its 19 first-half rebounds.
Conversely, Oregon State's defense was stingy in the first half. The Eagles managed nine more shots than OSU, but connected on only 11 as the Beavers did not give Eastern Washington many good looks at the basket. EWU connected on 3-of-10 from beyond the arc.
EWU's Hughes put back a shot off a rebound at the 9:06 mark of the half, marking the Eagles' last points until the 2:49 point of the half when Cooper connected on a jumper. OSU had led 23-18 after the first basket; the Beavers led 36-18 less than six minutes later, going on a 13-0 run. Marchbanks had five of the team's 13 points during the run.
The Beavers are next in action Dec. 2 and 3 in Houston in the Gene Hackerman Invitational. Oregon State takes on North Texas at 3 p.m. PT on Dec. 2, then squares off with either Rice or Texas A&M-Corpus Christi the next day with a time to be announced (dependent on the result from the first game).
Oregon State Notes: The matchup was the 10th all-time between the teams with the Beavers holding a 6-3 advantage entering the game ... The last meeting previous to Tuesday was on December 21, 2010 in Corvallis with OSU winning, 64-60 ... The Beavers have scored at least 70 points in all five games this season.
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