Oregon State
Washington
Beavers Erase 16-Point Deficit, But Drop One To Huskies In OT
January 25, 2013 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 25, 2013
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SEATTLE, Wash. - Patricia Bright had her third career double-double with 21 points and 10 rebounds and the Oregon State women's basketball team fought back from a 16-point first-half deficit, but Washington tied things with three late free throws and the Beavers eventually dropped the game to the Huskies in overtime, 81-77.
"We had a lot of great performances tonight," Oregon State head coach Scott Rueck said. "This team has a ton of heart. Situations like tonight are disappointing, but they fuel the fire for where this program is going in the future."
After falling behind by that 16-point margin just over 10 minutes into the game, Oregon State (9-10, 3-4 Pac-12) gave itself a lead as large as eight, 61-53, with 5:30 to go, but threes from Washington's Kristi Kingma and Heather Corral and a pair of Kingma free throws knotted things up at 61-61.
Bright and Kingma traded buckets before an Ali Gibson layup and Alyssa Martin triple staked the Beavers to another five-point advantage, 68-63, with just over 90 seconds remaining. Washington whittled the lead to one on a Corral lay-in, but Bright converted two more free throws with 14 seconds on the clock to put OSU on top, 70-67.
With Oregon State's bench preaching solid position defense and telling the Beavers not to foul, the Huskies' Kingma brought the ball into the front court and with just four seconds on the clock heaved a prayer while fading away on the left wing.
With arms extended, Gibson appeared to get a piece of the ball to the jubilation of Beaver fans behind the team's bench, but the officials blew the whistle, conferred in front of the scorer's table, and eventually confirmed the call. Kingma, a 71 percent free throw shooter coming into the night, made all three to force overtime.
In the extra frame, Washington outscored the Beavers 11-7 to secure the victory.
"That was a really unfortunate call at the end of regulation," Rueck said. "Ali made a perfect defensive play, but [Washington] was rewarded. What can you do? In our position you just battle like you can. Life on the road is cruel sometimes and tonight it was cruel to the Beavers."
Five Oregon State players, led by Bright, scored in double figures. Gibson had 15 and Martin, Jamie Weisner and Samantha Siegner each had 11. Kingma led the way for Washington, scoring 29 points on 6-for-21 shooting. She made more free throws (15-for-15) than the Beavers attempted all night.
Washington started the game by hitting six of its first seven attempts from behind the arc, but went just 4-for-16 the rest of the game. As a team the Huskies were 27-for-30 from the charity stripe, outscoring OSU by 17. The Beavers were awarded 14 free throw attempts, converting 10.
From midway through the first half to midway through the second, Oregon State outplayed UW. Down 32-18, the Beavers closed the opening period on a 13-6 run and then continued that stretch out of the break. In the first eight minutes of the second, OSU went on a 22-8 spurt to grab a seven-point lead, 53-46.
During those eight minutes, Oregon State went 9-for-13 from the floor and 2-for-2 at the line, getting five points from Weisner, four from Deven Hunter, four from Siegner, four from Bright, three from Martin and two from Gibson.
"We did a great job battling back, getting the lead and getting control in the game," Rueck added. "Unfortunately there were too many fouls down the stretch. This is a good free-throw shooting team. I thought we did a pretty good job on Kingma, she was only 2-of-10 from three, but when you put her on the free throw line 15 times and she makes them all that's tough to overcome."
The league's leading team from three-point range, Washington showed its proficiency from deep early. The Huskies used some slick shooting to stake themselves to a 16-point lead with 9:44 left in the first half. In that opening 20 minutes, UW had three players score at least eight points - Walton, Wetmore, Kingma, Corral - and was 6-of-7 from behind the arc and 8-of-8 at the line.
But Oregon State used that 13-6 run to pull themselves back from the brink heading into halftime. Samantha Siegner scored on two straight Beaver possessions late in the period and on a third with 1:36 until the break, getting fouled and converting the free throw to bring OSU to within five, 36-31. A Washington jumper with five seconds on the clock earned the Huskies their 38-31 halftime edge.
Both teams shot well in the first, with Oregon State at 41.9 percent and Washington converting at a 44.4 percent clip, and the stat sheet was fairly even, save for the seven more points the Huskies earned off of free throws. The Beavers kept themselves within striking distance thanks in large part to the offensive work of Ali Gibson, who went into the locker room with a then game-high 11 points on 4-for-7 shooting, including a trio of three-pointers.
Oregon State's swing through Washington continues on Sunday when the Beavers travel to Pullman to play the Cougars (5-13, 1-6 Pac-12) at 1 p.m. That game will be broadcast on KEJO 1240AM and streamed for free through Washington State's Pac-12 portal.
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