Oregon State Women’s Basketball Stymies UC Irvine In Victory Tuesday Night

Palmer led the Beavers in scoring with seven points in the first half, while Futch had five.

Salem-News.com Sports

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Senior Julie Futch tied her career-best with 15 points and the Oregon State women’s basketball team used a strong defensive effort and a big rebounding advantage to defeat UC Irvine, 58-42, Tuesday night at legendary Gill Coliseum.

Futch tied her previous best of 15 achieved three nights ago in the Beavers’ victory over Weber State. That 15-point effort had surpassed her previous high of 13 achieved two years against Washington.

On Tuesday night, Futch, a native of Auburn, Wash., scored five points via the free-throw line and was 4-of-9 from the field including two three-pointers. Starting her second game of the season, she also finished with two assists and six rebounds.

All told, the Beavers out-rebounded UC Irvine by a massive margin. Oregon State finished with 49 rebounds to just 21 rebounds for the Anteaters. The Beavers grabbed 19 offensive rebounds in the process and UC Irvine managed just one.

El Sara Greer led Oregon State on the boards, finishing with eight, including five on the offensive glass. She has now led the Beavers in rebounding twice this season.

Greer also had 10 points in the win, going 3-of-4 from the field and 4-of-6 from the free-throw line.

Haiden Palmer and Kirsten Tilleman each had eight points in the victory for the Beavers, who won their second consecutive game and improved to 6-2 on the year.

UC Irvine could not get much of an offensive rhythm going the entire game and shot 37.5 percent from the field and was 11-of-17 from the free-throw line (64.7 percent). Oregon State, meanwhile, scored 19 of its points from the charity stripe.

The Beavers have now held opponents to 49 points or less in four of the team’s eight games this season. The Beavers are 3-1 when doing so.

Keyonna Johnson led UC Irvine (2-7) with 13 points while Mikah Maly-Karros was close behind with 10.

Oregon State led at the half for the sixth time in eight games this season, posting a 23-16 advantage over UC Irvine heading into the break. Both teams shot around the 30 percent mark in the half, with the Beavers hitting on two three-pointers to none for UC Irvine.

Palmer led the Beavers in scoring with seven points in the first half, while Futch had five.

Oregon State grabbed 22 rebounds in the half, paced by Futch, who had four. Of the Beavers’ 22 rebounds, nine came offensively compared to 13 overall for UC Irvine. The Anteaters had just one offensive rebound.

Oregon State wraps plays its final home game of the 2009 calendar year when hosting Seattle University Friday night at 7:00 p.m. at legendary Gill Coliseum. The matchup between the teams is the first since 1981 and OSU has a 3-2 all-time series lead.

Tickets are still available for the game. Reserved tickets for individual women’s basketball games are $10, while general admission for adults is $7 and senior/youth is $5.

Single-game and season tickets are available by visiting osubeavers.com, calling 1-800-GO-BEAVS or by visiting the ticket office at Gill Coliseum.

For those who can’t make it to the game, catch it live on KLOO 1340-AM in the Corvallis area and KKAD 1550-AM in Portland. A full audio and video stream is also available at Beaver Nation Online (osubeavers.com). Ron Callan will call all the action.

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