Oregon State Women Rally Past Huskies

Oregon State’s win snapped a seven-game Washington win streak.

Talisa Rhea tied a career-high with 18 as the Oregon State women’s basketball team overcame a halftime deficit to defeat Washington, 68-64, Thursday night. Photo courtesy: OSU Athletics

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Brittney Davis led all scorers with 23 points and Talisa Rhea tied a career-high with 18 as the Oregon State women’s basketball team overcame a halftime deficit to defeat Washington, 68-64, Thursday night at legendary Gill Coliseum.

The Beavers (9-8 overall, 2-4 Pacific-10 Conference) trailed in the game until the 14:12 mark in the second half when Davis hit a three to tie the game at 43. Rhea followed that up with another three two minutes later and the Beavers took the lead for good. Oregon State held the Huskies (7-11, 2-4) scoreless for 4:14 while using a 10-0 run to establish a lead it held the rest of the game.

“I’m just really proud of the way our team played tonight,” head coach LaVonda Wagner said. “We really stuck together. We really battled through the beginning of the game. We got down by 10 and 12 early and we made some subs and the subs came in and gave us a really big spark off the bench. The play of Alex Mitchell continues to step up. She had 10 rebounds tonight and six points. Rhea came in and played 31 minutes and gave us some good quality minutes.

“We beat a very good basketball team tonight. They have played a tough schedule and they are young as well. Tonight was about us and staying connected and really executing our offense and working to get stops on the defensive end and we did that as a group.”

Davis reached the double-figure scoring mark for the 11th time this season and the 20-point plateau for the fourth time. She was 9-for-15 from the floor and 3-for-8 from beyond the three-point line.

Rhea connected on four three-pointers to tie her season and career high, which she set Nov. 10 in the season opener against Cal Poly. The Juneau, Alaska native also grabbed seven rebounds and dished off four assists.

Mitchell set a career-high with 10 rebounds, eight of which came defensively, to pace Oregon State. The Beavers out-rebounded Washington, 34-31, improving to 4-3 this season when out-rebounding their opponents.

The Beavers got off to a slow start, trailing by as much as 12 points midway through the first half. Rhea brought Oregon State back into the game after hitting back-to-back threes to bring the score to 24-20 in favor of the Huskies. The rest of the half was played evenly and the teams went to the locker room with a score of 35-29 Washington lead.

Although the Beavers had 13 less shots than Washington, they made them count, connecting 51 percent (25-for-49) from the floor.

The Beavers found their stroke as a team in the second half, shooting 58 percent from the floor and 57 percent from behind the three-point line. Davis led the charge, accounting for 16 points after the intermission. She hit three shots from behind the three-point arc, including two in the second half, as the Beavers made their run.

The Oregon State bench came up big with 27 points to only 17 by the Huskies. Rhea’s 18 points were a large part of that, while Mitchell scored six and Julie Futch had three on a second-half three-pointer.

Oregon State’s win snapped a seven-game Washington win streak in the series dating back to the 2004-05 season.

The Huskies were lead by Sami Whitcomb’s 19 points to go along with six rebounds. Andrea Plouffe added 11 points while collecting six rebounds as well.

Oregon State stays home Saturday night when the Beavers host Washington State at legendary Gill Coliseum. The Cougars and Beavers tip off at 7 p.m., and the game can be heard live by tuning into KLOO 1340-AM, and by visiting www.osubeavers.com or Yahoo Sports. Todd Mansfield will be behind the mic calling play-by-play.

Source: OSU Athletics

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