Oregon State WBB: Beavers Close Out Tough Road Trip With Win Over Boston College
The Oregon State women have been on the road since last Friday, and it's been a tough trip for the Beavers. The Beavers picked up double digit losses against Illinois and Connecticut, before finally snapping their losing streak with a 54-49 win over Boston College, to move to 2-5 on the season.
Last Friday night the Beavers travelled to Illinois to take on the Illini. Like many games this season, Oregon State found themselves in a hole early, with Makira Cook and Brynn Shoup-Hill hitting threes to get Illinois a double digit lead before the end of the first quarter. A pair of free throws from Kelsey Rees got the deficit back to 8 before the end of the first, but the Beavers had their work cut out for them.
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The Illini maintained that lead for the second quarter, but broke the game open in the third. A 10 point quarter from Kendall Bostic helped Illinois get their lead as high as 28 points. Oregon State managed to cut into the gap a bit in the fourth, but not by much. falling 85-66 in the end.
The Beavers then traveled to the Bahamas to participate in the Continental Tire Baha Mar Championship. For their first game in Nassau the Beavers faced one of the best teams in the country, UConn. It went about as well as could be expected.
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The Huskies immediately jumped out to a large lead, Paige Bueckers led the Huskies to a 22-7 lead in the first quarter, with Bueckers contributing 11 of the points herself. The Huskies tacked another 8 points on to their lead in the second, before they slowed down the pace of the game in the second half.
Oregon State didn't wake up until the start of the fourth quarter, but by that time they were down by 24 points. Aj Marotte led the charge, as she has all season, scoring 10 points in the final quarter to get the Connecticut lead under 20. The game never got close, but against the second best team in the country you have to take what you can get. Which in this case was a 71-52 defeat.
Finally, on Wednesday the Beavers finished their Bahamas trip facing off against Boston College. Unlike most of the Beavers games this season, Wednesday's contest was a battle from start to stop. Kennedie Shuler gave the Beavers the first points of the game, but 5 straight points from BC's Teya Sidberry gave the Eagles the lead.
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The team's swapped the lead back and forth for much of the first quarter, but Kelsey Rees and Ally Schimel teamed up to give the Beavers a one points lead at the end of the period. BC grabbed the lead back at the start of the second, and built an 8 point lead over the next few minutes, but a 9 point Oregon State run, fueled by 5 points from AJ Marotte, gave OSU their one point lead back right as the first half ended.
Oregon State managed to hold onto that lead for the first few minutes of the third quarter, before Dontavia Waggoner gave BC the lead with a pair of free throws. AJ Marotte once again provided the answer for the Beavers scoring 7 points over the next couple minutes to keep Oregon State in front. Boston College was never far behind, and a T'yana Todd three right at the buzzer got the Eagles within one.
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Waggoner tied the game with a free throw 2 minutes into the fourth, and a Teya Sidberry jumper and a Kaylay Ivey three gave BC a 5 point lead with 3 and half minutes left in the game. The Beavers didn't score until there was 3:11 left in the game, but AJ Marotte broke the drought with a three, and Kelsey Rees tied the game with a jump shot. Rees then gave the Beavers the lead back with a free throw.
Boston College tied the game again, but Kennedie Shuler put the Beavers back in front, and with 40 seconds left the Eagles had to foul. Tiara Bolden and AJ Marotte made their free throws, and as T'yana Todd missed the final shot of the game for BC, the Beavers losing streak came to an end with a 54-49 win.
It's been a rough week, but there's been some bright spots among the struggles. The brightest has to be just how good AJ Marotte has looked, even in losses. Marotte hit double digits in scoring in all three games this last week; 16 against Illinois, 17 against UConn and 21 against BC. Whatever happens to the Beavers this season, they can count on Marotte to come through in the clutch.
The Beavers have the weekend off to recuperate from their trip, and will finally be back in Corvallis for their next game. They'll take on Grambling State on Tuesday, December 3rd.
Having grown up in Pocatello, home of the Idaho State Bengals, John Severs is a lifelong fan of small schools that don't always deliver a lot of wins. Prior to writing for Sports Illustrated, John covered the Beavers for SB Nation's Oregon State blog Building the Dam, with a focus on baseball and women's basketball. When he's not watching college sports he spends most of his time reading, playing video games and annoying cats.