Oregon State Women's Basketball: Beavers Beat Grambling State 63-56
After their Thanksgiving trip to the Bahamas, the Beavers were finally back in Corvallis Tuesday morning for their first home game in weeks. In their return to Gill Coliseum, the Beavers came away with a 63-56 win over the Grambling State Tigers, for their first back to back wins of the season. The win puts Oregon State at 3-5 for the season.
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Grambling State grabbed the first points of the game with a Lydia Freeman layup, but the Beavers and Kelsey Rees took the lead pretty quickly. Rees had 9 points in the first quarter, helping Oregon State build a 9 point, 16-7 lead by the end of the quarter.
Ally Schimel and Sela Heide combined for 6 points to get the Beaver lead to 6 at the start of the second, but at that point Oregon State's shooting started to run cold, allowing Grambling to work their way back into the game. The Tigers got the margin down to 8 with a bit of a run, but couldn't get it any lower after Rees, Tiara Bolden and AJ Marotte finally got the Beavers scoring again. The first half ended with Oregon State still up 9, 29-20.
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Tiara Bolden and Kennedie Shuler got the Beaver lead back to 15 a few minutes into the third, but with 4 minutes left in the quarter the Tigers started to go on a run, with big buckets from Nicole Sandifer helping get Grambling State to within 5 at the end of the period.
Things stayed close in the fourth quarter. Sela Heide and AJ Marotte kept the Beavers scoring consistently, and Heide did a great job at shutting down the Tigers in the post, but Grambling State wouldn't go away. A Douthsine Prien layup cut the Beaver lead to 4 with 2:31 left in the game, but that's as close as the Tigers would get. Grambling State had to foul to stay in the game, but Oregon State made their free throws. A Sela Heide layup capped off the 63-56 win.
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The win is Scott Rueck's 300th as the coach of the Beavers. Rueck was already the winningest coach in OSU history, but it's always nice to hit a big round number. Tuesday's game was also a big one for the Beavers' front court. Sela Heide had her best game as a Beaver, posting a double double with 16 points and 12 rebounds. She also had 8 blocks.
Heide's partner in the post, Kelsey Rees, also finished with a double double, with 12 points, 11 rebounds and 2 assists. Aj Marotte and Tiara Bolden also hit double digits in scoring, with 13 points and 11 points respectively.
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On Thursday Oregon State will take on their first West Coast Conference opponent, traveling to Stockton to take on the Pacific Tigers. Pacific is 4-4 so far this season, so this should be a close match up.
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.