Oregon State Women's Basketball: Beavers Fall to UC Irvine 60-48
After a week off the Beavers were finally back in action at Gill Coliseum Sunday afternoon. The UC Irvine Anteaters came to Corvallis and blew the Beaveres off the court, with cold shooting dooming hte Beavers in a 60-48 defeat. The loss drops the Beavers to 3-7 on the season.
RELATED:
Oregon State Women's Basketball: Beavers Beat Grambling State 63-56
The tone for the game was set early, with Kennedie Shuler missing a pair of three point attempts for the Beavers while UC Irvine was able to take an early lead with a three from Nikki Tom. Three point shooting, and shooting in general, would be a troublesome issue for the Beavers all afternoon.
The Anteaters finished the first quarter up 4, 13-9, but the game remained close for most of the second quarter. The game was tied with 4:32 left in the half, but that was the moment the Beavers' shooting started to run ice cold. UC Irvine went on a 13-2 run, with threes from Neveah Dean, Deja Lee and Ines Gnahore, to take a 32-21 lead at the break.
RELATED:
Oregon State Women's Basketball: Beavers Go 0-2 At Tournament in Tempe
In the second half Oregon State still couldn't buy a bucket to save their lives. The Beavers scored only 8 points in the third quarter, while threes from Neveah Dean and Deja Lee helped the Anteaters grow their lead to 17 by the end of the quarter, 46-29.
That pace continued for most of the 4th quarter, with UCI growing their lead to 26 at the highest point. With about 3 minutes left in the game the Beaverse finally found an offensive spark, going on a 16-3 run that almost got the Anteater lead back to single digits, but there just wasn't enough time left to make the game competitive.
RELATED:
Oregon State Women's Basketball Week 1: Beavers Fall to Colorado State, Take Down Northwest Nazarene
Three point shooting may have been the biggest story of the game. As Oregon State continued to fall behind, they went to the perimeter more and more trying to make up ground. Even with decent looks, the Beavers just couldn't hit those shoots, going 3-17 from beyond the arc, with none of them in the first half, while the Anteaters went 7 for 26.
Oregon State's struggles from distance allowed UCI to camp out in the post defensively, limiting the ability for OSU's forwards to contribute. No Beavers hit double digits Sunday, with Tiara Bolden, AJ Marotte, Catalina Ferreira and Kelsey Rees all tying for the lead in scoring with 8 points each.
RELATED:
Oregon State Women's Basketball: Beavers Fall to Pacifc 66-63 in First West Coast Conference Game
The Beavers will be back on the road in a few days, travelllng to Hawaii to finish out their non conference schedule participating in the Maui Classic. Oregon State will take on Western Kentucky on Thursday, December 19th and Miami on Friday, December 20th.
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.