A late fourth quarter surge wasn’t enough, as the #11 Oregon State Beavers fell 67-63 at the hands of #4 Stanford in Gill Coliseum.
The Beavers, now playing in their fourth consecutive game without star forward Raegan Beers, continued to struggle with the aspect that Beers dominates at, rebounding. Stanford outrebounded the Beavers 47-31 led by a career high 23 by star Stanford forward Cameron Brink.
Brink, playing a full amount of minutes since coming off her injury, dominated in the game. To go along with her career high in rebounds, she added 25 points to secure her second 20-20 game of the season.
“Cam played great, obviously,” Rueck said. “You don’t put up numbers like that without playing great. She is a big time talent on both ends of the floor, and she had a huge impact on this game.”
Talia von Oelhoffen lit fire in the second half, scoring 19 of her 27 points enroute to a season high. She also added four assists and four rebounds to her statline.
“We always just talk as a team before the coaches come in about what we are seeing and what we need to do to fix it,” von Oelhoffen said about what happened in the locker room to help her spark after a slow first half. “Obviously still 20 minutes left to play so just staying positive and adjusting what we can and communicating and come back out firing.”
Defense headlined the first quarter, with neither team shooting over 30% in the quarter. The Beavers couldn’t seem to catch a break, as they hit only three of their 19 shots. Brink dominated overall for the Cardinal, as she had six points to go along with nine rebounds, three being on the offensive side of the ball.
The second quarter started with Brink achieving a double-double, just 11 minutes into the game. With her dominating on both sides, the Beavers still kept the game close, cutting the deficit to four late in the quarter. With a four point lead, the Cardinal quickly hit a transition three, then a von Oelhoffen turnover led to a quick bucket, as they took a nine point lead into halftime.
During the third quarter, Stanford tried pulling away, collecting an eleven point lead multiple times throughout the quarter. But the Beavers didn’t let the lead get out of hand, cutting it to five before the quarter ended.
Timea Gardiner aided von Oelhoffen with the scoring with Beers still out, adding 15 and securing two blocks in the contest.
Late in the fourth quarter, as Stanford dribbled the ball past half court, Gill Coliseum got so loud that Stanford Head Coach Tara VanDerveer was forced to take a timeout. Gill had erupted as the Beavers surged right back into the game, cutting the lead to two.
The score went back and forth with each team answering each other’s big shots. Down by two with not much time remaining in the game, Gardiner put up a fadeaway shot from the baseline. Gill erupted, but the ball swirled around the basket and fell into the hands of a Stanford defender.
“Yah I thought it was down,” Gardiner said about that shot. “I think I rushed it a little bit too, that was a pivotal moment for sure and I should’ve knocked it down.”
With the win, Stanford locks up the first seed in the Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas next week, as the Beavers sit at the fourth seed with one game remaining in the regular season.
Oregon State plays their regular season finale against the California Golden Bears in Gill Coliseum on Saturday, March 2 at noon.
Stanford travels south to Eugene to face the Ducks in their season finale at 2 p.m. on March 2.
