It took the Oregon State women’s basketball team two and a half minutes to score their first bucket.

After six misses, their first made shot inside five feet and this was the story of the game as the Beavers lost to the Portland Pilots in a 25-point deficit in Gill Coliseum on Saturday night, 86-61.

OSU beat the Pilots on their home court just 19 days ago in a major upset, but couldn’t achieve it again as the Pilots’ outside shooting was too much for the Beavers to handle defensively. 

The Pilots shot 70% from three in the first half, compared to the Beavers 33.3%, and the teams finished off overall with 25% for the Beavers and 61% for the Pilots.

The Beavers scored very even, with four players with nine or more points, including three in double figures. Kelsey Rees had 14, Kennedie Shuler with 13, AJ Marotte with 11, and Tiara Bolden with nine.

Maisie Burnham for the Pilots had 12 points in the first quarter and finished the game with 26 points, a season-high.

“(Maisie) Burnham, she just is a great basketball player and tonight she set the tone for the game in that first quarter,” head coach Scott Rueck said.

The Pilots led by seven after the first quarter, but quickly surged ahead to take a 14-point lead early in the second. They got the lead up to 22 before the Beavers cut it down to 16 at the end of the half. Portland led by as much as 28, whereas the Beavers trailed the entire game.

The Pilots were able to exploit a hole in the Beavers’ zone defense, hitting multiple shots in the corner.

“When we went to our player-to-player defense, they were scoring every one-on-one matchup,” Rueck said. “So I felt ultimately the zone was the right thing to do down the stretch. When a team is up like they are, they will just relax and move the ball so freely, it is hard to defend anything, and so I thought in the fourth quarter, we finally looked like we needed to defensively.” 

The Beavers now fall 9-10 (5-3, West Coast Conference) and their next home game is Monday, Jan. 27 at 7 p.m. in Gill Coliseum against the Washington State University Cougars.