Kelsey Rees, an Australian native, has emerged into a completely new role this season, becoming one of the focus points of both the offense and the defense.

The six-foot-five-inch center started her college career at the University of Utah, averaging 3.6 points over her three seasons with the Utes. She then took her talents to Corvallis and joined the Beavers women’s basketball team before the 2023-2024 season. 

She quickly emerged into a starting role and ended up starting 27 of the 35 games last season, seeing statistical improvements in a variety of categories including points, rebounds, blocks, field-goal percentage and three-point percentage.

She played behind multiple prominent scorers, sinking down to a fourth or fifth option when on the floor. Even with this, she scored in double-figures seven times, recording a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds early in last season on Dec. 9, 2024, against Jackson State University.

This season, Rees now leads the Beavers in points and rebounds securing 12.7 points per game and grabbing 7.9 rebounds. Her best stretch of games came at the end of December when she set back-to-back career highs in points, with 21 against Gonzaga University, then 25 against University of Portland, her current personal best.

“This year, I knew my role was gonna have to change,” Rees said. “We lost a lot of our scoring, I didn’t know too much about the new girls that had been brought in in the offseason. It was something … with (head coach Scott Rueck) I had worked on about really finding the moves that worked for me, and finding how I could impact the game on a higher level offensively as well as defensively.”

Another strong part of her game is the ability to space the floor. Floor spacing is a huge part of the game as it gives the ability to force mismatches on who is guarding who. Rees, who shot over 37% from deep last year, has cooled off, only shooting 28% on 50 attempts.

“It has always been one of the positives of my game … being able to space the floor,” Rees said. “We can put different matchups in the post when I am on the court, and not have the person guarding me being a second help defender. I think that definitely helped me get time last year … Even this year, it’s great to be able to know if there may be a shot-blocking big on me that I can pull away and let the guards get to the rim a bit easier.”

Last year, she recorded a singular double-double, and this year she already has four, in addition to a plethora of games with nine rebounds.

“One thing one of my junior coaches used to say is ‘You don’t get smaller as the game goes on,’ and so it is always nice to know coming to the fourth quarter, they might not be as fresh, they might be a bit more tired, so it makes it easier for me to keep following the ball and making sure I am getting rebounds at the highest point and trying to use my height to my advantage, and get in the good positions and do the work,” Rees said. 

Rees keyed out a specific game when the team traveled to Maui for the Maui Classic tournament and played against the University of Miami on Dec. 20, 2024, as a spark plug for her successes.

“I took a lot away from that game,” Rees said. “I think after that game I had to really go think about how I wanted to be on offense and how I needed to post up every time and what moves could possibly work against those bigger, more athletic defenders.”

Prior to that game, Rees said she had relied on her height and other skills too much.

“Coming into the (West Coast Conference) season being able to know that you got to post up every time, you got to demand the ball inside and have those moves inside because the game for me at least needs to be inside outside for it to go well,” Rees said.

Overall this year, the Beavers have taken a tumble record-wise, as through 20 games this year they are 9-11, compared to last year when they were 17-3. Even with this, Rees is helping continue the legacy of Beavers Women’s Basketball.