The Oregon State University women’s basketball team came out with a blowout showing against the University of Alaska Fairbanks in an exhibition match this Sunday at Gill Coliseum.
The Beavs beat the Nanooks 104-27, outperforming them on both sides of the board.
“I loved our effort,” OSU Head Coach Scott Rueck said after the game. “For this team getting its feet wet to start the year, it was just very positive overall, and I thought a great start.”
OSU’s defensive output certainly helped their case in winning. The Beavers logged 21 steals and 39 defensive rebounds over the course of the game.
“Just making sure that I’m paying attention to what the coaches are asking of me, and all of that stuff starts with practice,” returning guard Tiara Bolden said of her defense. “Sometimes I do make mistakes, I’m not perfect. However, just making sure that I’m paying attention to what they’re asking of me and just executing it.”
Oregon State played all of their newcomers, all of whom scored. Guard Jenna Villa, who transferred from Washington State, and forward Lara Alonso were especially productive, scoring 17 and 20 points respectively.
“I love last year’s team and I love this one too,” Rueck said. “What we saw different tonight was this group just had so much more experience throughout the roster.”
Rueck mentioned Bolden, Villa, Kennedie Shuler and Ally Schimel as players who have improved and gained experience over the last year.
“Those four in particular, they’ve been through all the wars. So they know exactly what it takes, and we saw that intensity, that connectedness that they have and play with, and so that is very different from a year ago,” Rueck said.
Villa, once an opponent of the Beavers, spoke highly of her experience playing for OSU for the first time.
“It was amazing, it was so fun,” Villa said. “It was just so fun for us to play together and finally be able to see what we’re capable of for this year.”
After being benched all of last year due to injury, OSU guard Mackenzie Shivers took the court for the first time as a Beav, eliciting cheers from the crowd whenever she made a shot.
“Just seeing the way that she persevered, so from last year when she first got injured, it was super disheartening,” Bolden said. “Behind the scenes for her was extremely hard and difficult. However, just seeing her make her first three, for me it meant everything, I know for her family it meant everything. And I know for a fact that our whole team was extremely hyped just because we know how far she’s come.”
According to Rueck, Shivers’ brother was in attendance for the first time and was able to watch as she scored six points in just over 10 minutes.
The Nanooks struggled throughout the game, which culminated in a one-point fourth quarter for UAF. Center Amelia Brady and forward Ashlyn Waggoner helped facilitate play for the Nanooks with eight rebounds each. Guard Genevieve Velasquez was UAF’s most effective defender with four steals and a block.
Despite individual efforts, UAF was held to shooting 17.7% and had frequent turnover problems.
“I don’t look at the scoreboard much,” Rueck said after the game. “In a situation like this, it doesn’t matter to me. It’s how we are executing and how we are playing from an effort standpoint, from a focus standpoint, and then just execution.”
Rueck praised the team for staying vigilant and not relaxing even when ahead in score.
“I loved our effort tonight. I loved our defense, that’s easy to watch, I think we were accurate. We competed to the very end, and so that’s a great sign of things to come,” Rueck said.
OSU will have their first game of the regular season at 3 p.m. on Friday when they face off against Corban University to start a six-game homestand.
