Commentary

By Brooks Hatch
Corvallis Gazette-Times

CORVALLIS — Those far more knowledgeable about basketball can discern the subtle improvements made by the Oregon State women’s basketball team since a 43-point loss at Stanford last March.

Evident here during a 63-61 victory over Drake on Saturday afternoon was something more obvious than spacing, ball reversal, boxing out, being in the right position for an entry pass or the other fundamentals coach LaVonda Wagner is ingraining into her first Beavers team.

OSU didn’t allow a single basket on an entry pass. Drake had many such opportunities in the final minutes of a close game — the last with 1.9 seconds left — but OSU defended it correctly every time.

No Bulldogs spotted up behind a double screen for uncontested 3-pointers. None streaked down the lane for an easy layup. No one sealed off, pivoted, and converted a simple bank shot.

A minor detail?

No. It was plays like that, repeated over and over again over the past four or five seasons, that made their absence stand out so vividly on Saturday.

Instead of surrendering the easy deuce and then losing in overtime, senior Anita Rivera deflected the final in-bounds pass and OSU was 3-0 for the first time in five seasons.

“We had to get the hustle plays, be scrappy and play hard,” Wagner said. “We closed out the game and finished it,” by executing a basic defensive play in textbook fashion.

Saturday was Wagner’s first official home game, but OSU didn’t do anything special in commemoration. There were no $1 tickets, no 2-for-1 coupons, no tuition giveaways to lure students out of the bars or out of their dorms.

Yet a vocal, enthusiastic crowd of 976 showed up on one of the biggest shopping days of the year, when the students Wagner’s team must connect with were gone for the Thanksgiving holiday.

That’s how it should be. Promotions generate a temporary spike, but eventually the product has to sell itself. The Beavers must provide the incentive for fans to show up against Drake, a relative unknown outside of Iowa, or against traditional Pacific-10 Conference opponents such as Oregon, Stanford or Washington.

So although 976 isn’t impressive to those who remember the Tanja Kostic/Annette Mollerstrom/Boky Vidic era, when Gill’s entire lower bowl was filled well before tip-off, it’s tangible progress.

It was larger than seven of last season’s 12 home crowds. Many of the traditional faithful were there, but so were first-timers such as former men’s player Tim Hennessey and one of his sons, and Roger and Tiffany Chona and their two daughters, infrequent attendees in the past.

Casual fans like them hopped aboard the bandwagon during the halcyon days of NCAA berths, an era of good feelings that abruptly disappeared during the malaise that characterized much of the program’s next decade. Wagner can win them back.

They were attentive, responsive, and appreciative of the gritty effort from seven Beavers who logged extra time due to a thumb injury to junior Casey Nash. Rivera, Mandy Close and Tiffany Drucker each played at least 38 minutes.

“When the crowd is into it, it gives us that sixth player on the court,” Rivera said. “They were there for us. Last year was a little quiet, we weren’t sure if they they wanted to be here.

“But (Saturday) you could tell they were right behind us, 100 percent. That’s an amazing feeling.”

Rivera had a career-high 17 points, six rebounds, two assists and a steal. Rivera’s been reborn; the one-time spare part has been able to prove it all night, to be tougher than the rest, in a crucial, transitional period.

“I lost confidence in myself and coach has just done such a great job” of relocating it, Rivera said. “I believe in her, and she believes in me.

“(Wagner) didn’t know anything about us” when she took the job in April, Rivera added. “She could have come in and said, ‘I’ve seen some game films from last year, and either you’re on the boat or off the boat’ ” for the overhaul following a 6-23, 1-17 disaster.

“But she came in (saying), ‘I’m so honored to be your coach.’ She’s an awesome lady.”

The buzz created by the charismatic newcomer has percolated through our little town. The line outside of the ticket windows before the game snaked down the coliseum’s front steps into the the plaza below.

As darkness descended on the edge of town, a bit of Springsteenese popped into my head as I considered the perfect storm of a ticket queue, three successive wins, and the simple beauty of well-defended in-bounds plays.

From small things (big things one day come).

Brooks Hatch can be reached at brooks.hatch@lee.net