Beavers show progress in win
By Brooks Hatch
Corvallis Gazette-Times
Ready or not, the regular season starts on Saturday.
So Oregon State women’s basketball coach LaVonda Wagner needed to see some progress from the first exhibition game in Sunday night’s non-counter against Western Oregon.
She did. The Beavers outscored the Wolves 38-11 over the final 9:26 of the first half to pull away, and they eased to a 96-44 victory before a crowd of 678 at Gill Coliseum. Freshman guard Jasmine Smith had 26 points to lead five players in double figures for the Beavers, who play host to Southern Oregon at 2 p.m. Saturday in their official opener.
Wagner said the Beavers paid attention to details and “were much more focused” than in a 71-68 loss to Team Concept on Nov. 1.
“We made some layups,” Wagner added. “We still missed too many free throws (13-19) for my liking, but we didn’t turn the ball over as much,” as their 14 floor errors were half as many as the previous game. “We controlled the things we could control, which is exciting.”
Smith, a 5-foot-8 guard from Pinole, Calif., who saw limited time against Team Concept because of foul trouble, hit 4 of 7 3-pointers and had several fast-break baskets. The nicest gave OSU a 24-15 lead with 8:22 left in the first half and followed a blind, left-handed feed from a driving Mercedes Fox-Griffin, who had six assists.
“That was a good game for us to gain some confidence back,” Wagner said. “We played hard, we got some other people involved and we got (41) points off our bench,” led by Smith and Julie Futch’s eight points.
“Judie Lomax had double-digit rebounding (17), which is good. We were able to build on some positive things. Now we go back to work and get ready for the next one.”
Ashley Allen and Casey Nash had 14 points apiece, Fox-Griffin 12 and Stacey Nichols 10. Lomax paced a 49-30 rebounding advantage; she grabbed 39 boards in two exhibitions. All nine players scored at least three points, OSU had 23 assists on 37 baskets and eight players had two or more scoring passes.
“We played as a team, we shared the ball, we played more as a unit tonight,” Nash said. “We worked on our offensive zones and it paid off.”
Nash is the lone senior returning starter and she played only 21 minutes. So at times OSU had four freshmen and a sophomore (Fox-Griffin) or a junior (Allen) on the floor, with little or no dropoff in production.
“All of the freshmen were settled in,” and less tentative than the first game, Wagner said. “They got those first-game jitters over with, they kind of knew what to expect. My philosophy is, ‘You get better in practice and the games should be fun and easy.’
“The improvement (shown) was because we went back to work on the things we didn’t do well in the first game.”
Brittany MacGregor scored 14 points, Leada Berkey 11 and Kori Seymour 10 for the shorthanded Wolves, who were missing two projected starters. Holdover point guard Allison Crumb is redshirting and guard Kaila Hawley has a leg injury.
Oregon State 96, Western Oregon 44
WESTERN OREGON (44): Wilde 2-3 0-0 4, Seymour 3-15 4-4 10, A. Stephens 0-0 0-0 0, Berkey 3-18 3-5 11, L. Stephens 1-3 0-0 3, McClain 0-2 0-0 0, MacGregor 5-12 2-3 14, Wilson 1-5 0-0 2, Liechty 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 15-59 9-12 44.
OREGON STATE (96): Lomax 2-5 1-3 5, Nichols 4-5 2-2 10, Fox-Griffin 3-8 6-6 12, Allen 5-11 1-2 14, Nash 7-10 0-0 14, Young 2-3 0-0 4, Smith 10-16 2-2 26, Futch 3-6 0-2 8, Champlin 1-2 1-2 3. Totals 37-66 13-19 96.
Halftime: Oregon State 56, Western Oregon 26. 3-Point Goals-WOU 5-21 (Berkey 2-5, MacGregor 2-7, L. Stephens 1-2, Seymour 0-6, McClain 0-1), OSU 9-20 (Smith 4-7, Allen 3-7, Futch 2-4, Fox-Griffin 0-2). Fouled Out-A. Stephens. Rebounds-OSU 49 (Lomax 17), WOU 30 (Berkey 7). Assists-OSU 23 (Fox-Griffin 6), WOU 8 (Seymour 5). Total Fouls-WOU 23, OSU 18, Technicals-None. A-678.
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