Corvallis Gazette-Times

The Oregon State women’s basketball team ends its longest in-season layoff in eight years on Friday with a 6 p.m. game against Creighton at the Omaha Civic Auditorium.

It’s the opener of a quick two-game tour of the Heartland for the Beavers (4-1), idle since an 82-39 rout of Birmingham-Southern on Dec. 3. They return home after Sunday’s 11:05 a.m. contest at Drake.

“They both will be challenging road tests against two historically-strong teams,” assistant coach Krista Reinking said Monday. “Creighton’s record (1-7) doesn’t reflect how good they are, especially at home.

“We got Drake at our place last year,” by a 63-61 count in LaVonda Wagner’s first home game as OSU’s head coach. “So I’m sure I’m sure there will be a revenge factor” for Drake in the rematch.

The Beavers lost their lone road game this season, at Cal Poly on Nov. 14. They led 32-21 at halftime but the Mustangs rallied for a 68-65 win.

“That was a huge wake-up call,” junior guard Ashley Allen said in recalling that night. “We learned a big lesson from that, and promised ourselves as long as we remember that feeling, we wouldn’t let that happen again.

“On the road it’s important to really stay focused. That’s a key point for us, to keep attacking, have that attack mindset. If we’re aggressive, then everything else will fall into place.”

Creighton hasn’t played since Dec. 6, when six players scored in double figures in an 89-79 victory at Memphis. Junior guard Ally Thrall led the Blue Jays with 21 points; sophomore guard Chevelle Herring had 16 points and junior forward Sara Cain had 13 points, five assists and four steals.

OSU’s 39 points allowed against Birmingham-Southern were the third-fewest in Wagner’s 36-game tenure here.

However, this weekend’s opponents figure to be far better than the Panthers, who didn’t have a player taller than 5-11 and are dropping down to Division III after this season.

“When you have six newcomers and one player back with game experience, any game is tough because you never know what’s going to happen,” Wagner said. “We’re always looking to get better defensively.

“We’ve got to get more rhythm offensively and be able to set some better screens and get people open. One of the most unselfish things you can do is set solid screens, and we didn’t do that” against Birmingham-Southern, despite the lopsided, 43-point victory margin.

Drake (4-3) has lost three consecutive neutral/road games heading into a Thursday night home game with Oregon. However, senior forward Jill Martin, the team’s leading scorer/rebounder through the first five games (20.0 ppg, 6.8 rpg) will miss the balance of the season with a back injury.

Sunday is OSU’s final non-league game before the Pacific-10 Conference opener against Washington State on Dec. 21.

“It’s a big test for us,” Reinking said. “It’s pretty crucial to see how we’ve developed from our last road trip. We’re still searching for our identity as a team and that will continue as we go along.”