Corvallis Gazette-Times

LOS ANGELES — The Oregon State women’s basketball team withstood a late UCLA rally on Friday, hit five of six free throws in the final 38 seconds and stunned the Bruins 56-52 at Pauley Pavilion for its first Pacific-10 Conference victory of the season.

“It was a great game,” OSU assistant coach Krista Reinking said. “We forced them to make more turnovers than we did (24-18), so that was key.”

UCLA committed 24 turnovers to OSU’s 18, while the Beavers also made their free throws, hitting 13 of 17 in the second half after having an 0-for-1 effort in the first half. UCLA had seven free throw attempts in the game.

“We didn’t foul them and we limited Noelle Quinn’s touches,” Reinking said. “Ashley Allen did a great job” guarding the two-time Pac-10 all-star, who was held to 13 points on 5 of 14 shooting, four points below her average.

The Beavers (6-6, 1-2 Pac-10) led 50-40 with 2:06 to play but the Bruins drew within 51-48 with 44 seconds remaining on a basket by Jerica Thompson. However, senior Casey Nash made two free throws with 38.5 seconds remaining for a 53-48 advantage and Mercedes Fox Griffin added two more free throws with 28.3 seconds left.

Quinn scored with 14 seconds remaining and after an OSU turnover Williams scored with five seconds left to cut the lead to 55-52. But freshman Judie Lomax hit the second of a two-shot foul with four seconds left to clinch OSU’s second consecutive victory.

Nash scored 18 points and Allen added 10 points and four assists. Fox-Griffin played the entire game and had five assists with only two turnovers.

“We’re asking a lot of her, but she’s stepping up every single game,” Reinking said of Fox-Griffin.

Lomax had 11 points, 11 rebounds and three steals for her sixth double/double in 12 games.

“Judy got some big, big rebounds down the stretch,” Reinking said. “They’re definitely a bigger team than we are, and we did get outrebounded (37-28), but down the stretch we got some key rebounds and came up big when we needed to.”

UCLA led 24-21 at halftime on Quinn’s buzzer-beating bank-shot 3-pointer. However, Nash scored OSU’s first 10 points of the second half to send the Beavers ahead and UCLA trailed the final 17:05.

“We didn’t crack,” Reinking said. “We made some silly mistakes at the end, turning the ball over trying to make some baseball passes, but they really did a great job.

“We’re more proud of their defensive effort. We wanted to switch some things up defensively, they were on cue, they knew their assignments, and that was the whole key.

“We had four starters play 40 minutes. That’s tough. We do ask a lot of them, but they keep stepping up and keep getting better every game.

“No matter where it is, a win is a win, but to come here and beat UCLA, the Pac-10 tournament champions last year,” is significant.

The Beavers were 0-3 when trailing at halftime before Friday. It was their first win at Pauley Pavilion since Dec. 22, 2001, when they prevailed 79-65. UCLA had won four games in a row in Los Angeles and five in a row against OSU overall.

OSU goes for its first sweep in Los Angeles since the 2001 season at 2 p.m. Sunday when it faces USC in the Beavers’ first appearance at the new on-campus Galen Center.