Oregon State’s early lead fades away in second half

By Brooks Hatch
Gazette-Times reporter

The next time the Oregon State women’s basketball team plays Stanford, it should just leave the arena at halftime and call it good.

For the second time this season, the ninth-ranked Cardinal erased a substantial first-half deficit, outscored the Beavers 38-21 in the second half and made off with a 70-55 victory on Thursday night before a Gill Coliseum crowd of 1,526.

OSU (8-16, 3-12) also led 34-23 at halftime at Stanford on Jan. 20 before the Cardinal roared back for a 69-53 victory.

The Cardinal (22-4, 14-1) trailed 29-20 with six minutes left in the first half before a closing 12-5 run pared the lead to 34-32 at the break. Their superior size eventually overwhelmed OSU’s inside defense and Stanford pulled away from a 43-43 deadlock over the final 11:47 by shooting bunny after bunny against OSU’s smaller post defenders.

“They were were able to pass right over and score against our posts, who are not very big,” OSU coach LaVonda Wagner said. “The game was won inside.”

Freshman Jayne Appel had 28 points and 17 rebounds and senior Brooke Smith had 22 points, seven assists and six rebounds to spark Stanford’s 52-18 edge in points in the paint. The Cardinal had 18 assists on 29 baskets and shot 54 percent by converting numerous layins.

“Our plan was to really sandwich that pass inside,” Wagner said. “They were able to pass over the person in front and the person in back just didn’t challenge Appel, she was able to shoot over them. We knew they were going to pound the ball inside and that’s exactly what they did.”

It was the third win in a row for the Cardinal following a 72-57 loss to California on Feb. 4 that snapped their 51-game home Pacific-10 Conference winning streak. The Beavers have now lost six in a row, eight of their last nine, and 14 straight in the series.

“We learned from our loss, we weren’t taking bad shots or quick perimeter shots,” Cardinal coach Tara Vanderveer said. In the loss to Cal the Cardinal were 6 of 35 from deep. “We went with what works for us, and that was going with Jayne Appel and Brooke Smith.

“We played disciplined, did what we needed to do,” and attempted only three 3-pointers, half of their previous season low.

OSU junior guard Ashley Allen had three first-half 3-pointers to fuel OSU’s early attack and finished with five overall in 10 attempts for 15 points. The Beavers had a season-best nine 3-pointers.

“My teammates did a great job of finding me when I was open and of setting screens for me to get open. All I had to do was just shoot it,” Allen said.

Senior guard Casey Nash had 11 points and seven rebounds, and reserve freshman guard Julie Futch had career-bests of 10 points and 10 rebounds for her first double/double.

“My team needed me to rebound, that was my goal, get as many boards as I could,” said Futch, whose previous highs were eight points and six rebounds. “It was my opportunity to play so I had to do that.”

Stanford junior guard Candace Wiggins, the two-time Pac-10 Player of the Year, sprained her right ankle against Washington on Feb. 10 and was in street clothes on the bench in the first half. She suited up at the break and entered with just over nine minutes to play, though, and her 3-pointer with 8:08 remaining sent Stanford ahead 53-46.

A subsequent 10-5 run made it 63-51 with 2:50 to play and the Cardinal were home-free.

“When the opportunity came in the second half to play, I was really excited about that,” said Wiggins, the team’s top scorer at 16.8 points per game. “I think that’s why the pain wasn’t as bad.”

She was limping noticeably and her ankle was wrapped in ice afterward.

OSU was 6 of 11 on 3-pointers in the first half but dropped off to 3 of 8 in the second as the 6-3 Smith and 6-5 Kristin Newlin, able to range away from the basket because of OSU’s lack of an inside game, took away the perimeter shots.

“Our guards shot-faked and tried to go at them, and drew a crowd of 6-3, 6-4 and 6-5,” Wagner said. “We did a great job of knocking down shots early. They outrebounded us, we didn’t knock down our free throws like I wish we would have (8-15).

“We were able to get some movement out of our zone and some good looks. We just didn’t knock them down and were one-and-done because they got the rebound.”

The Beavers play California at 7 p.m. Saturday; the 22nd-ranked Bears lost 62-42 at Oregon on Thursday night. Nash and Ebony Young, OSU’s two departing seniors, will be honored after the game.