By Brooks Hatch

Gazette-Times reporter

Death, taxes, November rain ... and a season-opening victory by an Oregon State women's basketball team.

The Beavers remained undefeated in openers in the LaVonda Wagner coaching era on Friday with a 71-61 victory over Cal Poly before a crowd of 1,031 at Gill Coliseum.

The Beavers overcame early foul trouble by starting point guard Brittney Kennedy and an uncharacteristically nightmarish performance at the foul line to improve to 5-0 in all openers and 5-0 in home openers since Wagner became coach in 2006-07.

Junior guard Talisa Rhea scored 13 of her game-high 20 points in the second half and sophomore forward Kirsten Tilleman scored a career-high 19 points and added a game-high eight rebounds for the Beavers. Tilleman also had the defensive gem of the night, a sensational rejection and save with 2:33 remaining that led to a Rhea basket on the subsequent possession and an ultimately insurmountable 68-59 advantage.

"For me it's about being a threat from the high post," said Tilleman, who averaged 3.8 points, with a career-high of eight against Division I competition, as a part-time starter in 2009. "Last year when I'd get the ball there for reversal, nobody would guard really me.

"I've been working a lot on being a threat from there, just going through contact, not seeing the defense, and going up strong," an approach that resulted in 8 of 11 shooting from the field and five free throws.

The Beavers led 10-3 when Kennedy got her second foul and went to the bench after 4:22. She did not play again in the first half but the Beavers stayed ahead and led 35-29 at intermission when Rhea's 3-pointer with two seconds remaining hit the front rim, the backboard and then fell through.

"I got a good bounce and it's always good to go into half on a good note," she said. "It was a momentum-builder, we needed a basket. It was back-and-fourth the whole first half. It gave me a little more confidence, knowing I'd just hit a shot, coming back out in the second half."

OSU's lead yo-yoed between 10 and two points in the second half and the Mustangs were within 64-59 with 5:11 remaining when OSU's defense rose to the occasion.

Kennedy got a steal at 4:54 that led to Tilleman's layup and a 66-59 advantage at 4:05. Tilleman had a block at 3:46, a key steal at 3:24, and the aforementioned defensive gem at 2:33 when she blocked Desiray Johnston's attempted layup, ran about 10 feet and then saved the ball back in-bounds to a teammate.

The Beavers had 19 points off 19 Cal Poly turnovers, outrebounded the Mustangs 40-28 and held then to 4 of 18 on 3-pointers overall and to 1 of 8 in the second half.

"When we're not getting things done on the offensive end, we can always work hard on defense to get stops and create offense off of our defense," Tilleman said. "That's one of the things we really need to work on, getting that mentality, and not taking any possessions off on offense or defense."

OSU - which has shot .711 or better from the line the past three seasons and never worse than .688 under Wagner - was 15 of 32 from the line and thus couldn't exploit Cal Poly's penchant for fouling while overplayng on defense.

"I'm a big believer in, you've got to control the things you can control," Wagner said. "Obviously, making free throws is one of those things. We shot better from the field than we did from the line. That is totally mental, and will be corrected."

The Beavers play at Houston on Nov. 19 and at Houston Baptist on Nov. 22. Their next home game is Dec. 5 against UC Santa Barbara.

Oregon State 71, Cal Poly 61

CAL POLY (61): Kristina Santiago 7-11 3-4 17, Becky Tratter 6-12 2-2 14, Ashlee Stewart 0-3 0-0 0, Rachel Clancy 4-6 0-0 8, Desiray Johnston 2-5 0-0 5, Ashlee Burns 2-6 2-2 7, Jonae Ervin 1-4 0-0 2, Carolina Reeves 0-0 0-0 0, Ariel Gregersen 0-2 0-0 0, Aly Geppert 0-2 0-0 0, Brittany Lange 3-8 0-0 8. Totals: 25-59 7-8 61.

OREGON STATE (71): Kirsten Tilleman 8-11 3-5 19, El Sara Greer 1-1 1-4 3, Talisa Rhea 6-17 6-7 20, Haiden Palmer 3-5 2-4 8, Brittany Kennedy 2-4 0-0 4, Tayler Champion 2-2 0-2 4, Kassandra McCalister 1-1 1-2 3, Eisha Sheppard 0-0 0-0 0, Kate Lanz 1-3 1-3 3, Angela Misa 1-1 1-2 3, Julie Futch 1-5 0-2 2, Anita Burdick 1-1 0-0 2, Stacey Nichols 0-0 0-1 0. Totals: 27-51 15-32 71.

Halftime: OSU 35, Cal Poly 29. 3-Point Goals: Cal Poly 4-18 (Lange 2-6, Burns 1-5, Johnston 1-1, Stewart 0-3, Clancy 0-2, Gregersen 0-1), OSU 2-9 (Rhea 2-7, Palmer 0-1, Futch 0-1). Fouled Out: Tratter. Rebounds: Cal Poly 28 (Santiago 6), OSU 40 (Tilleman 8). Assists: Cal Poly 14 (Stewart 4), OSU 15 (Lanz 5). Total Fouls: Cal Poly 25, OSU 12. Technicals: None. Att.: 1,031.