Oregon State
Washington St
OSU Women Slip Past WSU For Series Sweep
February 19, 2000 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 19, 2000
PULLMAN, Wash. -- Oregon State made a sensational comeback here Saturday afternoon, coming from 14 points down in the second half to steal a 65-62 victory over the Washington State Cougars in front of a slim 561 crowd at Friel Court.
The victory, OSU's eighth in its last 11 games, improved the Beavers' season record to 12-13 and their Pac-10 record to 8-5 and in sole possession of fifth place in the conference race. The unlucky WSU squad is now 4-19 on the year and 1-12 in the Pac-10.
The comeback by the Beavers also completed a series sweep over the Cougars this season and gave OSU its first season sweep over Washington and Washington State since 1983.
To get the improbable victory Saturday, the Beavers outscored the Cougars by 24-8 to finish the game. OSU limited WSU to just 4 points in the final 7:14 of the game.
Reda Petraitis gave the Beavers their first lead since opening the contest with a 2-0 start, when she drove the lane for a lay-up basket with 31.4 seconds remaining for a 63-62 advantage. WSU got two more shots at the basket but didn't draw iron. The Cougars' rebounded the first miss and the second shot by Alke Dietel was blocked by Sissel Pierce and the ball went out of bounds off a WSU player with 8.2 seconds left.
The block by Pierce was huge and it also gave her the Oregon State single-season school record for blocked shots with 70.
Felicia Ragland was fouled on the inbound play and calmly walked to the line and canned a pair of free throws with 7.0 seconds left in the game to ice the contest. WSU's Jen Kerns took a desperation shot from long range at the buzzer, but it fell short giving the Beavers their first win at Pullman since 1997.
It was only fitting that Ragland should go to the line to ensure the OSU win as she was easily the Beavers' star performer in this game. Ragland matched her career high in points with the two free throws, scoring a game-high 24. Ragland also added a team-high 8 rebounds.
"This was a great game for us," said Coach Judy Spoelstra. "It was very pretty today for us on offense. Sissel Pierce got in foul trouble and our team had to overcome quite a bit of adversity today. I was really proud of our team today. Nicole Funn and Syesha Thomas really gave us a lift off the bench. We were able to stay focused and chip away at their lead and we finally got over the hump."
It was a heartbreaking loss for the Cougars, a team that was shooting lights out until finally cooling off in the final seven minutes. WSU shot .565 in the first half and finished the game shooting .449 after cooling off to .346 in the second half.
Oregon State, as usual, controlled the boards with a 38-20 advantage, including 16 offensive boards to keep itself within reach. The Beavers are the top defensive team and top rebounding team in the Pac-10 and both areas saved OSU on Saturday.
The Beavers wound up shooting .500 from the field after a slow start, but Ragland was virtually the entire offense for OSU. The Beavers got great bench play down the stretch from freshman Nicole Funn with 7 points and 5 rebounds.
The Cougars had four players score in double figures, with Dietel leading the way with 20. Kerns had an unusual double-double for WSU, scoring 10 points and dishing out 12 assists.
Washington State completed the first half on a 10-2 run and went to the locker room with a 37-26 lead, thanks to a 14-point effort in the opening 20 minutes by Dietel, who was a perfect 5 for 5 from the floor and 3 for 3 from the foul line.
Oregon State returns to Corvallis next weekend to host USC on Thursday night and UCLA on Saturday night. Both games will tip off at 7:05 p.m.
