Oregon State
USC
Oregon State Women Complete Sweep Of USC
February 24, 2000 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 24, 2000
CORVALLIS -- Oregon State led from wire-to-wire and completed a season sweep of USC by downing the women of Troy 73-66 for its third straight victory and ninth in its last 12 games before a loud 1,326 fans at Gill Coliseum Thursday night.
The Beavers reached the .500 mark on the season at 13-13 overall with the victory, but pushed their Pacific-10 record to 9-5. OSU is now in a position to be looking at possible post season action. The loss dropped USC, which was right behind the Beavers in the Pac-10 standings, to 11-12 overall and 6-7 in conference play.
OSU at 9-5 is 1/2 game behind fourth place Arizona (9-4) and two games behind Pac-10 leader, Oregon (11-3). The Beavers have won three straight games from USC. OSU is now 7-8 all-time with the Trojans in Gill Coliseum.
The Beavers used deadly shooting to down the Trojans Thursday night. OSU shot .600 (12-20) in the first half while building a 33-24 lead, and improved to .813 (13-16) in the second half for a near school record .694 (25-36) for the game. The Beavers' school record for shooting is .719 vs. Washington in 1981.
OSU needed to have a great shooting game to combat the very physical USC club.
"I don't understand the way the game is being played these days," was Coach Judy Spoelstra's comments following the contest. "USC is clearly a very physical team. They push trying to get open. I thought our kids kept their poise considering how they were getting pushed around," said Spoelstra.
"We needed to have a great job shooting because I didn't think we did a very good job on defense," Spoelstra added. "Nicole Funn really sparked us tonight after Chassie Wiersma picked up two early fouls. Earlier in the season Funn was really bothered with pressure, but tonight she looked like a real veteran," said Spoelstra.
Oregon State got a career high 14 points from Funn as she connected on 6 of 7 shots from the field, two of which were on sensational breakaways.
The Beavers got 18 points and 3 blocked shots from Sissel Pierce as the senior center hiked her career blocked shots record to 164 and season record to 73. Felicia Ragland added 11 points and a career high 7 assists.
OSU led by as many as 15 points with 12:28 to play, but had to hang on at the end. USC cut the margin to 3 points at 69-66 with 1:18 to play. With pressure mounting, Pierce hit a clutch layup on a pass from Ragland to give the Beavers at 71-66 lead with :55 seconds left.
Cherrith Wiersma made one of two free throws for a 72-66 lead with :32 seconds left after an intentional foul by the Trojans' Tashara Carter. The Beavers' retained possession on the intentional foul and Ragland was fouled with :09 seconds left and missed her first attempt, stopping a streak of 11 straight made, and hit her second for a 73-66 lead, which proved to be the final score.
Tiffany Washington paced USC with 18 points and 11 rebounds, while Danielle Golay added 14 points and Tiffany Elmore 12. The Trojans had a 34-25 advantage on the boards, including a huge 22-4 edge on the offensive glass. It was only the ninth time this season at Oregon State, which leads the Pac-10 in rebounding, has lost the battle of the boards.
The Beavers will return to action against UCLA at Gill Coliseum on Saturday, with tip-off slated for 7:05 p.m. The Bruins will bring a 9-4 record to Gill and a 1/2 game lead over Oregon State.
