Oregon State
Stanford
Women's Hoops Upsets No. 24 Stanford, 81-65
January 11, 2001 | Women's Basketball
CORVALLIS, Ore. Oregon State University's women's basketball team accomplished what no other Beaver team had done in five years, defeat national powerhouse Stanford University.
The Beavers used tenacious defense and accurate shooting to run past the No. 24 ranked Cardinal, 81-65 on Thursday night and earn their first Pac-10 victory.
Oregon State (9-3, 1-1 Pac-10) came out of the gates on fire, streaking to an early 11-0 lead and forcing Stanford to take a time-out at the 16:25 mark to try to regroup.
In the opening four minutes of the game, OSU buried 5-of-6 field goals while Stanford was 0-for-3 from the field with four turnovers.
Carolyn Moos' jumper with 15:36 on the clock put the Cardinal on the scoreboard but Stanford was unable to chip away at the Oregon State lead as the Beavers were scorching from the field.
The Beavers led by as many as 28 points in the opening frame and went into the locker room with a 45-24 advantage while shooting a season-high 62-percent (18-29) from the field. Stanford hit 10-of-25 field goal attempts (40-percent) in the first half and turned the ball over 17 times.
"We have a tremendous amount of respect for every player on Stanford's roster," commented OSU head coach Judy Spoelstra. "Tony Newnan (OSU assistant coach) did a great job of breaking down film this week, so our kids came out really prepared. We had our hands up on our match-up zone and forced Stanford to get some bad looks and they threw the ball away quite a bit in the first half."
Oregon State started the second half with a 10-4 run to push its lead to 27 points (55-28) with 14:57 left in the game but Stanford turned up its defensive pressure and began to make things interesting. Over the next 11 minutes, the Cardinal out-scored OSU 30-10 and narrowed the Beaver lead to just seven points (65-58) with 3:49 left on the clock.
"Their 1-3-1 trap really caused us problems, we knew they were going to come out hard in the second half after a slow start and we needed to pass the ball around and get off some good shots," said Spoelstra.
With the pressure on and Oregon State's lead shrinking, junior guard Felicia Ragland buried a 3-pointer from the top of the key to give OSU a 10-point cushion and stop the Cardinal run.
The Beavers utilized a 16-7 spurt to finish the game and give coach Spoelstra her first career victory against the Cardinal.
Ragland led the Beavers with 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting including 3-of-4 from 3-point range. The Tulare, CA native, also pulled down five rebounds and tallied a game-high six steals. Sophomore Nicole Funn had a big game for the Beavers with 17 points and eight rebounds while junior Ericka Cook added 16 points. The balanced Beavers had all eight players that saw action score on the night.
Lauren St. Clair was one of three Cardinal players to score in double figures, finishing with a game-high 21 points. Freshman Nicole Powell and Oregon City grad, Lindsey Yamasaki, added 16 and 10 points, respectively.
Stanford, out of rhythm most of the night, set a school record with 30 turnovers in the game.
Oregon State returns to action Saturday afternoon when the Beavers host California. Action starts at 1:05 p.m. in Gill Coliseum.
