Oregon State
Arizona St
Women's Basketball Falls At Arizona State, 58-51
February 01, 2001 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 1, 2001
TEMPE, Ariz. - Oregon State's women's basketball team suffered another close loss Thursday night, falling 58-51 at Arizona State.
The Sun Devils improve to 14-6 overall and 6-2 in the Pac-10 while Oregon State drops to 11-7 and 3-5 in the conference.
Poor field goal shooting coupled with questionable officiating made things difficult for the Beavers in the opening 20 minutes of action.
OSU hit just 2-of-13 field goals in the first eight minutes of the game as the Sun Devils streaked to an early 16-6 lead. Just when it appeared as though the Beavers were rallying behind a pair of Syesha Thomas 3-point buckets, the referees put an end to the momentum by calling two strange fouls on post Brina Chaney followed by a pair of calls against Ericka Cook. ASU built its largest lead at 13 points (27-14) after a pair of Betsy Boardman free throws with four minutes remaining before intermission.
The Beavers began to find the range from the floor and utilized an 8-2 run to close out the half and cut the Arizona State lead to 29-22 heading into the locker room.
Oregon State managed just 27-percent shooting on 9-of-33 field goals in the opening frame while the Sun Devils shot 41-percent on 12-of-29 field goals.
The Beavers started cold in the second half, missing their first four shots until Felicia Ragland's jumper fell at the 17:39 mark. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Thomas and Michelle Estell narrowed the ASU lead to 36-30 with just over 15 minutes remaining but the Beavers would fail to get any closer until the 2:56 mark. Back-to-back Thomas baskets brought Oregon State within four points 50-46 but the Sun Devils reeled off five in a row over the next two minutes and the Beavers could not recover.
"This was a very frustrating game," commented OSU head coach Judy Spoelstra. "We dug ourselves in a hole early which made it hard. We didn't get a lot of breaks, but you can expect that on the road."
In a scary moment with seven minutes remaining in game, freshman Leilani Estavan was caught in the crossfire of an ASU celebration and inadvertently punched in the nose. Estavan had to be caught by teammates before collapsing to the floor where attended to by OSU trainer Kelli Eberlein as well as a courtside physician. Estavan was conscious but felt neck pain and was carried off of the floor on stretcher and taken to a local hospital as precaution.
Thomas led the Beavers with 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting from floor. Holbrook was the only other Oregon State player to reach double figures in scoring with 10 points. Ragland led the squad with nine rebounds and six assists but was held to just nine points on just 3-of-13 shooting from the field.
Arizona State was led by post Melody Johnson's 14 points and nine rebounds while Amanda Levens also reached double figures in scoring with 13 points.
The Beavers shot a meager 32-percent from the field for the game, connecting on 21-of-66 shots from the floor and just 5-of-17 from beyond the arc. Arizona State buried 21-of-52 field goals for 40-percent.
OSU hit 4-of-6 from the free throw line while the Sun Devils connected on 14-of-24 charity tosses.
Oregon State returns to the court Saturday afternoon to face the University of Arizona. Tip-off is scheduled for 1 p.m. PST.
