Oregon State
UNLV
Beavers Advance to Lady Rebel Round-Up Title Game after Win over UNLV
November 26, 2010 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 26, 2010
Las Vegas, Nev. - The Oregon State women's basketball team (4-1) forced 27 turnovers to hand UNLV (3-1) its first loss of the season in a 57-45 final on Friday evening in Cox Pavilion to advance to the Hyatt Place Lady Rebel Round-Up Championship game.
Freshman Alyssa Martin (Portland, Ore.) scored a game-high 23 points on 8 of 20 shooting, adding four of the team's nine steals and three of the Beavers' five blocks. Freshman Alexis Bostick (Oakland, Calif.) and senior El Sara Greer (Waterloo, Iowa) both reached double-digits for points with 11 and 10, respectively, and Bostick and junior Earlysia Marchbanks (Salem, Ore.) both crashed the boards for a team-high seven rebounds each.
The Beavers scored its first three points on free throws before Martin sunk the team's first bucket on a fast break layup with just over 15 minutes left in the half.
UNLV took the lead behind the strong shooting in the paint by Lenita Sanford to give the Lady Rebels as many as a six-point edge at 11-5, but Oregon State quickly responded, tying up the game on a pair of free throws by Greer heading into the second media break.
And that's when the Beavers took over, forcing most of UNLV's 19 first half turnovers, while holding the Lady Rebels scoreless for over 10 minutes. Oregon State chalked up an 11-2 run, sparked by Martin's five points between media timeouts with the Beavers taking a 22-14 lead into halftime.
Oregon State picked right up where it left off coming out of the long break going on a 7-2 run with Martin leading the way with five more points before the first media timeout of the half. The Beavers were able to put up four more points to the Lady Rebels' six before the next timeout, leading 33-22.
Bostick tallied an easy layup and assist on back-to-back fast break baskets to give the Beavers their largest lead of the night at 39-23, but after a dump inside by freshman Classye James (Palo Alto, Calif.) to Greer, the game took a dramatic twist.
The Lady Rebels hit six free throw attempts on eight attempts on a pair of technical fouls and looked to control the game, going on a 10-0 run to make the game only a six point margin at 41-35.
But the Beavers responded with five points to push the divide back to double-digits behind Martin's fourth three-pointer and a fast break layup by Bostick. UNLV pulled back within six with Oregon State taking control again and holding on despite struggling from the free throw line late in the game to take the victory.
The Lady Rebels' were paced by Kelli Thompson with 14 points, while Jamie Smith pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds.
Oregon State heads completes play in the Hyatt Place Lady Rebel Round-Up in the championship game against Rutgers at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Catch the game live on KLOO 1340-AM in the Corvallis area or through Beaver Nation Online (osubeavers.com). Jay Reese will call all the action for the tournament.
Oregon State Notes - Oregon State held UNLV to the lowest first half point total so far this season, besting the 32 against Nevada on November 21 and lowest overall point total, never scoring lower than 66 ... This marks the first time this season that UNLV has trailed going into halftime ... Oregon State has won by double-digits in all four victories this season ... Oregon State is now 5-2 all-time against UNLV, winning the last four straight, 2-1 at UNLV ... Junior Earlysia Marchbanks set a new career high for rebounds with seven ... Senior El Sara Greer scored a season-high 10 points ... Oregon State scored the most free throws on the season with 19 ... Freshman Alyssa Martin recorded her second 20-plus point game of the season with 23 ... Freshman Alexis Bostick earned her fourth double-digit points game.
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