Oregon State
Rice
Beavers Outlast Owls, 63-57, for Third Place; Marchbanks Named All-Tourney
December 03, 2011 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 3, 2011
Houston, Texas – Junior ShaKiana Edwards-Teasley (Lapwai, Idaho) and freshman Ali Gibson (Woodbridge, Calif.) hit six clutch free throws down the stretch to lead the Oregon State women's basketball team (6-1) to a 63-57 win over Rice (4-5) to take third place in the Gene Hackerman Invitational on Saturday evening in Tudor Fieldhouse.
Senior Earlysia Marchbanks (Salem, Ore.) and Gibson were the team's leading scorers with 14 points, followed by junior Sage Indendi (Livingston, Mont.) with her first double-figures game of the season with 10.
Marchbanks' pair of double-doubles on the weekend earned her All-Tournament Team honors.
Oregon State outshot Rice, 35.9 percent (23-64) to 31.7 percent (20-63), while controlling the boards 48-43 and earning 11 steals to the Owls' nine.
Rice won the opening tip, but neither team could find the mark until Rice's Candace Ashford hit a bucket to give the Owls their only lead of the game. Marchbanks quickly erased the slim deficit, scoring the Beavers' first seven points of the game on a 7-2 run.
The Beavers worked inside until the midway point of the half when sophomore Jenna Dixon (Portland, Ore.) started the three-point game with her second of the game, followed closely by freshman Ali Gibson's (Woodbridge, Calif.) back-to-back long range shots. Led by Brianna Hypolite, Rice returned the favor with two of her own, but a 9-0 run by Oregon State gave the team its largest lead of the game at the 33-20 mark.
The Owls cut the Beaver lead to as few as six with a minute to play in the half, but a final dish inside to junior Thais Pinto (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) gave Oregon State the 37-29 lead going into the break.
The Beavers scored first in the second half, but Rice went on a 16-2 run in the heart of the second half to take its second lead of the game, building it to as many as eight at 53-45. Indendi and sophomore Alexis Bostick (Oakland, Calif.) led the team back into the game behind three points each and a bucket off of a steal by Bostick to make it a one-point game at 54-53 with 5:28 left.
Indendi used her size advantage over 5-0 D'Frantz Smart to give Oregon State the lead back in nearly 10 minutes of play before Ashford regained the lead for the Owls on a layup.
Sophomore Alyssa Martin (Portland, Ore.) scored her first points of the day on a layup off a fake inside the key to steal the lead away again with just over two minutes to play with Hypolite tying it up for Rice, but two free throws Edwards-Teasley in the bonus followed by four more by Gibson secured the game in favor of the Beavers.
Hypolite led Rice with a game-high 23 points, while Ashford had 13 points and 10 rebounds.
Oregon State stays on the road after finals week, traveling to Malibu, Calif., for a game against Pepperdine on Saturday at 4:00 p.m.
Oregon State Notes: Senior Earlysia Marchbanks earned her second double-double of the season and weekend with 14 points and 10 rebounds … Oregon State is now 1-0 all-time against Rice.
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