Oregon State
NCAA Tournament Sweet 16: Oregon State vs. DePaul
Beavers advance to Elite 8
March 27, 2016 | Women's Basketball
Dallas, Texas – The Oregon State women's basketball team defeated DePaul and advanced to the Elite 8 for the first time in school history on Saturday with an 83-71 victory over the Blue Demons in the semifinals of the NCAA Dallas Regional at American Airlines Arena.
Senior guard Jamie Weisner hit 7 of 10 3-point shots and scored a career-high 38 points to pace the Beavers (31-4) to their seventh consecutive victory. She also had 10 rebounds and an assist in her fifth double-double of the season and the 15th of her stellar career as OSU outraced the high-flying Blue Demons with a 45-point first half.
The No. 6-ranked Beavers now face No. 1-seeded Baylor (36-1) at 6 p.m. (PDT) Monday for a berth in the Women's Final Four, set for April 3-5 at Indianapolis. Baylor eliminated Florida State 78-58 in the other regional semifinal.
“I'm just so proud of this team and what we've accomplished over the past four years,” Weisner said afterwards while being mobbed by her teammates during an ESPN interview. “It's been a journey.
“We started from the bottom. We worked so hard for this, I'm just proud to be part of this team and to go to work with these girls every day.
“Baylor is very athletic, they have an inside presence and they can score from everywhere. We'll go to work tonight after we celebrate this one. Go Beavs!”
Weisner scored 20 points in the first half, when the Beavers erased an early 9-2 deficit to assume a 45-38 intermission lead. She added 18 more in the second, including two clinching free throws with 37 seconds to play, in a brilliant 36-minute performance.
Weisner's former career high was 27 points, set against Utah this past Valentine's Day and against USC on Jan. 4, 2013. She also set a school record for points in an NCAA game; the old mark was 28, by Tanja Kostic in a 96-86 loss to Alabama in Tuscaloosa on March 16, 1994.
Wiese added 13 points and seven assists, senior center Ruth Hamblin had 13 points, nine rebounds and two assists and senior forward Deven Hunter added nine points and a game-high 13 rebounds to complement Weisner, who has now scored 61 points in her last two NCAA games after netting just two in OSU's tournament opener back on March 18.
OSU took its first lead, 10-9, on a Hunter basket with 5:55 left in the first half. They eventually ran off 13 unanswered points for a 15-9 advantage, led 21-17 after one quarter, and never looked back. Wiese had two 3-pointers in that run.
“They started so fast and we needed to answer,” OSU coach Scott Rueck said. “Syd hit those back to back threes and those were huge.
“DePaul shot nearly 60 percent in their first two games of the tournament so we knew they could start quickly. I loved our response. Jamie and Syd put us on their back offensively and set the tone about how we were going to compete.”
The Beavers took their first double-digit advantage, 31-21, on a Wiese 3-pointer with 7:35 left in the second quarter. DePaul got within 48-44 early in the third quarter, but OSU answered with a 6-0 run to restore a 10-point edge; OSU led by 16 before settling for a 62-49 advantage entering the final quarter.
DePaul drew within eight but back-to-back 3-pointers by Weisner expanded a 70-60 lead to 76-60 with 4:01 left and OSU was home-free. DePaul drew within 10 at 76-66 with 2:32 to play, but the Beavers hit 5 of 6 free throws in the final minute to salt it away.
The Beavers outrebounded DePaul (27-9) 42-31, shot 51 percent (33-65) from the field and had 22 assists on 33 baskets. DePaul entered the day averaging 81.2 points per game, but was held to 41 percent shooting (27-61) and its sixth-lowest point total of the season.
The Beavers are 2-0 lifetime against Baylor, winning twice on a neutral court, the last time during the 1996 season.
“They are really big and really talented,” Rueck said of the Bears. “Monday night be an absolute war, a heck of a game. It will be a big test and I couldn't be more excited about it.”
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