Beavers End Season Ranked No. 2
April 06, 2016 | Women's Basketball
Fresh off its first ever trip to the Final Four, the Oregon State women's basketball team has earned the highest ranking in program history, coming in at No. 2 in the year-end USA Today/WBCA Coaches' Poll. The ranking marks an improvement of four spots on the team's previous best rankings, No. 6 at the start of the 2015-16 NCAA Tournament.
The Beavers have been ranked in the Coaches' Poll every week since the 2013-14 year-end poll, and are one of five Pac-12 teams ranked in this year's final Top-25.
The 2015-16 Oregon State squad finished the campaign with 32 wins, the highest total in program history, including an impressive seven victories over ranked opponents. Along the way, the Beavers won their second-straight Pac-12 regular-season title, cutting down the nets as the best team in the nation's top league. They followed that up with another championship ceremony a week later, when they earned the program's first ever Pac-12 Tournament title.
The Beavers entered the NCAA Tournament as a No. 2 seed, the highest seed in school history. After sweeping a pair of games at Gill Coliseum to open the tournament, Oregon State earned possibly the biggest win in program history in the Elite Eight, knocking off perennial powerhouse Baylor to earn a spot in the Final Four.
The outstanding season on the floor was met with numerous individual awards. Jamie Weisner led the way, earning WBCA All-America honors, as well as Pac-12 Player of the Year recognition. She also added Dallas Regional Most Outstanding Player and Pac-12 Tournament Most Outstanding Player honors to her resume. The senior ends her career with the sixth-highest scoring total in Oregon State history, and finished eighth on the program's all-time rebounds list. Her career was highlighted by one of the greatest games in school history, as she exploded for 38 points vs. DePaul in the Sweet 16.
Ruth Hamblin's outstanding career was rewarded with a number of awards for her accomplishments both on and off the floor. The Houston, B.C. native notched her second-straight Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year nod, as well as her second All-Pac-12 honor. The conference's career record holder for blocked shots, Hamblin made her mark in the Pac-12 Tournament Championship game, notching the third 20-20 game in OSU history, going for 23 points and 20 rebounds. Off the floor, the Mechanical Engineering major earned Academic All-America recognition and was a Senior CLASS Award All-American. She capped her season off by winning the women's basketball Elite 90 Award, which honors the player with the top GPA among Final Four teams.
Junior Sydney Wiese will enter her senior season as one of the top players in the Pac-12. The point guard was named to the All-Pac-12 team for the third-straight season, becoming the 36th player in conference history to receive the honor three times in a career. Wiese continued her outstanding play into the postseason, making both the Pac-12 All-Tournament Team and the Dallas Regional All-Tournament Team. The sharp-shooter is already Oregon State's all-time leader in 3-pointers, and will take aim at Candice Parker's (Stanford) Pac-12 record in 2016-17.
Deven Hunter was a rock for the Oregon State program throughout her career, making 132 starts and appearing in all 135 games the Beavers played over the course of her four years. A dynamo on the glass, the Keizer, Ore. native wraps up her career fourth in OSU history in rebounds. Hunter saved her best performance for a big game, going for 19 points to help Oregon State record a comeback victory over Stanford at Gill Coliseum.
Junior Gabriella Hanson was a defensive stalwart for the Beavers, earning Pac-12 All-Defensive Honorable Mention. Possibly the best example of her shut-down defense came in the Pac-12 Tournament semifinal, when she held Washington standout Kelsey Plum to 14 points on 4-for-19 shooting from the floor. Hanson also came up with some key buckets in the Beavers' victory over Baylor in the Elite Eight.
Samantha Siegner will be remembered as Oregon State's most versatile player. The 6-foot-3 Albany, Ore. native played every position but point guard over the course of her career, and appeared in all but three games in the last four seasons. Senior Jen'Von'Ta Hill, who transferred into the Oregon State program last year, continued her winning ways with the Beavers. Hill's teams went 130-12 in her collegiate career, as she went 71-2 at Hutchinson Community College, before helping OSU to a 59-10 record over the last two seasons.
Scott Rueck earned some recognition of his own for the turnaround he has engineered. The Oregon State alum was named one of four finalists for the Naismith Coach of the Year Award, joining the outstanding trio of Geno Auriemma (Connecticut), Dawn Staley (South Carolina) and Muffet McGraw (Notre Dame). He also hit a pair of milestones this season, notching his 100th win with Oregon State, as well as his 400th overall career win (George Fox + Oregon State).
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