Rueck, USA Headed to Gold Medal Game
TORONTO, Ontario – Oregon State head coach Scott Rueck and Team USA earned a spot in the Pan-American Games Gold Medal Game by virtue of a hard-fought 65-64 win over Cuba Sunday afternoon in Toronto. The Stars and Stripes will play for gold Monday at 5:45 against Canada.
Cuba provided a tough test for the USA, leading by as many as 14 points in the second half, before the American squad surged back to earn the win. The USA comeback was powered by an 18-4 third-quarter run that leveled the score late in the period.
South Carolina’s Alaina Coates provided a late basket for the Americans to give the team the lead in the final minute. Kentucky’s Linnae Harper would proceed to put the USA ahead for good, hitting a pair of clutch free-throws with seven seconds to play to give Team USA its 65-64 edge.
With the win, the Stars and Stripes has now won all four of its games in the tournament.
Former Beaver Ali Gibson (2012-15) wrapped up her Pan-American Games run as a member of the Puerto Rican national team against Argentina in the fifth-place game. Gibson posted four points and five rebounds in the game, to finish the event averaging 7.5 points, 3.3 rebounds and 19.3 minutes per contest. Her best performance came against the United States, when she scored 13 points on 4-for-8 shooting.
Rueck, who was named an assistant coach for Team USA in April, led the Beavers to their best season in school history in 2014-15, as Oregon State set a school record with 27 wins en route to the program’s first ever Pac-12 title. Along the way Oregon State proved it could beat the nation’s best teams and under Rueck took down North Carolina on the road, swept Arizona State and defeated California. The Beavers were in the national rankings throughout the season, moving as high as No. 7 before ending the regular season ranked 10th. Oregon State ranked in the top 25 in the country in eleven different statistical categories, including fifth in assists per game (18.6), ninth in field goal percentage (45.4) and 13th in field goal percentage defense (35.2). The historic season led to an increase in attendance, as the Beavers averaged a Pac-12 leading 4,167 fans per game, and welcomed 7,652 fans to Gill Coliseum for the Civil War on Jan. 9, the third-largest crowd in school history.
Rueck, who was named Pac-12 Coach of the Year by both the coaches and the media and has earned back-to-back WBCA Region 8 Coach of the year honors, has helped engineer an incredible turnaround in the program, since taking over in 2010. The Beavers earned their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1996 last season, and made it to the second round of the tourney for the second season in a row this year. Under his guidance, the Beavers led the Pac-12 with three All-Conference honorees this season (Ruth Hamblin, Jamie Weisner and Sydney Wiese), and led the conference with four Players of the Week.
