Beavers hold off Oregon in Civil War win Tuesday night

EUGENE — The Oregon State women’s basketball team nabbed the Beavers’ first Civil War victory for any sport since the school year began last September.

OSU defeated the Ducks in Eugene, 63-53 for a little redemption.

An amped up Eugene crowd led their team to the first four points of the game, but that lead was fleeting. The Beavers (8-9, 2-3 Pac-12) fired back and used a 12-0 run over the next five minutes to give themselves a lead that they would never give back.

“This team has a lot of heart” said head coach Scott Rueck. “And I could tell from shootaround today that they were dialed in. It’s something about this game, they know what the Civil War means and stands for, and they treated this game with respect.”

Freshman guard Jamie Weisner scored a game-high 22 points off 7-of-16 shooting and was 4-for-9 from deep. She continues to build on her already impressive freshman campaign. Earlier this week she was named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week. If this Civil War was any indication, she could be in line for another.

“We’re kind of used to the fact that Jamie’s just going to be Jamie,” Rueck said. “We really needed her performance today. I thought she helped us all relax early by hitting shots, and then we just kept her outside.”

On defense, the Beavers rallied around the efforts of senior center Patricia Bright, who registered a massive six blocks.

“[Bright] was huge for us,” Rueck said. “She was, probably, overall the player of the game. She skewed their offensive attack. She slowed down Jillian [Alleyne] on the inside, which is not an easy task.”

Alleyne, Oregon’s own freshman star, was averaging 15 points and 13 rebounds coming into the game. With Bright and freshman forward Deven Hunter defending her, Alleyne was limited to just seven points on a poor shooting night, going 2-for-14. As a team, the Beavers held the Ducks (2-14, 0-5) to just 26 percent shooting for the game.

The game was not without its tense moments, however. After climbing their way to leads as large as 22 points, the Beavers’ offense began to slow, and the Ducks mounted a comeback effort.

With the score at 50-31, the Ducks scored seven straight before an unlikely four-point play revitalized the crowd and cut the Beavers’ lead to just eight points with several minutes left.

“I guess there was a little more scoreboard pressure,” Weisner said of the closing minutes. “But we stayed calm through it.”

Every time the Ducks gained a little momentum, the Beavers had an answer. With the game still to be decided at 57-50, Bright came up clutch with a tough and-one inside basket. She drained the free throw to put the game on ice.

“We knew [the Ducks] were going nowhere.” Rueck said. “We knew they were down big against UCLA a week ago and battled back against UCLA and made it a game. We knew it was going to be a war to the finish.”

Oregon State will enjoy tomorrow off after this win before they begin to prepare for the Ducks again. They will visit Corvallis on Jan. 20, with tipoff set for 2 p.m.

Mitch Mahoney, sports reporter

On Twitter @MitchIsHere

sports@dailybarometer.com