Women fall to Cal for second consecutive loss

The Beavers left 2,230 fans at Gill Coliseum entertained, encouraged with effort and proud of their performance after Saturday's game against California.

But it was too little, too late for Oregon State, the program that is "always growing" and "learning from their losses," according to coach Scott Rueck, as the Beavers dropped their second game in a row, 75-68.

Cal turned a 1-point halftime deficit into a 16-point second-half lead at one time, but OSU (17-9, 8-7 Pac-12) made a run that had the Golden Bears on their heels.

Junior guard Sage Indendi and freshman guard Ali Gibson would each connect twice from beyond the 3-point line in the last two and half minutes, and Earlysia Marchbanks scored four points of her own.

But Cal had enough experience and talent to see the last 22 seconds of gameplay through as a win.

"It takes experience to respond to that correctly, experience is the number one thing," Rueck said of the big second-half deficit. "But we got our bearings and made a game of it down the stretch. It is one to learn from, we have a ways to go with our season still, so this is [a] learning process for us."

In the first half the lead changed five times, and was in Oregon State's favor to start the second half, but Cal was more persistent on the offensive boards, and hit the big shots it needed to pull away.

"That is a great team we played today, they are elite athletically, and they have a lot of talent. I thought we settled for some shots, but that happens, and that is why good teams win," Rueck said.

Cal guard Afure Jemerigbe's success from the 3-point range (4-for-4) enabled a 20-3 run by the Bears in the second half. If the Bears did miss, the offensive rebound and put-back would make for some easy points more often than not.

"We let them get rebound put-backs and it got away from us," Rueck said. "But down the stretch that is what we are about, it was a loss, but it was a loss where we gave everything we have."

Marchbanks celebrated her senior night and led the team with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Indendi hit 4-of-6 from 3-point range to finish with 16 points. She added a team-high four assists.

Gibson, the only other Beaver to finish in double figures, scored 13 points.

 "We are taking all the positives out of this game, and moving on from it," Marchbanks said. "I am so proud of everybody, to come out and be down, and to never give up until that last buzzer goes off, that is exactly what we practice, and that is what our season is about."

The Beavers, who started the week alone in third place, dropped to fifth in the conference standings. They'll play their final three regular-season games all on the road against teams they've already beaten once this year.

The Beavers are one game back of earning a first round bye in the Pac-12 Tournament, and need to regain some ground if they want to continue their season after the Pac-12 Tournament.

Their first opportunity will be this Thursday in Eugene for the always anticipated Civil War.

"This team has had the ability to learn and progress through the year. I don't think we will have a loss that defeats us, that carries over [into the next game]," Rueck said. "We got comfortable and really competed, and this gives us confidence going out on the road for the next three games, and that will give us confidence going into the Pac-12 Tournament."

Jacob Shannon, sports writer

Twitter: @shannon_app

sports@dailybarometer.com