Women’s basketball

By Brooks Hatch
Corvallis Gazette-Times

Slow starts had bedeviled the Oregon State women’s basketball team in recent victories over Montana State and UC Davis. That was corrected in Sunday’s 82-39 rout of Birmingham-Southern, to the culinary delight of an announced crowd of 712 in Gill Coliseum.

OSU (4-1) ended any suspense about the outcome by scoring on its first five possessions en route to a 20-0 lead in the first seven minutes. And its stingy defense earned the fans free breadsticks from a local pizza chain, distributed when opponents score less than 40 points.

Senior Casey Nash scored 22 of the 26 points that matched her career best as OSU flew to a 45-17 halftime lead. Junior Ashley Allen added 15 points and nine rebounds and freshman Judie Lomax had her fourth double/double in five games with 12 points and 12 rebounds.

“That’s a very competitive team,” OSU coach LaVonda Wagner said of Birmingham-Southern (2-6), a Big South Conference team whose previous five losses were by a combined 50 points. “They usually take 20 3-pointers; they were 4 of 20.

“They get 16 steals; they only had five and that was a key. They usually offensive rebound (well) and they only got nine. We weren’t going to put them on the line 20 times, we were not going to allow them 16 steals. We were going to close out on the shooters and not allow them to get hot because they are streaky.

“We controlled the things we needed to control,” and won their seventh consecutive home game over the past two seasons.

Allen illustrated OSU’s assertive mindset with two baskets, two steals, a rebound and an assist in a 10-0 run over the first 2:51. The Panthers were scoreless for the first 7:32 and trailed 31-3 before scoring again.

“It was a confidence-builder,” Allen said of her quick start. “It helped me get into the flow, to keep my confidence throughout, and stay focused.”

Added Wagner: “Ashley did a good job of attacking right from the tip and getting us on the board. One of our goals was to not let the clock get down to 17 or 16 minutes before we scored.

“We were in attack mindset and did a good job of that. We forced 21 turnovers and scored 34 points” off those mistakes. “I was pleased with that.”

Everyone played at least eight minutes. OSU assisted on 14 of its 17 first-half baskets and had 21 overall, divided among eight players. Mercedes Fox-Griffin had a game-high five.

No starter played more than 29 minutes. Nash sat for most of the second half as Wagner mixed combinations she couldn’t use in previous closer games.

“It was good for Julie (Futch) to run the point, for Whitney (Champlin) to get some experience,” Wagner said. “We kept talking in the huddle, ‘Let’s run our sets, get good looks and work on particular things.’ We did a good job of that.”

OSU is now idle until a Dec. 15 game at Creighton.