Jan. 11, 2001
CORVALLIS, Ore. --- Oregon State University (9-3, 1-1) built a 28-point first half lead, and held off a furious second half rally en route to an 81-65 upset win over #24 (Coaches)/#25 (AP) Stanford University (7-6, 1-2) on Thursday night at Gill Coliseum. The victory snapped OSU's 11-game losing streak against the Cardinal that dated back to the 1994-95 season.
The Beavers jumped out to an 11-point lead at the game's outset on the strength of full-court pressure that forced Stanford into a school record tying 30 turnovers. The Cardinal has now turned the ball over 30 times in a game on five occasions, and most recently on Dec. 21, 1997 vs. Connecticut. Offensively, OSU used a 3-pointer from Syesha Thomas and a pair of buckets from junior center Ericka Cook to go up 11-0 just 3:32 into the game. The Cardinal did not get on the scoreboard until senior center Carolyn Moos (Wayzata, MN/Blake School) scored 4 minutes and 23 seconds into the contest.
Oregon State then used a 14-0 run later in the opening half to stretch the lead to 39-11 with 7:34 to go before halftime. The Beavers jumped out to the big lead by making 16 of its first 20 shots and finishing the first half at an impressive 62.1 (18-of-29) percent.
"I thought their defensive contributed to our high number of turnovers, because they came out and played very aggressive," Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said. "Oregon State played very inspired basketball tonight."
Stanford, however, immediately answered with a 10-0 run of its own to cut the lead to 18 (39-21). Stanford, who finished the first half with 17 turnovers compared to 11 for the Beavers, trailed 45-24 at the half.
Down 59-35 with 12:43 remaining, Stanford responded with a 23-6 run to cut the advantage to seven points at 65-58 with 3:45 to play. Cardinal junior Lauren St. Clair (Philadelphia, PA/Mt. St. Joseph's Academy) drained three 3-pointers in the run, and finished with five 3-pointers and a season-high 21 points.
Oregon State then put the game away with a 7-0 run, highlighted by a 3-pointer from Felicia Ragland and 3-point play by Cook that pushed the lead to 72-58 with 2:05 to play. The loss was Stanford's fifth in its last seven games.
"The big deficit put us into a situation where we had to play perfect basketball," VanDerveer said. "We did a great job to cut the lead to seven, but we expended a lot of energy and just got tired out there."
Freshman Nicole Powell (Phoenix, AZ/Mountain Pointe HS) added 16 points for the Cardinal, and junior Lindsey Yamasaki (Oregon City, OR/Oregon City HS), who was making her first start of the season, added 10.
Felicia Ragland led the Beavers with 20 points.
The Cardinal resumes this three-game road stretch at 20th-ranked Oregon (9-3, 2-0) on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. at McArthur Court.