This is the time of year you want to be playing your best basketball. The 14th ranked Oregon State Beaves are in that catagory right now. They throttled the Washington State Cougars 82-55 here in Las Vegas in the opening round of the Pac-12 tournament.
Kat Tudor was money all night long hitting six three-pointers and the Beavers scored 53 first half points. Now the Beavers move into the quarterfinals tonight against Stanford. They lost two-three point games to the Cardinal earlier in the season.
Tudor wound up with 24 points and Mikayla Pivec had 17 points and seven boards. Ahe needs three more to pass Ruth Hamblin as the top rebounder in Oregon State Women's basketball history.
I had a chance to talk to Mikayla after their 23rd win of the season.
Beavers vs Stanford tonight at 8:30 from the Mandalay Bay Events center. Pregame coverage on the Beaver Sports Network begins at 8:pm and you can listen if you go to the Tune In App or osubeavers.com. Here is the official release from OSU Athetics:
Senior Kat Tudor scored 24 points as the No. 14 Oregon State women’s basketball team took down Washington State 82-55 Thursday evening in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas, Nev.
“Washington State is a very well coached basketball team that is difficult to defend,” said Oregon State head coach Scott Rueck. “I’m proud of this team for bringing such a great effort. I think our team was as focused as they have been all year, and I loved their intensity. We disrupted them from the start on defense, and on offense we were in attack mode. When this team is firing on all cylinders like we were tonight this team is excellent.”
With the win, the Beavers advance to play No. 7 Stanford in the Pac-12 Tournament Quarterfinals Friday evening.
Tudor finished the game 7-for-9 from the floor, 6-for-7 from beyond the arc and hit all four of her free throw attempts.
Mikayla Pivec went 7-for-10 from the floor to finish with 17 points, seven rebounds and five assists. The senior now needs just three more rebounds to set the Oregon State career record. Destiny Slocum finished with 13 points and four assists.
Taylor Jones recorded seven points and six rebounds, while Patricia Morris went for nine points. Aleah Goodman also tallied seven points.
The teams went back and forth early on, as the two sides headed to the media break level at 10. Oregon State scored 10-straight points out of the timeout, and finished the first quarter on a 19-2 run to take a 29-12 advantage into the second.
Oregon State continued rolling in the second quarter, heading to the break in front 53-28. Tudor hit all five of her first-half 3-point attempts to head to the locker room with 17 points. Pivec tallied 13 points, seven rebounds and three assists in the opening 20 minutes.
The third quarter featured more of the same, as the Beaver took a 34-point lead before ending the frame up 72-44. Oregon State cruised from there to take the win by 27.
The Beavers’ matchup with the Cardinal will tip Friday at 8:30 p.m. and will air live on Pac-12 Networks.