The Barometer Online

Issue date: 3/2/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Andrew Burton Freshman Julie Futch will play in her first Pac-10 tournament this weekend, squaring off against Arizona tonight at 8:15 p.m. with the winner advancing to play Stanford.

Despite a lack of wins, OSU women's basketball coach LaVonda Wagner is quick to point out that her team has not been blown out all year. She also says they don't intend to start now.

Tonight, OSU will play in what's most likely to be one of its last games of the season as the Beavers open the Pacific-10 tournament against Arizona. Should they beat the Wildcats, a team they split with in the regular season, OSU would get the pleasure of playing Stanford, the No. 1 seed in the tournament.

"I think the win for us was big," said Wagner, talking about the Beavers' come-from-behind win at Washington State last weekend. Wagner also mentioned the momentum would be good for Oregon State heading into tonight's game.

First the Beavers will need to knock off the Wildcats (10-20, 4-14 Pac-10), who are led by Joy Hollingsworth's 16.4 points per game. OSU (9-18, 4-14) and UA each won this season on their home floors, but Wagner says a neutral floor won't make much of a difference.

"They're at a different place than we are. We're pretty banged up, and they're just now back at full speed and they're healthy," Wagner said. "I think it's going to come down to offensive execution for us, taking care of the basketball. Down there we played a good game, but we turned the ball over late and it cost us. We also need to be able to guard their dribble penetration."

Barring an upset - the winner of the Pac-10 tournament receives an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament - the games in San Jose will be the last for senior guard Casey Nash. Nash, who was named to the All-Pac-10 Team Thursday, has led the league in scoring the entire season and currently has a 20.3 average. She is the lone senior playing significant minutes and has battled all season, playing through fatigue and injuries.

"This is like our third season, postseason is, so I'm going in hoping that I'll play more than 40 minutes down there," said Nash, who had a two-inch cut curling around her nose that required stitches, the result of a collision in the Washington game. "I'm just thinking, get through the first one and get to the next one."

In OSU's 69-62 win over Arizona in Corvallis, Nash led three players in double figures with 27 points, and point guard Mercedes Fox-Griffin dished out a school-record-tying 15 assists. In a 65-61 loss in Tucson, the Beavers finally won the battle on the glass but fell late in the game after multiple turnovers. Nash, Fox-Griffin and Judie Lomax - who was named to the Pac-10 All-Freshmen team - all scored 14 points or more.

Wagner and her team are hardly ready to concede defeat.

"I'm telling them we've worked hard all year long ... We've got to keep fighting," Wagner said. "We've just got to stay healthy." It could be hard though. Along with Nash and her bruised and scarred face, Fox-Griffin was on crutches at Tuesday's practice. Wagner said she expected Fox-Griffin to play against the Wildcats.

Tipoff is set for 8:15 p.m., with the winner advancing to play the Cardinal Saturday at 5 p.m.

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