The Barometer Online

Issue date: 3/12/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Jeff Wick Freshman Brittany Kennedy looks to pass in Oregon State's game last Thursday against USC. Kennedy and the Beavers play UCLA on Friday.

It feels like déjà vu for the Oregon State women's basketball team this weekend as they enter into the 2009 State Farm Pac-10 women's basketball tournament at Galen Center in Los Angeles this weekend to face UCLA for the third time.

The tournament will be held March 12-15 while the ten teams face off against each other to determine who will go into the pool for the NCAA Tournament. Oregon State, who comes into the tournament as the No. 5 seed, received a bye in the first round on Thursday, so their first game of the tournament will be Friday at 7:15 p.m. UCLA (18-11, 9-9 Pac-10) received the No. 4 seed off of a tiebreaker.

This past Saturday, when the Beavers faced the Bruins for the second time in the 2008-09 season, they defeated UCLA 61-58 and finished out the regular season in a three-way tie with UCLA and USC for fourth place.

For the Beavers (19-10, 9-9 Pac-10), UCLA's gameplan is no secret, considering it's been less than a week since the two teams met.

"UCLA has a tremendous group of athletes that really look to put the ball on the floor and get to the rim off the dribble," head coach LaVonda Wagner said.

Oregon State had no problem shutting down the Bruin's transition offense with five steals, three blocks and 28 rebounds, 19 of which were defensive. Freshman center Kirsten Tilleman led the Beavers in rebounding with five boards, while sophomore center Alex Mitchell had four boards of her own.

"It's going to be a tough game, like it always is, and we just have to remember to play poised under pressure and treat it like any other game," Mitchell said. "They're a good team and we can't forget that, even though we beat them last weekend."

The Beavers had four players scoring in the double digits. Senior guard Mercedes Fox-Griffin, sophomore guard Talisa Rhea, Mitchell, and senior guard Brittney Davis, who had the most points (14) in the game.

Oregon State shot 45 percent from the field, 50 percent from beyond the arc and 75 percent from the stripe to secure Saturday afternoon's victory at Gill Coliseum.

"We need to continue to be consistent," Fox-Griffin said. "We do need to tweak a few things on the offensive end and the defensive end just to make sure that we are all on the same page and that we continue to stay connected."

If the Beavers beat the Bruins on Friday they would play either Washington State, Arizona, or Stanford, depending on who wins their games. Stanford finished out the regular season in the number one Pac-10 spot and ranked No. 2 in the country below Connecticut. California was the only other Pac-10 school to make national rankings, coming in at No. 12.

Friday night's game will tip off at 7:15 p.m. inside of the Galen Center on the USC campus. The game will be aired on Corvallis radio on KTHH 990-AM.



Maria Bruggere, sports writer

sports@dailybarometer.com

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools