Following a successful sweep of Colorado and Utah at home, the No. 7 Oregon State women's basketball team returns to the hardwood this week, traveling to the Bay Area for a tough two-game slate against No. 11 Stanford and Cal. The Beavers earned another marquee win in their 71-63 win over the No. 14 Utes on Super Bowl Sunday will be looking to keep the momentum on the road. BeaversEdge.com gives the latest on where Scott Rueck's Beavers stand.
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Weekend Recap
Feb. 1 vs Colorado: It would have been understandable if the Beavers were looking past this game a bit in preparations for the Utah game to come, but head coach Scott Rueck and his group weren't hearing any of it. All week long the Beavers prepared and spoke about the nature of taking each game one at a time and not overlooking any opponent.
OSU didn't overlook the Buffs as Aleah Goodman scored a career high 25 points and six three-pointers to lead OSU to a convincing 89-65 victory. Destiny Slocum scored 26 points and Mikayla Pivec added 12 points, six rebounds and five assists.
RELATED: Oregon State MBB Notebook | 3 takeaways from OSU's road sweep | OSU FB: Beavers eyeing 2020 QB CJ Stroud
Feb. 3 vs No.14 Utah: They say it's not how you start, it's how you finish. The Beavers didn't start well against the Utes, falling down 11-2 just four minutes into the contest. OSU trailed at the end of the 1st and Utah held a nine point lead in the second before everything changed.
Slocum turned up the heat in second, scoring 16 points to tie the game heading into the half. OSU seized control of the contest in the fourth with a 14-2 run to seal the victory and keep the Beavers firmly in the No. 2 spot in the Pac-12. Slocum finished with 20 points while Pivec and Goodman each scored 12.
Quick Hitters
- Following the Utah win, Oregon State improved to 135-26 since the start of the 2014-15 season.
- OSU is 79-12 in its last 91 Pac-12 games.
- The Beavers' stifling defense continues, as OSU's field goal percentage defense (34.4 percent) ranks 1st in the Pac-12 and ninth in the country.
- The Beavers' three-point percentage defense (27.1 percent) is also tops in the Pac-12 and is 23rd nationally.
- OSU continues to lead the nation in three-point percentage, hitting a program-best 43 percent of its threes.
- Pivec remains the only guard to rank in the top-five in rebounds per game in the Pac-12 as she averages 8.9.
- Slocum checks in 11th in scoring (16.9) and sixth in assists (5.3) per game.
- Gill Coliseum has been seeing a healthy dose of fans this season as the Beavers have had over 4,000 fans in every home game this season.
- The Beavers have been dominant on the glass this season, sporting a plus-11.8 rebounding margin per game, good for fourth best in the country.
-Goodman is second in the Pac-12 and seventh nationally in three-point percentage, knocking in nearly half of her threes with a 47 percent clip.
-The Beavers have two players ranked in the top-five in the Pac-12 in field goal percentage as Jo Grymek is shooting 62 percent from the field and Pivec 55 percent, good for second and fourth, respectively.
Bracketology
According to ESPN's Charlie Creme, the Beavers are projected to be a three-seed in the Albany Regional. By way of being a top-four seed, the Beavers would host the first and second round games in Gill Coliseum.
The Beavers have remained steady as a three-seed over the past few weeks, with only the Regional location changing on a week-by-week basis. The idea of being paired with the Storrs Regional and UConn is certainly not ideal, but I'm sure the pairings will continue to shift in the final few weeks of the regular season.
Here's a look at the complete Bracketology from Creme for this week...
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Next Up
The Beavers are set to head south for another tough road trip as OSU will travel to the Bay Area to face off with No. 11 Stanford on Friday and Cal on Sunday.
Maples Pavilion has been a tough place for the Beavers over the years, as OSU has won just once in its history. However, that one win came in double-overtime the last time the Beavers played at Stanford back in 2016-17. Due to the Pac-12 scheduling, OSU didn't go to Palo Alto last season.
The Cardinal (18-3, 8-2) are one of the best teams in the conference and are a perfect 10-0 at home on the year, including a win over the No. 1 Baylor Bears back in December.
Tara Vanderveer is one of the best coaches in history and her teams are always tough to beat, especially at home. The Beavers proved it was possible two years ago and did so with a familiar face... Mikayla Pivec. Pivec, then a freshman, tallied 13 points, four rebounds, and three assists to help the upset effort.
The Golden Bears (14-7, 5-5) are a tough team to predict because you're not sure which Cal team you're going to get on a given day. Cal has been much better at home (7-3) compared to the road (5-4) but OSU has had success in Haas Pavilion recently, winning the last two matchups.