Second Half Collapse Hands Oregon State Women Third Loss in a Row

Halfway through Thursday night’s game against West Coast Conference rival Santa Clara, it looked like the Oregon State women were set to snap their two game losing streak in grand fashion. The Beavers held onto a 16 point lead at halftime, but in the second half Oregon State’s shooting and defense fell apart, handing the Broncos an 83-70 win. The loss drops the Beavers to 17-9 on the season, and 9-4 in the West Coast Conference.

For the first five minutes of the game Oregon State had Santa Clara locked down defensively, holding the Broncos scoreless until midway through the first quarter. In that time the Beavers built a 13 point lead, with Ally Schimel, Kennedie Shuler and Lizzy Williamson all contributing. Santa Clara wasn’t able to make much headway into cutting away the Beaver lead, with an Alana Goodchild three cutting the Beavers margin to 13 at the end of the quarter, 27-14.

The second quarter was more of the same, though this time it was Lara Alonso, Tiara Bolden and Jenna Villa scoring most of the points for Oregon State. Santa Clara managed to hang around, with Ava Schmidt scoring seven in the second quarter to keep the Broncos alive, but at the end of the first half the Beavers held onto a 16 point, 48-32 lead.

The collapse in the second half came quick. Santa Clara scored 10 unanswered points to get the Beaver lead down to six. Kennedie Shuler hit a pair of free throws to give Oregon State their first points of the half, but then it was right back to Santa Clara scoring. A three from Ava Schmidt, a jumper from Kylee Fox and another three, also from Fox, erased the Oregon State lead, tying the game at 50.

The Broncos and the Beavers would trade the lead back and forth, with a Jenna Villa three tying the game at 59 as the third quarter ended. Oregon State would never get any momentum back however. After keeping the game close early in the fourth quarter, the Beavers shooting went cold with around six minutes remaining in the game.

Jenna Villa did her best to keep the Beavers in the game, but she was the only one hitting her shots consistently, while Ava Schmidt, Ashley Hawkins and Aniya Hooker kept the points flowing for the Broncos. At the of the night, it wasn’t even close, with the Broncos took the game by 13, 83-70

Villa led the Beavers in scoring, with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Kenedie Shuler was right behind her, with 13 points, nine assists, three rebounds and four steals. Lara Alonso had another solid game, with 11 points, six rebounds and an assist.

After starting their WCC schedule strong, this is now a team that faces a lot of questions. The Beavers biggest strengths have been answered by the top teams in the conference, and unless they can find a way to turn this season around, we may be looking at an early exist from the conference tournament. We’ll see if Oregon State can get back to winning on Saturday, when they travel to Stockton to take on Pacific.

Second Half Collapse Hands Oregon State Women Third Loss in a Row

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