Brooks Hatch: OSU women 71, Cal Poly 61 Comments
Due to space limitation sin Saturday’s print editions, the Blog’s game story got hacked off at the knees. Here’s the full version.
The Beavers remained undefeated in home and overall openers under coach LaVonda Wagner with a tough, 71-61 victory over Cal Poly of the Big West on Friday night.
A few notes and quotes:
* Big night for sophomore forward Kirsten Tilleman with a career-best 19 points and eight rebounds, two off her career high. She also had three blocked shots and two steals.
“Kirsten played a great game on both ends,” Wagner said.
* Junior guard Talisa Rhea had 20 points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals and continued the progression from 3-point shooter to all-around player.
“I tried to be more aggressive, get to the rim , really attack them and either make them come over and help so I could dish it off, or try to get them in foul trouble, up in the air jumping,” she said.
“We wanted to be on the attack so they just weren’t just sitting back. We wanted them to have to guard us, so they had to work on both ends of the court. ”
Rhea’s two 3-point baskets give her 133 for her career, 45 behind career leader Felisha Ragland’s 178.
* Cal Poly hit 2 of its first 4 3-point shots but was 2 of 16 from that point on, and only 1 of 8 in the second half.
“They like to get into the middle, penetrate and kick out to their shooters,” Wagner said. “The goal was to make sure we closed out and tried to take away those shots with high hands.”
* Cal Poly’s top player, 6-1 junior forward Kristina Santiago, had 15 of her 17 points in the second half and 12 of the Mustang’s first 14 second-half points. However, she got her fourth foul with 11:117 remaining and sat out the next four minutes.
“She had a little spurt where she was able to score back-to-back-to-back baskets,” Wagner said. “Her getting in foul trouble really helped us.”
* Senior guard Julie Futch played 16 first-half minutes with Brittney Kennedy on the bench in foul trouble and had seven rebounds and an assist.
“It was good to see Julie come in and get some quality minutes,” Wagner said.
However, there were times where the Beavers were out of rhythm on offense, to be expected with the loss of three-year starting point guard Mercedes Fox-Griffin.
“It’s a process,” Wagner said. “We’re missing the person who ran that point for 40 minutes for three years in a row. Now we need some other people to step up.
“We don’t make excuses, we make sacrifices but we start a freshman, a newcomer, a JC transfer and two sophomores. We have young minds and and young moments and we have to grow up quickly to get what we want done.”
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I’m sure you heard about OSU’s 3-1 victory at Ohio State in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Friday.The Beavers play Florida at 10 a.m. Sunday for the right to play either Notre Dame (boooo!) or Central Michigan in the Sweet 16.
It capped a great opening round for the Pac-10, which went 6-2 and did not lose a “real” game on the field. The only teams to lose – USC and Arizona State – were eliminated in penalty-kick shootouts.
And I’m sorry, but a shootout in an NCAA playoff game is beyond ridiculous. Play until somebody wins, nobody’s going anywhere anyway. Otherwise, might just as well flip a coin and call it good.
It’s tantamount to having a home-run derby decide a baseball game that’s tied after 11 innings, shooting free throws to determine the winner of a basketball game if it’s tied after two overtimes, or kicking field goals to decide a Super Bowl that’s tied after OT.
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