Playing one top ten team at their home gym is bad playing two is even worse and the Beaver women head to the Bay Area to do just that.
After splitting with the Arizona schools last weekend at Gill, Oregon State (8-6, 1-2 Pac-10) will meet No. 7 Stanford (12-3, 2-2 Pac-10) Thursday at Maples Pavilion. OSU is in a precarious situation as the Cardinal is out looking to rebound after losing both games on their trip to Los Angeles. Stanford however is undefeated this season at home not including an exhibition loss to the United States national team.
“We expect them to come out hard,” junior guard Brittney Davis said. “They lost two games in a row and are playing them at home. This game we want to come out like we did against Arizona State with the same energy and intensity but we have to keep it for both halves.”
The Beavers trio of guards has begun to grow accustomed to quick high scoring guards in the past games when dealing with the likes of Oregon’s Taylor Lilley, Arizona’s Ashley Whisonant and ASU’s Reagan Pariseau. For the fourth game in a row OSU meets another strong guard in Candice Wiggins.
“The Pac-10 has great quick and athletic guards,” Davis said. “This is nothing different. I just have to stay focused and get into my game. Our guards have held it down for us this year. The guard play has kept us in a lot of games.”
Wiggins leads the Cardinal in scoring averaging 18.2 points per game while dishing out a team high 44 assists.
Despite outscoring opponents 1128-879 it is on the boards that Stanford where dominating. Forwards Jayne Appel and Kayla Pederson are both over 100 rebounds on the season while forward Jillian Harmon has totaled 96 thus far.
After the match-up in Palo Alto the Beavers travel up to Berkley to meet No. 9 California (13-2, 4-0 Pac-10) on Saturday. The Golden Bear women are undefeated at Haas Pavilion and share the same record among their Pac-10 schedule. Cal snuck past the Los Angeles schools last weekend.
Just as OSU has struggled with quick guards, they have struggled in the post as junior Tiffany Ducker gets back into the swing of things and sophomore Stacey Nichols matures. The Golden Bears have a chance to expose this with their scores coming in the form of Ashley Walker joining her is Devanei Hampton who is coming back from injury.
“Cal has a strong post presence,” senior guard Ashley Allen said. “Alex Mitchell has really stepped up. They are ready for the game and ready to play.”
In order to come away from the Bay Area successfully, Oregon State needs continued strong play by their trio of guards and improved play by the posts. Allen leads the Beavers with 21.1 points per game followed by Davis and her 13.6. Junior guard Mercedes Fox-Griffin has been handing out assists totaling 61 early in the season.
Ducker has posted 102 rebounds to go along with her 124 points. Joining Ducker in the post is Nichols and her 63 boards, 21 of which are on the offensive end.
The Beavers meet the Cardinal Thursday at 7 pm and the Golden Bears on Saturday at 2 pm. OSU returns home next week to meet the Washington schools.
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