Not only was the crowd full of pink as OSU took on Stanford in the “Think Pink” basketball game, but the Beavers adorned pink shoelaces, wristband and socks while the referees called the game with pink whistles.
Across the country, women’s teams and even some men’s teams are participating in Think Pink games in order to raise awareness for breast cancer and raise money for the Kay Yow Cancer Fund. The event helped draw 3,477 people to Gill Coliseum.
The large crowd was not enough to push Oregon State (10-14, 3-10 Pac-10) to victory against No. 6 Stanford (22-3, 11-2 Pac-10) as the Cardinal knocked out a 69-59. Stanford was without regular starting forward Jillian Harmon. The junior from Lakeridge High School went down with an injury 18 minutes into Stanford’s match-up with Oregon.
“I thought tonight’s game was a very good effort on our team’s part,” head coach LaVonda Wagner said. “I feel like we played hard for 40 minutes and we stepped up.”
The game began with guard Ashley Allen hitting one-of-two free throws before the speed of the game began to pick up. Both squads went back and forth with missed shots, and turnovers. Early in the first period as the Beavers were called for their second straight traveling violation, Wagner asked her team to “calm down and run their plays.”
It appeared this was working for OSU as on the next two possessions they got open shots to fall, including a bounce pass from guard Mercedes Fox-Griffin to freshman Talisa Rhea who scored on the layin. Fox-Griffin hit a jumper on the next possession giving OSU a 5-4 lead and their last of the game.
“We worked really hard to execute our offense,” Wagner said. “I thought Mercedes Fox-Griffin did an excellent job getting us in our sets.”
Three time All-American Candice Wiggins three pointer at 16:15 started a run by Stanford that would have them take their first half lead to as many as 14 points. Despite this the Oregon State was still in the game playing aggressive on both ends of the court.
With 10:28 remaining post Alex Mitchell was found in the lane for an easy basket, Stanford hurried up on the following possession with Cissy Pierce alone down court. Pierce would miss her layin attempt, which turned into a jumper by Allen; on the other end Stanford rushed down the court only to run into Beaver post Stacey Nichols who was ready to draw the charge.
The second half was all Stanford as they extended the point margin to 21 midway through the half. Allen began to light up from beyond the arc going 3-4 from three-point land in the second half to keep OSU in the game.
“I got a little bit more confidence going into the second half,” Allen said. “I think my teammates did a good of just setting good screens for me so I could be open to take those shots. All I had to do was knock the shots down.”
Allen was able to set up at the top of the arc at 7:32 where she sank a three before the Cardinal took advantage of the Oregon State defense with a layin on the other end. The Beavers answered with a three from Allen from the wing to cut into the 60-45 Stanford lead.
The teams went back and forth for the remainder of the game before the whistle blew on the 69-59 Stanford victory. For the Cardinal Wiggins lead all scorers with 25 as Kayla Pedersen and Jayne Appel pulled in 11 boards apiece. As a team Stanford pulled down 20 offensive rebounds, which led to 19 second chance points.
Allen led the Beavers with 17 points, while her and post Tiffany Ducker shared the rebounding lead with six apiece. Fox-Griffin handed out eight assists for OSU.
“That’s only because my teammates are hitting their shots,” Fox-Griffin said of her assists.
Oregon State heads north to Washington State on Friday, in a game that will be aired on FSN Northwest. Sunday the Beavers head to Seattle for a match-up with the Washington Huskies.
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