Jimmy Sheldrup |
The Pilots' inexperience showed in their first game against a ranked opponent. The purple seats of the Chiles Center were blanketed in a crowd of orange as Portland took on No. 9 Oregon State on Monday night. OSU’s Jamie Wiesner led all scorers with 22 points as the Beavers defeated the Pilots 94-50.
With the win, OSU advances to 2-0 while Portland drops to 1-1. Freshman Ellie Woerner led the Pilots with eight points on 2-of-7 shooting.
From tip off, Portland had a tall order on their hands. The Beavers had a size advantage at every position. Nine players for the Beavers were 6’1” or taller.
The Beavers length made scoring difficult for the Pilots. OSU opened the game on a 9-0 run before Portland freshman Ellie Woerner split a pair of free throws to score Portland a point. The Pilots also struggled to gather rebounds, losing the rebounding battle 13-3 in the first quarter. At the end of the first period, the Pilots trailed 27-8.
The Beavers pounded the ball down low to their bigs for post ups or lay ups. When double teams came, the Beavers were able to knock down open threes, en route to shooting 50 percent from the field to the Pilots 17 percent in the first half. At halftime, OSU led 47-16.
The Pilots played much more efficient basketball in the third quarter, scoring as many points in the quarter as they did in the first half, and only being outscored 19-16. Despite being in foul trouble, the Pilots' first six points of the second half all came from junior Corissa Turley. Woerner was able to sink the Pilots' first 3-pointer of the night off an assist from Rachelle Owens.
“We wanted to drive in, and get our teammates some looks,” Owens said.
Oregon State responded to Portland’s third quarter. The Pilots didn’t score a field goal until the seventh minute of the fourth quarter. Portland picked up some steam late in the fourth quarter, scoring on three consecutive possessions late in the fourth, but it was too little, a little too late.
Portland finished shooting only 29.8 percent from the field and had 19 turnovers.
The Pilots resume play on the road Friday against Montana State.
Jimmy Sheldrup is a staff reporter for The Beacon. He can be reached at sheldrup18@up.edu or on Twitter @CJSheldrup.
