CORVALLIS — It was shaping up to be a traditional Civil War contest between Oregon and Oregon State.
All it took to break that tradition was a freshman from Stayton.
Casey Bunn scored a career-high 20 points and junior Brina Chaney tied an OSU single-game record with eight blocks as the Beavers defeated Oregon, 67-51, Saturday in front of 4,572 at Gill Coliseum.
The win is the Beavers’ first victory against the Ducks at Gill since 1996. It was also just the second game since 1998 in which the winner came out on top by at least 15 points.
“Growing up, this is the kind of game you want to be in,” Bunn said. “It’s always good to beat the Ducks.”
Bunn, who came into the game averaging 5.7 points per game in Pacific-10 Conference play, was the driving force behind a 20-2 Oregon State run that lasted just under 10 minutes midway through the second half.
The scoring run vaulted the Beavers to an insurmountable 55-41 lead.
“It’s kind of hard to get back on defense when your offense is struggling,” Oregon sophomore Brandi Davis said. “We were struggling at both ends tonight.”
Struggling, perhaps, because of the play of Chaney and Oregon State’s post players.
Chaney, who came into the game as the Pac-10’s leading shot blocker with 35 on the season, turned away five Oregon (6-10 overall, 2-5 Pac-10) shots in the first half alone. Although she played just eight minutes in the second half, she victimized the Ducks for three more.
“I was just playing kind of smart, the first half especially,” Chaney said. “Really trying to slide my feet, stay in front of the offensive player. I knew they wanted to turn and shoot. Sometimes, they’re shooting kind of right into me, so I didn’t really have to stretch for it.”
Oregon State (9-7, 3-4) held Oregon to just 14 points in the paint, including two in the second half.
With the Ducks’ post players neutralized by the more athletic Oregon State forwards, Oregon had to turn to its outside shooting. It wasn’t there.
“We just got a little anxious and a little bit outside of our offense instead of running our offense,” Oregon senior Alissa Edwards said. “We’ve got to stick to being disciplined, because we got away from that on offense and defense.”
The Ducks continually forced poor shots in the second half, especially during Oregon State’s run. So much, in fact, that the Ducks shot just 25
percent from the field in the second half.
“We got away from running things and execution,” Oregon head coach Bev Smith said. “Because we wanted to score immediately.”
Davis led the Ducks with 16 points on the strength of three 3-pointers in the second half. She was followed closely by freshman Carolyn Ganes, who had 12, and sophomore Kedzie Gunderson’s 10.
After a sluggish first half, which saw both teams shoot 37.5 percent from the field and a 28-27 Oregon lead, the second stanza proved to be an up-tempo and intense frame for the Beavers.
After the Ducks stretched their lead to 39-35 early in the second half, Oregon State answered back, and at one point scored 11 straight.
Leilani Estavan gave the Beavers their first lead of the half, 41-39, with a jumper at the 12:48 mark. Jessica Jones backed that up with a 3-pointer two minutes later, and from that point on, Oregon State forced the Ducks to become ineffective in all parts of their game.
“They really just got us to the point where we were flustered,” Ganes said. “They were really meticulous on their offense. They waited for us to break down.”
The Ducks played the game with an active roster of just eight players. Smith said that before the game, junior guard Kayla Steen was ruled physically unable to play due to a “chronically” sore back. She had an injection earlier in the week in an attempt to alleviate the problem, but it was not successful enough for her to play.