No longer does the specter of a winless conference season hang over the Oregon State Beavers.
First-year Beavers head coach Scott Rueck notched an important milestone in his team’s basketball turnaround with a 51-46 victory over Washington Feb. 5.
“It’s such a relief, and I’m so happy for the team and for the players,” Rueck told The Corvallis Gazette-Times. “You look back to the beginning, and the courage that it took for this group just to say yes to being on this team under the circumstances, and then you just pray good stuff happens for them and that they get rewarded for their efforts and all the heart they put into this program this year.”
Oregon State, which began the year with just two returning players and a new coaching staff, is now 8-16 overall and 1-12 in Pacific-10 Conference play after being swept by the Los Angeles schools.
“Anytime you win a game, it says, hey, you know, we did it once, we can do it a second, third and fourth time,” Oregon head coach Paul Westhead said. “Credit to them. I think their confidence level was always high. Having more confidence doesn’t hurt.”
Oregon (12-12, 3-10 Pac-10) enters Gill Coliseum on Saturday looking significantly more vulnerable, having dropped six straight games.
“It’s exactly what we need. We were in kind of a stuck spot,” Westhead said. “We need an emotional game, a game that means a great deal no matter what your record is. So, why not play it right now? It could turn us in a very favorable way or it could get us stuck.”
The Ducks opened up Matthew Knight Arena for women’s basketball Jan. 23 by beating Oregon State, 81-72. That contest was watched by a Pacific-10 Conference record 12,320 fans; far fewer will pack into Gill Coliseum for Saturday’s 5 p.m. tipoff.
“I’m really excited about the energy,” said freshman forward Danielle Love, anticipating her first trip to Gill Coliseum as a Duck. “I hope a lot of Duck fans will be there.”
Beavers forward El Sara Greer will receive heavy focus from the Ducks after posting a 16-point, 11-rebound, six-block stat line in the previous Civil War. Greer helped Oregon State build up a 10-rebound advantage and an eight-point advantage in points in the paint.
“It’s always good to have a role player like that that everyone looks to to score,” forward Nicole Canepa said. “It’s up to us to stop her.”
Oregon remains likely without point guard Nia Jackson for the Civil War, meaning a fourth consecutive start for freshman Ariel Thomas. Jackson leads the Pac-10 in scoring, assists and assist-to-turnover ratio this season.
Without Jackson guiding the offense, the Ducks have struggled. Oregon posted a two-year low for points with 48 in a loss to UCLA last week, and its seventh in the Pac-10 in scoring margin (plus-1.5 points per game) despite being second in the conference in scoring offense (78.8 points per game).
“We’re not a consistent offensive scoring team right now,” Westhead said. “We are a fast-break team, we have to get out and run, but our defense has to set a lot of that up.”
The defense even has a target number: 80. Oregon is 0-9 this season when failing to hold an opponent below 80 points.
Both teams currently reside in the bottom two spots in the conference standings, but with one team encountering difficulties and another team on the rise, more is at stake than state pride.
“It’s always good if you’ve played a team before and you’ve won a game,” Westhead said. “We had a highly competitive game to open Matthew Knight Arena, and it should be an equally competitive game.”
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