Women’s basketball defeated Oregon State 53-50 on Feb. 7 in the teams’ first matchup since the Pilots’ loss in the 2025 West Coast Conference (WCC) Championship.
Redshirt sophomore guard Florence Dallow led the squad with a career-high 18 points, adding eight rebounds and a steal in 32 minutes of play. Dallow sees the win as a chance for the team to grow further and prepare for the postseason.
“It's good, but we don't want to be too happy because our coach always emphasizes [that] it's what happens in March and in the tournament [that matters],” Dallow said. “So we just need to keep building as a team.”
Dallow earned WCC Player of the Week honors on Feb. 9.
Oregon State led 22-16 at halftime, committing eight turnovers in comparison to Portland’s four, and the Pilots scored seven points from those turnovers. Portland was more reliant on close scoring with 10 points in the paint, and scoring 8 points from rebounds.
While both teams shot poorly from the field in the first half, the Pilots struggled in particular, shooting 6-32 and missing all nine three-point attempts. The Beavers shot 8-24 and 3-8 from beyond the arc.
The Pilots turned it around in the second half, outscoring Oregon State 37-26. They shot significantly better, shooting 15-30 from the field and 6-8 from three-point range. Portland continued to capitalize on Beaver turnovers, scoring 6 points off 7 turnovers from Oregon State.
Head coach Micheal Meek sees the win as a chance to show their full potential as a team and run a more tactiful offense. While they were doing well defensively, they had to show up on the other side of the court.
“I felt like we really had a great half and held [OSU] to 22 [points], I just didn't think we were as aggressive as we needed to be offensively,” Meek said. “I think we executed better and ran some [plays in the second half].”
The Pilots improve to 14-10 overall and 8-4 in conference play. They will return to the Chiles Center for a matchup against Washington State on Feb. 14.
Audrey Day is a sports reporter for The Beacon. She can be reached at daya28@up.edu.
