Women’s college basketball: Oregon State knocks out Washington State at Pac-12 Tournament

Kat Tudor scored 24 points and Mikayla Pivec scored 17 and No. 14 Oregon State trounced Washington State 82-55 on Thursday night in the first round of the Pac-12 Conference Tournament in Las Vegas.

Oregon State (23-8), seeded sixth, advanced to play No. 3-seed and seventh-ranked Stanford on Friday. The Beavers have won four straight following a four-game skid.

Washington State (11-20) entered the tournament as the 11th seed. It ends the season having lost eight straight.

Ula Motuga’s 3-pointer gave the Cougars their only lead at 6-5 with 7:50 left in the first quarter. With the score tied at 10, Taylor Jones made a layup nearly four minutes later, and Oregon State closed the quarter with a 19-2 run. The Beavers went to intermission ahead by 25.

Tudor and Pivec both finished 7 of 9 from the floor, while Tudor went 6 of 7 from 3-point range. Destiny Slocum scored 13.

Borislava Hristova led the Cougars with 19 points, and Motuga and Chanelle Molina scored 10 each.

Utah 72, Washington 63: Freshmen Brynna Maxwell and Lola Pendande scored 17 points apiece, combining for 25 in the second half, to lead the eighth-seeded Utes (14-16) to a win over the ninth-seeded Huskies (13-17).

Maxwell scored 11 points in the third quarter, hitting three 3-pointers, as Utah turned a six-point halftime deficit into a 52-48 lead. Two of the 3-pointers came in a 14-0 run that pushed the lead to nine. She finished with five 3-pointers, moving her into fifth on the Utes list for a single season with a freshman record 80.

Pendande scored six-straight points for Utah down the stretch to make sure the Huskies never got within one possession.

Utah (14-16) plays top-seeded and third-ranked Oregon in the second quarterfinal on Friday.

Amber Melgoza scored 30 points for the Huskies (13-17), her fourth game with at least 30 points this season. She had 13 in the second quarter when Washington outscored Utah 19-9 to take the halftime lead. She finished her career with 1,717 points, eighth on UW’s all-time list.

North Idaho 53, Lower Columbia 50: Anna Schrade scored 14 points, and the Cardinals (18-10) edged the Red Devils (21-9) at the NWAC Tournament in Everett, before the tournament was suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Host Everett CC closed down its campus Thursday until Sunday as a precautionary measure, precipitating the postponement. One Everett CC student reportedly tested positive for the virus after the closure was announced.

The NIC team left Everett and returned home after the game. No makeup location or dates have been announced.

Halle Eborall added 12 points and seven rebounds for NIC.

Cherity Dougherty led LC with 14 points.

The Cardinals were 0 for 11 on 3-pointers but forced Lower Columbia into 24 turnovers.