Beavers Blow Away Alaska-Fairbanks 104-27 in Exhibition Game

The women's basketball seasons gets started this season, and Oregon State scheduled an exhibition game for Sunday night to get the team ready for competition. The Beavers were firing on all cylinders against Alaska-Fairbanks, beating the Nanooks 104-27.

It's hard to draw much from such a lopsided game/ Alaska-Fairbanks, a Division II school, should not be expected to compete with a team that regularly makes trips to the NCAA Tournament. That said, we can draw some conclusions about the state of the Beavers based on how the game went.

After Oregon State lost Caterina Feirrera to an injury prior to the season, there were questions about who would step up as the Beavers' top scorer. Sunday night provided two candidates, and one should be familiar to Beaver fans. That'd be Tiara Bolden, who led the Beavers in scoring with 22 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists.

The Beavers other top scorer is a new face. That would be Lara Alonso-Basurto, the freshman forward from Spain had 20 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists. Another new addition, Washington State transfer Jenna Villa, also hit double digits, with 17 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists.

Two returning players had big roles in the Beavers starting five. Kennedie Shuler and Ally Schimel both saw plenty of court time. Shuler led the team in assists, with nine total, in addition to her four points and three rebounds.

Another new face to keep an eye on is Katelyn Field. The freshman from Australia went three of five from behind the three point line, for nine total points on the night. The Beavers could definitely use another quality three point threat. Tiara Bolden hit four last night, and if both players could maintain that level of shooting they'd be very hard to defend against.

Once again, conclusions probably shouldn't be drawn form this game. But if you were worried about how the team would cope with the loss of their top returning scorer, there's a lot to like about the Beavers' performance last night. There's still a lot of talent on this team, and a lot of that is coming from the new additions to the roster.

The actual start of the season will be this weekend. The Beavers' first regular season game will be on Friday, November 7th, with the Corban Warriors coming to Corvallis.

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