Scott Rueck Talks Oregon State's Loss in "Basketball War" Against Arizona State
In this story:
Oregon State women's basketball fell to 6-5 on the season Sunday afternoon with an overtime loss to Arizona State.
It was a close contest that pitted the Beavs against a Sun Devils team that are now 12-0 on the year. Beavs head coach Scott Rueck praised his team's effort in the two-point result.
MORE: Oregon State Women Fall To Arizona State 55-53 in Overtime
"I thought it was a really just a war - a basketball war," Rueck stated postgame. "Kind of knew that going in that's what it would be and I was really proud of our team for rising to that. It's a team that hasn't lost yet. They play extremely physical, disruptive, and have a lot of talent and I thought we competed at a very high level for a majority of the day, if not all the day - in the second half the entire time...What a fun experience that was. It was what you just, as a competitor, just hope to be a part of - a team giving everything against a team that's giving everything, and just kind of throwing punches back and forth. And then obviously they hit the one big shot to win it. But man we made some big shots to get back in it and to force overtime. "
Rueck lamented his team's shooting performance in the overtime period when the Sun Devils were able to seal their victory over OSU.
"We had, I felt, an opportunity to take control in overtime and we just could not get the ball to go down. Give them a ton of credit, you know, for playing good defense. And so I was just really proud of the fight that we showed and really encouraged as we're looking forward, you know, because this is, to me, kind of a foundational game to build upon. We've gotten to this point, now we hit this experience...It hurts to come up short in a game like this. But that doesn't change the fact that we had an opportunity to win this game and, you know, I told them in there, I was just like, it was really fun to coach this team today. I loved how we played and how hard we played and how everybody was all in and as this group's growing together - it's the progression that we're on, you know. So sign of good things to come and give Arizona State a ton of credit, you know, for coming in and finding a way."
The Beavers' continue their season in Hawaii with games against Montana State and Liberty on December 19 and 20, respectively.
More Reading Material From Oregon State Beavers On SI
Joe Londergan joined the SI brand in 2023 with G5 Football Daily. With over 15 years of experience in covering and working directly in college and pro sports, Joe's expertise has been featured in Front Office Sports, SB Nation, and XRAY.FM. He is a member of both the Football Writers' Association of America and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers' Association. Joe holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Louisville and a master's degree in sports administration from Seattle University. Outside of his writing career, Joe enjoys golfing, although he admits that while he hits driver decently, his short game is a liability.
Follow joehio_