Recap: No. 7 Oregon State takes Preseason WNIT Tournament with 80-69 win over Missouri State

The No. 7 Oregon State Beavers beat the Missouri State Lady Bears 80-69 in the Preseason WNIT Tournament championship game. Oregon State played UC Irvine, Pacific and DePaul on their road to the tournament finale. Missouri State faced Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Boise State and Oklahoma en route to facing the Beavers.

Missouri State entered the tournament having upset then-No. 23 Minnesota on the road.

Missouri State was unfazed throughout the first half, with the Lady Bears leading 39-35 through two quarters, who also forced the Beavers into 12 first-half turnovers. Mikayla Pivec scored 14 of her 18 points for the Beavers in the first half but Destiny Slocum, another Oregon State star, was held scoreless.

But the Beavers made their push in the third quarter, outscoring the Lady Bears 20-10. Slocum scored 11 points in the quarter and was 2-of-2 from beyond the arc; she finished the game with 17 points.

Alexa Willard, Missouri State’s top player, finished with 21 points. Jasmine Franklin scored 13 points for the game but with just two of those points coming in the second half. Missouri State held the Oregon State to 37.9 percent shooting in the first half but the Beavers found their stroke and improved to 57.7 percent shooting in the second half.

Preseason WNIT Awards

Mikayla Pivec was named the WNIT MVP while three additional players from the championship game were named to the All-Tournament team.

For Oregon State, Mikayla Pivec averaged 17.8 points, 10.8 rebounds and 6.2 assists in the tournament, while Destiny Slocum averaged 15.5 points, 5.2 assists and 3.3 rebounds. For the Lady Bears, Alexa Willard averaged 23.2 points and 3.5 rebounds while Jasmine Franklin averaged 8.2 points and 9.2 rebounds.

Ana Llanusa averaged 22.3 points, 5.0 steals and 4.3 rebounds for Oklahoma and Depaul’s Chante Stonewall averaged 19.3 points and 8.3 rebounds.