The No. 8 Oregon State Beavers will be visited by the No. 3 Stanford Cardinal. The two foes have split their last six regular season matchups. Oregon State suffered its first loss of the season on the road against Arizona State, but rebounded with a convincing 81-44 win over Cal in its last game. The Cardinal are coming off a 32-point defeat at the hands of Oregon, which ended a five-game winning streak.
The matchup
Oregon State’s dynamic duo of Mikayla Pivec and Destiny Slocum shoots 38 percent from 3-point range; each player scores over 14 points per game. Freshman Taylor Jones has emerged as a third option on offense for the Beavers, scoring 13.8 points. Jones has shown she is a complete player, averaging 8.2 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per contest.
Stanford has three guards in double-figure scoring: Kiana Williams, Lexie Hull, and Haley Jones, who score 12.8, 12.5, and 11.6 points, respectively. The Cardinal started four guards in their loss to the Ducks, but are likely to start two forwards against the Beavers, who start a tall lineup featuring Jones and 6-foot-6 freshman Kennedy Brown. Nadia Fingdall and Alyssa Jerome were Stanford’s frontcourt starters in the early part of the season, but freshman Francesca Belibi has started five of the last six games alongside Fingdall.
Oregon State will have to be mentally tough to remain focused as it plays its toughest three-game stretch until the Pac-12 and NCAA tournaments. Stanford was shut down in its last game; look for the Cardinal to be aggressive early.
Game information
No. 8 Oregon State Beavers vs. No. 3 Stanford Cardinal
When: Sunday, Jan. 19, at 3 p.m. ET
Where: Gill Coliseum, Corvallis, OR
How to watch/listen: Pac-12 Network, TuneIn