Oregon State’s Talia von Oelhoffen is guarded by a Texas Tech player during the Beavers’ 77-65 victory over Texas Tech in a Maui Classic game Wednesday night at Seabury Hall. Oregon State Athletics / Andrew Goodwin photo
OLINDA — Wherever it is played, the Maui Classic is home in the islands for the Oregon State University women’s basketball team.
The Beavers finished an impressive 2-0 run here with a 77-65 win over Texas Tech in front of a standing room-only crowd at the Erdman Athletic Center on the Seabury Hall campus on Wednesday evening.
With Maui County facilities being used for wildfire relief efforts, Seabury Hall stepped in as the host facility at the last minute this year for the seventh playing of the tournament that the Beavers host.
The event has also been played at War Memorial Gym, Lahaina Civic Center and South Maui Community Gym.
The Beavers blew out the Lady Raiders behind 20 points and 11 assists from team captain Talia von Oelhoffen, who has strong Maui County ties as the daughter of Molokai native Kimo von Oelhoffen, a 14-year NFL veteran and Super Bowl champion.
The von Oelhoffen contingent in the stands was strong, measuring about 20 over the two-night run, according to Talia.
“I’ve got a lot of aunties, uncles, cousins, and my grandpa came over from Oahu, then parents and sisters out here, too,” Talia von Oelhoffen said. “Today probably 12, 14 probably around there. Probably 20 total both days. It’s super fun, my grandpa doesn’t get the opportunity to watch me play a lot … so any time I get to play in front of him and in front of other family is super special.
“So, yeah, it was fun and we played well as a team. I thought we got better as the days went on.”
Oregon State goes home to Corvallis, Ore., 10-0 with one more non-conference game — Morgan State visits on Dec. 28 — before the final Pac-12 Conference slate begins when Oregon comes to Corvallis on Dec. 31.
“It’s huge, it’s a great place to be,” von Oelhoffen said of the 10-0 mark. “I know our schedule hasn’t been super strong, but I think the way and the style that we’ve won and just the way that we’re playing at both ends of the floor, our efficiency has been amazing. I think our record shows that.”
The Beavers burst out to an 18-6 lead on a 3-pointer by AJ Marotte that led to the first media timeout with 4:36 left in the first quarter.
Another 3 by Timea Gardiner with 30 seconds left gave the Beavers a 21-8 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The Lady Raiders went on an 8-0 run to climb within 21-16 before von Oelhoffen hit a pair of free throws with 7:19 to go in the first half.
On the next trip down the floor, von Oelhoffen found Raegan Beers alone in the lane for an easy 2 to push the lead to 25-16. Donovyn Hunter fed Beers again deep under the basket for another easy hoop.
Beers missed the foul shot on a three-point play opportunity, but von Oelhoffen made two free throws for a technical called on Texas Tech coach Krista Gerlich on the play.
Then von Oelhoffen scored underneath on the possession for the technical and all of a sudden it was 31-16 OSU with 5:53 left in the first half.
A three-point play completed by Beers pushed the lead to 36-18 with 3:33 to go and a 3 by von Oelhoffen with 2:00 left made it 39-20.
Von Oelhoffen was fouled on a desperation 3 with 0.3 seconds left in the first half — she made two of the three free throws to make it 43-22 at halftime.
The Beavers shot 15 for 28 in the first half (53.6 percent), although they cooled off from beyond the arc in the second quarter, going 1 for 7 after hitting 5 of 9 in the first. The Beavers also controlled the glass, out-rebounding the Lady Raiders 22-14 in the first 20 minutes.
Oregon State scored the first seven points of the second half to push the lead to 50-22, and the Lady Raiders (11-2) did not get closer than the final score the rest of the way.
OSU shot 27 for 52 for the game and limited Tech to 23 for 68.
The Beavers started the event Tuesday with a 92-69 win over Southeastern Louisiana.
“I’m really pleased,” Oregon State coach Scott Rueck said. “That’s what you ultimately hope for and can’t always control it. You hope that you play well and I thought we did. We got off to a little bit of a sluggish start last night and then just everything cooked in that second quarter. It was just really beautiful to watch, made the plays to hang on, played well in the second half of both games.
“Tonight it was on from the tip. Kind of like we’ve been waiting for this one. That’s how we played I thought, I loved the energy, I loved our defense and that ball really moved. We got so many great looks tonight.”
Australian Kelsey Rees had seven points and seven rebounds in the first half for OSU and finished with 12 and nine.
Tulsa also left Maui with a 2-0 record in this event after a dramatic 48-47 win over Southeastern Louisiana in Wednesday’s first game.
* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.
Oregon State’s Talia von Oelhoffen is guarded by a Texas Tech player during the Beavers’ 77-65 victory over Texas Tech in a Maui Classic game Wednesday night at Seabury Hall. Oregon State Athletics / Andrew Goodwin photoToday's breaking news and more in your inbox
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