SAN DIEGO – The University of San Diego took a 28-26 lead into the halftime break but ultimately dropped a 58-50 decision to visiting Oregon State University in West Coast Conference (WCC) women's basketball action inside Jenny Craig Pavilion on Saturday afternoon.
 
USD (4-19, 0-14 WCC) was led by senior Truitt Reilly, a native of Silverton, Ore., about 51 miles north of the Beavers' home in Corvallis, who produced a team-high 16 points. Fellow senior transfer Ava Ranson joined her in double figures with 10 points.
 
OSU (13-13, 9-6 WCC) was able to even its overall record by winning a season-best fourth straight while completing a sweep of its two-game SoCal trip, having defeated LMU, 66-49, in Los Angeles on Thursday night.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• San Diego led for more than Oregon State, 3:33 to 1:48, of a first quarter that saw two lead changes and eight tie scores. For the game, it was five lead changes and 13 tie scores.
• Reilly, fellow senior Kylie Horstmeyer and true freshman Dresha Moore collected four points apiece in the first, with Reilly also providing three assists, two of them on Horstmeyer jumpers.
• Moore and junior Hallie Rhodes each produced a nice driving layup over the back half of the initial period.
• The second quarter began knotted at 16-16 and was tied at 18-18, 20-20, 22-22 and finally 23-23 at the media timeout. After OSU split a pair of free throws, a Ranson three-point play gave the home side the lead again at 26-24.
• Horstmeyer knocked down two free throws and USD hung on to its edge at the interval.
• Oregon State grabbed the advantage back by scoring the first seven points of the second half. A Ranson wing triple later answered an AJ Marotte three to pull USD back to within one, 38-37.
• Another Marotte three-pointer from straight on at the third-quarter buzzer was a damaging one as the visitors took a 46-39 lead into the final stanza.
• The OSU lead grew to as many as 13 over those last 10 minutes, when Torero highlights included a three-pointer by junior Claire Gallagher and a baseline jumper by Reilly on successive offensive possessions that triggered a Beaver timeout with 2:18 to go.
• In the end, the Beavers' senior twin towers of 6-foot-5 Kelsey Rees and 6-foot-7 Sela Heide were just too much in the paint, as the duo combined for 33 points on 16-of-26 field goal shooting to go along with 16 rebounds and four blocks, at times playing together.
• The Toreros to their credit hung around as long as possible considering sophomore starting point guard Lauren McCall left just 3:02 into the contest after slipping to the floor and did not return, and Reilly exited the game with four fouls with 3:08 to go in the third and was limited from there.

 
TORERO TIDBITS

• Horstmeyer, a fifth-year senior, added eight points to her career total as she approaches the 1,000-point milestone, now with 898. She is also now 40 points from her single-season career best of 309 from a year ago.
• Reilly went 2-for-2 from the free throw line and has now made her last 16 attempts from the charity stripe, which included a season-best performance of 9-for-9 in Thursday's narrow loss to two-time reigning WCC tournament champion Portland. The Toreros as a team shot a season-second-best 90.9 percent at the line, going 10-for-11.
• Moore and Reilly shared the game high with three blocks apiece. The total marked a new collegiate best for Moore.
• This is now three straight and nine of 10 losses by single digits for the Toreros. USD has led at halftime in two consecutive games.
• USD is now 2-4 all-time against Oregon State. Saturday's meeting marked the first between the programs in over two decades, since a 57-54 home triumph for the Toreros inside the USD Sports Center on Dec. 28, 1996. Saturday was the fourth matchup in San Diego, with USD taking two of the previous three.
• San Diego will wrap up its home-and-home series with first-year WCC rival and 2023-24 national quarterfinalist Oregon State up in Corvallis, Ore., on Saturday, Feb. 22. The Beavers lost to eventual national champion South Carolina in last year's Elite Eight.

 NEXT UP
The Toreros await the third of their four one-game Bay Area trips for the 2024-25 season next, this one up to Stockton to take on the University of the Pacific (12-13, 8-7 WCC) on Thursday night, Feb. 13. Tip-off at the Alex G. Spanos Center is slated for 6 p.m., with streaming coverage provided on ESPN+. Live video and live statistics links can be found on the team's website.