No. 9 Oregon State (15-0, 5-0) overcame a 16 point second half deficit to beat Washington State (10-6, 1-4) at Gil Coliseum in Corvallis, Ore. Junior guard Lia Galdeir had a chance to tie the game with a pair of free throws, but she missed the second one and Oregon State managed to add onto its lead.

Junior guard Lia Galdeira scored 21 points, but her missed free throw proved to be costly. (Courtesy of WSUCougars.com)

Washington State managed to get the ball into the hands of Galdeira, twice, at the top of the three-point arc within the last ten seconds of the game.. She missed both shots, the last one went out of bounds with (originally) 0.5 seconds left in the game. Senior center Shalie Dheensaw went down with an apparent right ankle injury on that last shot.

While the training staff was attending to Dheensaw, the officials reviewed the previous play to see if a Cougar had touched the ball as it was going out of bounds and to figure out how much time was left on the game clock. The officials decided a WSU player did touch it, and that there was 0.1 seconds left on the clock; which sealed Oregon State’s victory.

Galdeira had a chance to tie the game at 71 from the free throw line with 23.2 seconds left, but she only hit one of her two shots. Oregon State’s Ruth Hamblin hit both of her free throws to give the Beavers the final margin.

A pair of turnovers by both teams changed the course of the game with about a minute left. As Galdeira made an ill-advised pass towards forward Mariah Cooks that was easily intercepted. Fortunately for the Cougars, OSU coughed up the ball quickly on the other end of the court without getting the ball anywhere near the hoop. Unfortunately, a bad pass put an end to Washington State’s possession following the Beavers’ turnovers.

Washington State had built a 16 point lead coming out of the half. But Oregon State’s defense began to whittle away at the lead, and the Beavers tied it up at 56 with nearly seven minutes left in the game. The Cougars struggled to stay within their offense during the final seven minutes, as they started to force shots and try to get the lead back; unfortunately they couldn’t, and the Beavers survived WSU’s upset bid.

The injury to Dheensaw visibly rattled the Cougars, and brought Galdeira to tears, while the training staff was tending to her on the court. If she’s out for a few weeks, then the Cougar defense is going to missing a key part its success. Obviously we hope she heals quickly

[twitter-follow screen_name=’sportswithneil’] [twitter-follow screen_name=’nvr93′]