MidValleySports.Com

By Big Tony Solorzano

(Galen Center, Los Angeles) – The 2011 Pacific Life Pac-10 Basketball Tournament got off to a rollicking start Wednesday afternoon at USC’s Galen Center as the women kicked off the first day of competition with an Arizona-Oregon showdown between the four schools of both states.

In the first game, the #3 seeded Arizona State Sun Devils (11-7, 27-3) took on the #10 seed Oregon State Beavers (2-16, 9-21), but it was all Arizona State. Senior guard Dymond Simon led all scorers with 13 points to lead the Sun Devils to a 50-44 win over Oregon State and advance to Thursday’s quarterfinals where they’ll face (the winner of the Cal-Washington game).

“Oregon State is a tough team, they just do not go away,” said Sun Devil Head Coach Charli Turner Thorne. “We would get a little bit of a lead and they would fight back. I give them all the credit in the world.”

In the first half, the Beavers took a 11-9 lead over the Sun Devils on a layup by senior forward El-Sara Greer with 12:17 left in the half, but the Sun Devils responded with an 14-4 run over the next 4:42, before ending the half up 27-20.

In the second half, the Sun Devils increased their lead to 15 with 16:54 left in the game on Olivia Major’s three-point shot, however, the Beavers began a 12-0 run on the Devils to close the gap to five points on Alyssa Martin’s jumper with 11:45 left.

“That was a bad stretch, we did not play defense like we’re supposed to, like coach said” said ASU’s Simon. “Once we started to lock in on their plays and their offensive scorers, it made a big difference.”

Three more times, the Beavers would close the lead to five points and got as close as three points on another layup by Greer to make the score 43-40 with 7:12 left in the game, but the Beavers could get no closer.

“I’m totally proud of my team and what we did on the court,” said Greer, who closed out her career with the Beavers with nine points and four rebounds in the losing effort. “We were a hard-fought team, especially in the Pac-10 which is such a tough conference.”

Big Tony will be reporting on the Men’s and Women’s PAC 10 Tournaments from Staples Center and Galen Center the rest of the week. Check back for the latest results.