SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4 Sports) - The Utah women's basketball team lost five games all of last season. The Utes lost their seventh game Friday night.
Raegan Beers scored 17 points and No. 17 Oregon State pulled away in the second half to knock off No. 20 Utah 58-44, its second win over the Utes in three games.
Utah shot just 28 percent from the field and finished with a season-low 44 points. Utah made just 6 of 33 shots from three-point range.
"Not a great performance by us," Utes head coach Lynne Roberts said. "I'm disappointed in the outcome and how we played. I did not anticipate that. I thought we had a good week of prep. I thought we were ready to roll, but clearly, we weren't. That's on me."
Alissa Pili's layup with 8:45 left in the second quarter gave Utah a 16-14 lead, but Oregon State took the lead for good on a layup by Dominika Paurova midway through the period.
Timea Gardiner closed out the first half by hitting a pair of 3-pointers sandwiched around a Paurova free throw to send the Beavers into intermission with a 30-22 lead and Talia von Oelhoffen and Donovyn Hunter each scored to open the third to push the advantage to 12, 34-22.
Utah could not close the deficit to fewer than 10 points the rest of the way.
Pili, Utah's leading scorer, had just 12 points on 4 of 17 shooting. Kennady McQueen led the Utes with 14 points, while Jenna Johnson pulled down 10 rebounds.
Oregon State (19-3, 8-3 Pac-12) hit 23 of 56 from the field (41.1%), including 7 of 17 from outside the arc. Beers hit 7 of 10 from the field and grabbed eight rebounds. Hunter and Gardiner each added 10 points.
Utah (17-7, 7-5) came into the game after after winning three of four games on the road, beating Oregon before falling at Corvallis 91-66 to the then-No. 25 Beavers and sweeping Washington and Washington State.
"We missed shots," Roberts saidd. "We missed them badly. Defensively I thought we were hit and miss. I don't remember the last time we scored 44 points, that's just not us. Clearly, I didn't have them ready to go and I'll take responsibility and we move forward."
Oregon State now have won seven of its last eight games with three wins coming against ranked opponents. Its lone loss in that stretch came at No. 8 Stanford.
"We're a team that thrives on tempo and offense and ball movement," Roberts said. "That was a big key coming in, and I felt like we were still a little stubborn with it in terms of not moving the ball like we wanted to. You have to credit Oregon State. They're a tough match up for us in how they guard. We haven't had a shooting night like that all season. Bad time to have a bad game but that's basketball sometimes."
Utah returns to the Huntsman Center to take on Oregon Sunday at noon.