No. 16 Oregon St. beats No. 6 North Carolina 70-55
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) Oregon State's trip across the country yielded its biggest regular-season win in two decades.
Ruth Hamblin had 17 points and 10 rebounds to help No. 16 Oregon State beat No. 6 North Carolina 70-55 on Tuesday night.
Jamie Weisner added 14 points for the Beavers, who improved to 8-0 for the first time in program history.
Sydney Wiese had 13 points as the Beavers recorded their first victory over a top-10 opponent since 1995.
''This is huge,'' Hamblin said. ''It's a pretty great feeling, especially as a team. I feel like we executed and earned this as a team.''
Allisha Gray led North Carolina (9-1) with 20 points and 10 rebounds.
Stephanie Mavunga had 14 points for the Tar Heels, who shot a season-low 28 percent from the floor and made 1 of 14 3-point attempts.
The Beavers broke an early tie with a 9-2 spurt and never looked back. Weisner led the charge with a 3-pointer followed by two layups as Oregon State took an 18-11 lead midway through the first half.
The Tar Heels cut the deficit to 25-20 on a three-point play by Mavunga with 4:34 left in the first half, but they never got closer.
Oregon State led 37-25 at halftime and took its biggest lead at 52-32 on a basket by Marie Gulich with 11:36 remaining.
The Beavers maintained a lead of at least 12 points the rest of the way, limiting North Carolina to 25 percent shooting in the second half.
''I thought our team really locked them up defensively,'' Oregon State coach Scott Rueck said. ''We kept them out of transition for most of the game.''
The 6-foot-6 Hamblin led the way on both ends of the floor for the Beavers. She had 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting in the first half, scoring four times after offensive rebounds.
Hamblin also blocked five shots in the game and played a big role in limiting Mavunga to 5-of-17 shooting from the floor.
''I thought we got the ball inside and got some good shots in there,'' North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell said. ''We just couldn't get them to go in.''
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TIP-INS
Oregon State: The Beavers began a stretch in which they will play six consecutive games away from home. They will have gone 34 days between home games before they host Oregon on Jan. 9.
North Carolina: The Tar Heels came up short in their bid for a fourth win against teams from the Pac-12 Conference. They already had beaten UCLA, Oregon and Stanford.
UP NEXT
Oregon State plays Southern Illinois on Friday in New Orleans.
North Carolina plays Maine on Friday in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
FILM SESSION
Hatchell said she would show her team footage of the Beavers celebrating after the victory. She said she was not accusing Oregon State of poor sportsmanship, but she emphasized that she wants her players to take pride in their home court.
STAT LINES
Hamblin entered the game shooting an NCAA-best 71.2 percent from the floor, and she raised that mark with 7-of-9 shooting against North Carolina. . Deven Hunger had a career-high 16 rebounds for Oregon State. . Nine of Gray's rebounds came in the second half. She finished with eight offensive boards.