SEATTLE -- Sunday's first quarter looked like the furthest thing from a typical Oregon State-Stanford slugfest, with the Beavers bolting out to a 13-point lead before star Sydney Wiese even scored.

But then the Beavers and Cardinal settled into the gritty style now expected between two of the nation's premier defensive teams. And with the Pac-12 tournament title on the line, No. 2 seed Stanford rallied and then held off top-seeded OSU 48-43 at KeyArena.

"Nothing surprised me, to be honest," Beavers coach Scott Rueck said. "We just didn't knock down some shots that we needed to."

The loss likely locks OSU, which won the regular-season conference championship and its previous two games against the Cardinal, into a No. 2 seed for the NCAA Tournament. Stanford could also challenge for a No. 2 seed after its run through the toughest league in the nation according to RPI.

OSU's offensive struggles were most glaring in the fourth quarter, when the Beavers (29-4, 16-2 Pac-12) connected on just 1 of 12 field-goal attempts as the Cardinal surged ahead for good. But after exploding for 22 points in the first period, the Beavers scored just 21 the rest of the way to tie its season-low in points.

The Cardinal's defensive effort started on Wiese, who scored 13 points but shot just 4 of 13 while constantly being chased and double-teamed when the Beavers ran an on-ball screen. Post Marie Gulich, meanwhile, scored 10 points but shot 3 of 10, while no other Beaver finished in double figures.

"They know exactly what we're trying to do," Wiese said. "Whoever has the ball, they're gonna make it tough for us to score."

Still, OSU was sharp at the start, connecting on its first six shots to build a 16-3 lead. Yet the tide flipped when freshman guard Mikayla Pivec -- who scored six points in that opening quarter -- picked up her second foul, forcing Rueck to go to freshman Kat Tudor and sophomore Taylor Kalmer for the remainder of the half with versatile reserve Katie McWilliams (undisclosed ailment) missing her third consecutive game.

"We had total control of this game when she picked up that second one," Rueck said. "We were flowing so well offensively with that group."

After Wiese banked in a deep three-pointer at the halftime buzzer to put the Beavers up 29-23, Stanford made its charge with a 9-0 third-quarter run while holding the Beavers scoreless for more than six minutes. A layup by Alanna Smith, who finished with a game-high 18 points, with 7:28 to play gave Stanford its first lead since 2-0, before the Cardinal stretched that advantage to as many as six points in the final frame.

But thanks to its own defense, OSU still had chances down the stretch.

A Wiese three-pointer from the right corner sliced the Cardinal's advantage to 44-41 with 3:25 remaining. But on the Beavers' next possession, Pivec was called for a moving screen just before another long-distance shot by Wiese went through the net. Brittany McPhee then knocked down a jumper in the lane to make it a two-possession game with 1:12 left, before Karlie Samuelson (14 points) iced the win at the free-throw line in the final minute.

"We kind of got the bloody nose first, but that motivated people to keep playing hard and make some plays," Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said " ... After losing (to OSU) last week, we wanted to play them and we wanted to show to ourselves that we were champions, too."

Rueck acknowledged the Beavers not only missed McWilliams' long 6-foot-2 frame and experience as a perimeter defender against Stanford, but that her three-day absence from the rotation "burned people out a little bit." Wiese, for example, played 117 of the weekend's possible 120 minutes without McWilliams as the primary backup point guard.

So Round 3 between the Pac-12's top two programs eventually turned into another low-scoring, down-to-the-wire affair. And after winning two thrillers against the Cardinal in the regular season, it was the Beavers' turn to experience heartbreak. As Wiese, Rueck and Pivec answered questions following the loss, they could hear the public-address announcer calling out the Stanford players' names as they cut down the nets.

A few times, Wiese dropped her head. A year ago, that was the Beavers. Heck, a week ago, that was the Beavers, after becoming the only program other than Stanford to win a third consecutive Pac-12 regular-season championship in a season they were projected to finish fifth following the departures of Jamie Weisner and Ruth Hamblin.



Then Wiese and Rueck spoke to what the Beavers could still learn -- a common theme throughout the season with this new-look roster -- with more than a week off before the NCAA Tournament begins. And the Beavers have proven they are "absolutely experts" at rebounding from defeat.

After losing to Marquette in November, OSU ripped off 12 wins in a row. Following a road defeat at UCLA in mid-January, the Beavers won seven consecutive games. After a stunning blowout home loss to USC in mid-February, they won their next five to clinch that Pac-12 regular-season title, before topping California and UCLA this weekend in Seattle.

Up next: The Big Dance.

"Of course this hurts, it stings," Wiese said. "We want to be out there right now celebrating. But there's still a lot of basketball left to be played and there's a lot of lessons that we can take from this game, and the whole weekend in general.

"We gather ourselves. We galvanize our group and come back together. And we realize there's still a lot of battles out there."

-- Gina Mizell | @ginamizell