Oregon State head coach Scott Rueck on the sideline as the Beavers face the No. 24 Oregon Ducks in a women’s college basketball game at Gill Coliseum in Corvallis, Oregon, on Friday, Feb. 11, 2022.

CORVALLIS — Oregon State is running out of chances to extend its NCAA women’s basketball tournament streak to eight years.

The Beavers had an excellent opportunity to make a case Friday night, but too many offensive dry spells couldn’t offset some brilliant play in a 74-66 loss to No. 24 Oregon.

Oregon State fell to 11-9 overall, a record that just by itself doesn’t scream NCAA tourney team. But Beavers coach Scott Rueck makes a good point when he says, look at who we’ve been playing.

Each of the nine opponents Oregon State has played in the mix for an NCAA tournament bid. Even Villanova isn’t that far out of it, and the Wildcats just won at UConn. The Beavers lost their fourth consecutive game, all to teams solidly in the tournament field in Arizona, Arizona State, Stanford and Oregon.

But at some point, if the Beavers want to join March Madness, they’ve got to beat some of these teams. OSU’s only win over a potential NCAA tournament team is Colorado.

Oregon State needs more, and Friday might have been the start of something magical. The Beavers had a near-triple double from Talia von Oelhoffen – 12 points, 12 rebounds, nine assists – and had a breathtaking 18-3 spurt late in the third quarter to erase a 14-point deficit.

But each quarter, the Beavers had a killer scoreless drought. To wit:

First quarter: Oregon blanks OSU for more than five minutes, while running off 14 consecutive points.

Second: The Beavers don’t score during the final 4:37 of the quarter. The Ducks turn a three-point deficit into a five-point halftime lead.

Third: OSU’s offense goes silent for nearly four minutes, while the Ducks increase a four-point lead to 14.

Fourth: During a four-minute stretch, Oregon outscores the Beavers 14-2.

Given that, it’s probably a miracle Oregon State lost by only eight. But the Beavers proved they have enough talent to put it together for stretches. Just not games. Against NCAA tournament-type teams like Oregon, it’s not enough.

“That’s kind of been our hurdle this year. Amazing spurts and great stretches, and then consistency has been our nemesis, at both ends of the floor. We lose focus, make mistakes and let teams get away from us,” Rueck said.

Turnovers are constantly an issue. The Beavers had 15, to Oregon’s six. That allowed the Ducks to take 16 more shots, and get more free throw opportunities. It was the fourth consecutive game where OSU had at least nine more turnovers than the opponent.

Rueck thought for good stretches, the Beavers moved the ball well, resulting in high-quality shots.

“But if one out of every four (possessions) is a turnover, that makes it tough to overcome,” Rueck said. “One of the challenges for this team is we have a lot of inexperience on the perimeter. When you have a veteran group, it’s easy. They’ve seen it a billion times.”

Von Oelhoffen is one of those brilliant, but inexperienced perimeter players. On a night where she nearly had the school’s first triple double in five years, von Oelhoffen also struggled at times. She didn’t take a shot during the first half.

Then in the fourth quarter, with Oregon racing out to a 69-58 lead, von Oelhoffen sat on the bench for three minutes after making some defensive mistakes.

Oregon State’s best stretch came late in the third quarter. Trailing 48-34 with 3:15 remaining, the Beavers scored 18 of the game’s next 21 points to take a 52-51 lead by quarter’s end. Everything seemed to click: defense, transition, shooting.

About a minute before the burst, Rueck was hit with a technical foul after what he thought was non-call and a dangerous play. After getting little satisfaction from the official, Rueck walked away, turned to the Gill Coliseum crowd and began motioning his arms, asking for noise.

Rueck insists he wasn’t trying to fire up his team.

“I wasn’t happy with what I thought was a dangerous play. It’s my job. I’m hired to coach and protect this team,” Rueck said. “I was happy to see our team fight and give themselves a chance tonight.”

More opportunities to produce an NCAA tournament resume are ahead, starting Sunday at Oregon. It’s the fourth of five consecutive games against opponents ranked among the top 10 in NCAA NET rankings, a key tournament metric. Oregon is No. 7.

“It’s been a hard stretch for everyone, including our staff. This kind of thing really stretches you, as a human,” Rueck said. “Your option is the look at it and have fun with it. So we’ve been doing that.”