CORVALLIS — Talia von Oelhoffen took a black marker to her white taking pictures sleeve and in massive block letters wrote HEART, a literal reminder to all the time put on her coronary heart on her sleeve.
As if she wants it.
Von Oelhoffen is perhaps essentially the most passionate and expressive participant in all of school basketball. She exudes coronary heart. And on Sunday, she had so much to rejoice.
She spun deliriously after hitting a deep three-pointer, flexed her arms downward after an enormous defensive stand and, when she assisted Timea Gardiner on a key fourth quarter three-pointer after Gardiner had missed a number of photographs in a row, discovered her teammate and pointed proper in her face.
“I advised her, ‘You may miss your subsequent 10. I can provide the ball and also you shoot it whenever you’re open,’” von Oelhoffen mentioned.
Oregon State is marching on.
With Sunday’s 61-51 win over the Cornhuskers, they punched a ticket to the Candy 16 within the Albany (New York) Regional, the place nationwide heavyweight South Carolina lurks. This Oregon State workforce has lengthy been deserving of an even bigger stage. They received it briefly with their show-stopping win over UCLA, the night time von Oelhoffen drilled a buzzer-beating three and leapt atop the scorer’s desk.
HEART.
Now, the remainder of the nation has a chance to see what has had Beavers followers so excited and infused coach Scott Rueck with such a quiet confidence all season.
“To seize a whole fanbase the best way they’ve after which to do it once more with a nationwide viewers,” Rueck mentioned, “I’m so excited for everyone and (for) extra folks to get to know them as their platform grows.”
Towards Nebraska, von Oelhoffen scored a team-high 19 factors to go along with eight assists and 4 rebounds. Nevertheless it’s arduous to inform the story of her worth to this workforce utilizing numbers.
For those who’re in search of a motive why Oregon State, picked to complete tenth within the Pac-12 by the convention’s coaches, is now among the many closing 16 groups standing within the nation, none is greater than the presence of von Oelhoffen.
She is the Beavers’ emotional chief and their veteran anchor. She was nonetheless enjoying so arduous within the closing minute, with Oregon State main by 13, that she bulldozed by Nebraska level guard Jaz Shelley with an admittedly overzealous closeout.
The Beavers aren’t a one- or two-player workforce.
The Oregon males ran out of steam in their very own match run as a result of they’d no alternative however to lean on their two most efficient gamers — Jermaine Couisnard and N’Faly Dante — till they’d nothing left.
The OSU ladies haven’t any such legal responsibility. They’d the depth to face up to a brutal chilly stretch within the second and third quarters. After scoring 19 factors within the first quarter, they managed simply 16 over the center durations mixed. They led 28-15 halfway by the second quarter and simply 35-29 by the beginning of the fourth.
Complicating issues, Raegan Beers, the Beavers’ dependable presence within the center, struggled to remain on the court docket, choosing up her fourth private foul simply earlier than the top of the third quarter with the Beavers’ lead trimmed to 6.
Beers is the Beavers’ main scorer and rebounder. By most goal measures, she is their greatest participant.
Within the fourth quarter, they didn’t even want her.
Lily Hansford, von Oelhoffen and Gardiner buried threes in succession, and the Beavers poured in 29 factors within the closing interval. Beers by no means received off the bench once more.
The scoring was contagious. Led by Gardiner’s presence within the publish, the Beavers’ protection was suffocating. Gardiner totaled 4 blocks, together with two in a single possession.
Gill Coliseum was electrical. And with each large play, von Oelhoffen raised her arms in celebration for everybody to see.
HEART.
Von Oelhoffen mentioned that Rueck and the gamers discuss staying current in these moments. Taking all of it in.
You may watch this workforce doing that in actual time. “These are video games that we’re going to inform our children about,” von Oelhoffen mentioned. “That we’re going to recollect for the remainder of our lives.”
There might be at the least yet another. The Beavers will play the winner of Notre Dame and Mississippi on Friday in Albany. The Irish are the No. 2 seed within the regional.
OSU is coming for them.
On the underside of her taking pictures sleeve, the one on which she had written HEART, von Oelhoffen requested the members of her household and shut buddies who had been at Sunday’s recreation to signal it. They provided little notes of encouragement. She jotted down the initials of a buddy who died throughout OSU’s final match run in 2021.
“They’re simply all the time with me on the court docket,” von Oelhoffen mentioned.
Higher hope they’re prepared for the Candy 16, too.
As a result of these Beavers are.
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