Foul calls ‘massively influenced’ NCAA loss to South Carolina, Oregon State coach says

In the aftermath of Oregon State’s 70-58 Elite Eight loss to South Carolina on Sunday, Beavers coach Scott Rueck chose his words carefully.

“I’m not here to get in trouble or anything,” he said.

But after his No. 3-seed Oregon State team came up one game short of the Final Four, falling by 12 points to No. 1 South Carolina at Albany’s MVP Arena, Rueck’s message was clear.

A number of foul calls, he said, “massively influenced this game.”

“You just hope they were accurate,” Rueck said.

Oregon State’s veteran coach particularly took issue with an early second quarter moment in which his star sophomore forward, Raegan Beers, was whistled for an offensive foul while boxing out USC’s Sania Feagin under the basket after a South Carolina shot attempt.

That foul at the 7:16 mark of the second quarter was Beers’ third of the game and, according to Rueck, put Oregon State in a position where it was “walking on eggshells, playing in a china closet, tying to avoid that fourth or fifth foul” on Beers, the team’s leading scorer.

“And so because of that, you play a little tentative,” Rueck said. “And it seemed like our rebounding effort was a little tentative during that stretch, and that’s what makes them (USC) who they are. They can turn you over and get a bucket, get O-boards, miss, get another one, miss, get another one, and finish, knock the three down.”

He added of Beers’ third foul, which made the rounds on X (formerly Twitter) in video form and prompted frustration among fans: “I was blocked out on it, so I couldn’t see it with my own eyes. I’ve been told it probably wasn’t an accurate call. That’s what I’ve heard.”

Beers was also asked that specific call postgame.

“I’ve learned a lot recently in college basketball. ... I might not think it’s a foul in the moment, but maybe it is afterwards,” Beers said. “But it’s not like they can change that. So what they call is what they call. You’ve got to move on to the next play. Whether it was a foul or not, we had to get our minds right on defense.”

By halftime, Beers (17.5 ppg, 10.3 rpg) and forward Timea Gardiner (11.6 ppg, 6.8 rpg) both had three personal fouls, two short of disqualification, against the undefeated Gamecocks.

Neither Beers nor Gardiner fouled out of Sunday’s game (Beers finished with 16 points and four fouls, and Gardiner stayed at three fouls with 10 points). And the Beavers mounted a few furious comebacks to get within a single possession of USC in the third quarter (43-41) and four points in the fourth (62-58).

Rueck and Kamilla Cardoso — South Carolina’s 6-foot-7 starting center and the Albany 1 Regional Most Outstanding Player — defended each other and had a few memorable back-and-forth sequences battling each other for position and scoring in the post.

Rueck said postgame that he wished Beers, an All Pac-12 honoree and second team All American, was able to “play a little more free in this game” and he felt like his “hand was forced” to keep her in the game despite having three fouls since it was the NCAA Tournament.

“When your back is to the wall like that, you’ve got to roll the dice a little bit,” Rueck said, adding that he “loved the battle” between Beers and Cardoso.

“I mean, that’s what everybody wants to see, right?” he said. “Nobody wants to see foul trouble. You just want to see them go at each other, and as long as it’s logical, let it happen. Just let them play.

“I don’t want fouls, but I want it to be what everybody would want it to be: common sense. I don’t know if that left the building or not today, but that’s what I wanted to see.”

Rueck was effusive in his praise of South Carolina in his postgame presser, saying the Gamecocks were a worthy No. 1 overall seed who seemed to have “two starting lineups” on their loaded roster. But he felt like officiating kept Oregon State (which upset No. 2 Notre Dame in the Sweet 16 to get to Sunday’s regional final) from executing its full game plan Sunday.

Especially when it came to the matchup between Beers and Cardoso, whose South Carolina team advanced to a fourth consecutive Final Four under coach Dawn Staley.

“Those are two great players that are so skilled and so talented and have systems that are built to feature them both,” Rueck said. “So this time of the year, you pray to see the best go at it, and that’s great sport.”

He paused.

“When it was like that, it was great sport,” Rueck said.