The Ronsiek’s took over.
Sisters Emma and Hanna Ronsiek entered the season as the top stars and Friday night they put on a show in a huge win for the Colorado State women’s basketball team.
The Rams beat future Pac-12 foe Oregon State 65-59 as the Ronsiek’s combined for 50 points.
Here are three takeaways from the game.
Stunning performance from the Ronsiek’s
CSU (2-0) led by 10 points in the second quarter, but went cold late in the half and Oregon State (0-1) took a one-point lead to halftime.
Oregon State had a small lead in the second quarter when the Ronsiek’s simply took over.
The sisters hit two 3-pointers each to go on a keep-it-in-the-family 12-0 run of their own to give CSU a 10-point (50-40) lead to end the third quarter.
They did a bit of everything. Emma seemed to find key buckets every time the Rams needed them and played solid defense in the paint.
Hannah had a sensational underhand scoop shot in the fourth to help secure the win.
Emma Ronsiek scored 26 points (10-16 shooting) and had six assists. She hit six 3-pointers. The first-year Ram is a Creighton transfer, where her career high was 31 points.
Hannah Ronsiek had 24 points (9-16 shooting) and six rebounds. She hit four 3-pointers.
“I think we wanted to match each other tonight,” Hannah said.
“Somebody wanted to outscore somebody,” Emma said with a laugh.
They could not be stopped.
A signature win for Colorado State
Oregon State won 27 games a year ago and made the Elite Eight of the 2024 NCAA Tournament, losing to eventual national champion South Carolina.
The Beavers did see a roster overhaul as the top four scorers from a year ago are gone, but it’s still a team with a sterling resume.
“It’s obviously a great win. They have such a winning, championship culture at Oregon State,” CSU coach Ryun Williams said. “Now, a lot of those kids that were on that team (last season) are not there, to be fair to Oregon State. But that’s still the same (program). He (Oregon State coach Scott Rueck) is arguably the best coach in the country and has been for a long time. They’ve still got good players.”
It’s also a future Pac-12 conference foe.
This is a big one for CSU.
Rams handle the height
Oregon State started 6-foot-5 forward Kelsey Rees and brought 6-foot-7 Sela Heide off the bench.
A very undersized CSU handled it well.
The Rams threw multiple defenders in paint defense and were aggressive in rebounding.
Oregon State won the rebounding battle by a large amount (45-26) but CSU minimized the impact with the Beavers notching just eight second-chance points.
“We look at how many points they scored off the O-boards. They’re going to get some. The ball bounces crazy sometimes,” Williams said. “That’s part of the game. They send big bodies to the glass. We knew that was going to be the case. We did want our guards to really get in there and dig down.”
Rees scored 16 points but on 5-14 shooting. Heide had eight.
While the Ronsiek’s were the scoring stars for CSU, Marta Leimane may have been the most important defensively. She was strong on the perimeter and led the team with 10 rebounds.
CSU forced 13 turnovers and only had two turnovers.
Follow sports reporter Kevin Lytle on X and Instagram @Kevin_Lytle.
