The Oregon State women’s basketball program has added a blue-blood opponent to its 2024-25 nonconference slate.
On Tuesday, OSU announced it will face off with 11-time national champion UConn to open the 2024 Baha Mar Women’s Championship in Nassau, Bahamas, Nov. 25-27.
The Beavers and Huskies will face off at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 25, while Boston College and Ole Miss are slated to play at 2 p.m. PT. The winners of those two games will move on to the Nov. 27 championship game, which is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. PT. The losers of the two first-round games will play at 2 p.m. PT that day.
All games will be available to stream on FloHoops.
The Beavers are coming off a 27-8 campaign that resulted in a trip to the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight, where they lost to eventual national champion South Carolina.
However, amid the collapse of the Pac-12 Conference, Oregon State saw eight players opt to enter the transfer portal in order to find playing opportunities elsewhere. That included all-conference stars Raegan Beers (Oklahoma) and Talia Von Oelhoffen (USC).
The Beavers, who are playing a West Coast Conference schedule this season, are slated to open the year with an exhibition against Westmont (California) in Corvallis on Nov. 1.
OSU’s nonconference slate does not feature a matchup with in-state rival Oregon.
“I gave everybody the opportunity — other than football, we renewed that deal — and gave all of our other sports the opportunity to do what they want to with (the Oregon rivalry),” Oregon State athletic director Scott Barnes said earlier this month. “A lot of it becomes strategic in terms of what they have, how young their roster is, many things. Moving forward, we would like to try to play Oregon in as many sports as we can.”
Jarrid Denney covers high school sports and Oregon State for the Statesman Journal. He can be reached at JDenney@salem.gannett.com or on X @jarrid_denney
