Oregon State was coming off a 27-win season that ended in the Elite Eight of the women's NCAA Tournament last March when the Beavers lost most of their team and most of their conference.
Eight players from last year's roster who had eligibility remaining, including the top six scorers, left Oregon State after that deep postseason run. And the Pac-12, their conference home for 38 seasons, was down to them and Washington State because of realignment.
But the Beavers (19-15) got back into the NCAA field again this year, with an automatic berth as West Coast Conference tournament champions. They are a No. 14 seed that has to go to the other side of the country to play at North Carolina (27-7) on Saturday.
“I’m ecstatic," said 15th-season coach Scott Rueck, who took Oregon State to the Final Four in 2016. “So happy for the team. ... Believed and stayed positive when things didn't look quite right, and then things started to look better, and all of a sudden we've got a team worth of being in the Big Dance.”
While the Pac-12 is being rebuilt, Oregon State and Washington State are playing in the WCC as affiliate members.
The Beavers finished fourth in the regular-season standings, then won three games in as many days at the conference tournament. Kelsey Rees hit a game-winning shot to beat San Francisco in the opener before they beat top seed Gonzaga in the semifinals, and overcame Portland in the championship game.
“We might have had a little chip on his shoulder, but we just stayed so tight, and so together. And that’s what got us so far,” said sophomore guard Kennedie Shuler, one of the five returning players.
Oregon native Tiara Bolden, a senior guard averaging 8.2 points a game, joined the Beavers this season from La Salle, where she played only one season after junior college.
“My mind is literally blown away,” Bolden said after the Beavers watched the Selection Show together Sunday night. “I’m still like jittery, still shaking just for us. Like seeing us on the screen, it was definitely incredible.”
The Beavers lost five of their first six games to start the season, and after a four-game conference losing streak in January were 9-13 overall. Rueck is sure that there were times when his players doubted what they could do, and probable even wondered if it was worth it.
Since that January skid, Oregon State has won 10 of its last 12 games. The losses were in overtime against Gonzaga and a 69-66 setback at Saint Mary's.
“We’re built like a traditional team ... you start the year as an inexperienced power (conference) team, that's ultimately what we are,” Rueck said. “We didn’t have the experience and we didn’t know who we were yet, and roles had to be defined and people had to step up, and over the course of the year that’s happened.”
This is the ninth appearance over the last 11 NCAA Tournaments for the Beavers, who before now hadn't been a double-digit seed under Rueck. The Beavers were a No. 3 seed hosting a No. 14 seed last year — that has been reversed this season — and were No. 2 seeds in both 2016 and 2017.
“I remember first-round games that we had to escape," Rueck said. “Everybody’s good this time of year.”
Including these Beavers.
“Here we are, with an opportunity to prove it again, against a really good team on their home floor. And so we’re excited about that,” he said. “But I think the makeup of this group, certainly the experience we have as coaches, the character of this team and the journey that they’ve been on, the way we’ve been playing lately, gives us all some hope.”
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Oregon State players celebrates after defeating Portland in an NCAA college basketball game in the final of the West Coast Conference women's tournament Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Oregon State players celebrate after defeating Portland in an NCAA college basketball game in the final of the West Coast Conference women's tournament Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)
BOSTON (AP) — Homeland Security officials on Monday said that a doctor from Lebanon who was deported over the weekend despite having a U.S. visa “openly admitted” to supporting a Hezbollah leader and attending his funeral.
The department's statement, posted on social media, provides a possible explanation for Dr. Rasha Alawieh's deportation, which has sparked widespread alarm, especially after a federal judge ordered that she not be removed until a hearing could be held. Government lawyers have said customs officials did not get word until after Alawieh was sent back to Lebanon.
“A visa is a privilege not a right — glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be denied. This is commonsense security,” Homeland Security said in its statement.
It’s the latest deportation of a foreign-born person with a U.S. visa, after Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, who helped lead protests of the Gaza war at Columbia University, was arrested and a doctoral student's visa was revoked. The Trump administration also transferred hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador even as a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring the deportations.
Stephanie Marzouk, Alawieh’s lawyer, said she would not stop fighting to get the 34-year-old doctor back in the U.S., “to see her patients where she should be.”
Marzouk did not immediately return a request for comment surrounding Homeland Security’s allegations that Alawieh supported a Hezbollah leader.
The Justice Department has also detailed its reasons for deporting Alawieh in court filings, but a federal judge has sealed those documents.
News outlets that obtained those records before they were sealed reported that Alawieh had photos on her phone of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese militant group for the past three decades. The Boston Globe reported she also had pictures of Hezbollah “fighters and martyrs” on her phone.
“According to Dr. Alawieh, she follows him for his religious and spiritual teachings and not his politics," the court documents stated.
When asked why she deleted the photos days before arriving in Boston, Alawieh allegedly told officers: “Because I didn’t want the perception. But I know I’m not doing anything wrong. I’m not related to anything politically or militarily.”
Alawieh was granted the visa on March 11 and arrived at Boston Logan International Airport on Thursday, according to a complaint filed on her behalf by a cousin in federal court.
Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist who previously worked and lived in Rhode Island, was detained at least 36 hours, the complaint said. She was to start work at Brown University as an assistant professor of medicine.
U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin issued an order Friday that an in-person hearing be scheduled Monday, with Alawieh brought to court.
On Saturday, the cousin filed a motion saying customs officials “willfully” disobeyed the order by sending Alawieh back to Lebanon.
Lawyers for the government said in a court filing Monday that U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Boston airport did not receive notice of the order until she “had already departed the United States,” the judge noted. They asked that the petition be dismissed.
Alawieh worked at Brown prior to the issuance of her H1B visa, the complaint said. It said she has held fellowships and residencies at three universities in the U.S.
A spokesperson for Brown said Alawieh is an employee of Brown Medicine with a clinical appointment to Brown.
Brown Medicine is a not-for-profit medical practice that is its own organization and serves its own patients directly. It is affiliated with Brown University's medical school.
On Monday, a handful of Alawieh’s colleagues stood outside Boston’s federal courthouse to support her.
“She is one of three transplant nephrologists in the entire state of Rhode Island, which, you know, also serves the parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut,” said Dr. Susie Hu. “Her absence is really detrimental to our program.”
Dr. Douglas Shemin, who said he hired Alawieh at Brown Medicine, called her an “outstanding” clinician, physician and teacher who eagerly put in long hours without complaining.
Brown Medicine has roughly 300 to 400 patients awaiting kidney transplants, according to Shemin. Each needs regular evaluations, which now must be done by just two doctors.
More than 100 people gathered in the rain outside the Rhode Island Statehouse on Monday evening to rally in support of Alawieh, holding signs reading “Dr. Rasha Has Rights” and “We cannot tolerate this!”
Speaking at the rally, Brown University student Kai Blades called the deportation part of a broader pattern of political repression.
“We’re here to stand in opposition to deportations, in opposition to racism and in opposition to the fascist state terror that has been used not only against our beloved community member Rasha, but others like Mahmoud Khalil,” Blades said. “We are here to stay. We’re going to stand up for our community and we’re going to be as loud as possible when they’re under attack."
Meanwhile, lawyers for Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student, requested Monday that he be released on bail or returned to New York from a Louisiana detention facility.
In papers filed in Manhattan federal court, the lawyers wrote that the treatment of Khalil meant “every noncitizen must wonder whether they will face retaliation for engaging in speech on issues of public concern or critical of the U.S. government.” It seemed designed to “prevent Mr. Khalil — and many others — from speaking in this country at all,” they added.
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This story has been corrected to fix the spelling of the doctor’s last name throughout. Her name is Rasha Alawieh, not Rasha Alawiech.
McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire, and Kruesi reported from Nashville, Tennessee. Associated Press journalist Larry Neumeister in New York also contributed.
Protesters rally outside the Rhode Island State House in support of deported Brown University Dr. Rasha Alawieh, Monday, March 17, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Protesters rally outside the Rhode Island State House in support of deported Brown University Dr. Rasha Alawieh, Monday, March 17, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
A protester holds a "Freeze I.C.E." sign during a rally outside the Rhode Island State House in support of deported Brown University Dr. Rasha Alawieh, Monday, March 17, 2025 in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Protesters rally outside the Rhode Island State House in support of deported Brown University Dr. Rasha Alawieh, Monday, March 17, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Protesters rally outside the Rhode Island State House in support of deported Brown University Dr. Rasha Alawieh, Monday, March 17, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Protesters rally outside the Rhode Island State House in support of deported Brown University Dr. Rasha Alawieh, Monday, March 17, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Protesters rally outside the Rhode Island State House in support of deported Brown University Dr. Rasha Alawieh, Monday, March 17, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Protesters rally outside the Rhode Island State House in support of deported Brown University Dr. Rasha Alawieh, Monday, March 17, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
People walk past the the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston, Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Attorney Stephanie Marzouk, who represents deported Brown University Dr. Rasha Alawieh, speaks to reporters outside the Moakley Federal Courthouse, Monday, March 17, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
FILE - Pedestrians make their way past a building housing the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Jan. 30, 2019, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Jennifer McDermott, File)
