NO. 3 OREGON easily puts away No. 7 Stanford.
PAC-12
NO. 3 OREGON 89, NO. 7 STANFORD 56
LAS VEGAS — Sabrina Ionescu had 20 points, 12 assists and 8 rebounds to lead No. 3 Oregon to an 89-56 victory over No. 7 Stanford in the Pac-12 Tournament title game Sunday.
Ruthy Hebard added 24 points, while Minyon Moore had 21 for the Ducks, who finished the game hitting 31 of 55 (56.4%) from the floor. Oregon finished 10 for 19 (52.6%) from three-point range.
The Ducks (31-2) will assuredly receive a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and figure to move up in The Associated Press Top 25 poll after No. 2 Baylor lost to Iowa State, 57-56, earlier Sunday.
The Ducks and Cardinal were playing for the tournament championship for a third consecutive year, and fourth time in five years. Stanford won last year’s championship and Oregon won in 2018.
“We were here last year, and we knew what it was like to lose,” said Ionescu, who was named the tournament’s MVP. “This is one of the nets we wanted to cut down this year.”
The Ducks shook off a sluggish first quarter and used a stifling defense to thwart most of Stanford’s efforts, while fueling their offense at the other end.
Kiana Williams scored 21 points to lead Stanford (27-6) and Ashten Prechtel had 14. Oregon held Stanford to 34.5% (19 of 55) from the floor.
The top 16 seeds in the NCAA Tournament host the first weekend, which means the Ducks will begin their title quest in Eugene, where they went 15-0 this season.
The Cardinal frustrated the high-powered Ducks while keeping Ionescu scoreless and took a 17-14 lead after the first quarter despite shooting 5 of 14 (35.7%) from the floor. Williams did most of the damage for Stanford, scoring 11 points on 3-of-5 shooting — all from three-point range — plus a couple from the free-throw line.
Then the Ducks woke up. The nation’s most efficient offense shot 8 of 12, including 4 of 6 from three-point range, in the second quarter to outscore the Ducks 29-9.
AAC SEMIFINALS
NO. 5 UCONN 79, SOUTH FLORIDA 38
UNCASVILLE, Conn. — UConn played smothering defense against South Florida for the second time in less than a week to earn a shot at a seventh consecutive American Athletic Tournament title.
Megan Walker scored 21 points Sunday to lead the fifth-ranked Huskies (28-3) to a 79-38 semifinal win over the Bulls.
UConn improved to 20-0 all-time in AAC tournament play after finishing 118-0 during the league’s seven regular seasons. The Huskies are leaving the conference to return to the Big East next season.
Christyn Williams (Central Arkansas Christian) added 15 points, 4 rebounds and 1 steal and Crystal Dangerfield had 13 in the semifinal win.
BIG 12
IOWA STATE 57,
NO. 2 BAYLOR 56
AMES, Iowa — Ashley Joens scored 15 points, including the decisive free throw with 0.9 seconds left, to help Iowa State stun Baylor, ending the Bears’ 58-game regular-season Big 12 winning streak.
The Bears (28-2, 17-1 Big 12) last lost a conference regular-season game to Texas on Feb. 6, 2017. The streak was the sixth longest in NCAA history. Their only other loss this season came to South Carolina in November in a Thanksgiving tournament.
Iowa State (18-11, 10-8) took a 56-53 lead on Joens’ layup with 37 seconds left. Juicy Landrum tied the game 14 seconds later with a three-pointer.
After timeouts by both teams, Joens was fouled with less than a second left by Didi Richards. After the officials reviewed that there was still time on the clock, Joens hit the first of the two free throws.
Ines Nezerwa and Rae Johnson each had 11 points for the Cyclones.
Richards scored 15 points and Lauren Cox added 11 points and 10 rebounds for Baylor.