UCLA’s upset bid falls short vs. third-ranked Stanford
Tara VanDerveer asked the crowd to give a standing ovation to her four Stanford seniors, and hundreds of fans who stuck around well past the final buzzer for a postgame ceremony jumped to their feet.
VanDerveer thanked the players’ parents while making something clear: The Cardinal have plenty of great basketball still to be played with March approaching.
Cameron Brink scored 25 points and made all 15 of her free throws, the last of which put Stanford ahead for good, and the third-ranked Cardinal beat 17th-ranked UCLA 71-66 on Monday night in their final regular-season home game.
Stanford (26-3, 14-2 Pac-12) has won four in a row and is closing in on a third consecutive Pac-12 regularseason title with games remaining this week at No. 21 Colorado and No. 8 Utah.
Freshman Londynn Jones scored 14 points for UCLA (21-7, 10-6), which saw its four-game winning streak come to an end. UCLA pounded the boards for a 3633 advantage, getting 17 on the offensive glass.
“Really proud of our team’s response in the second half,” Bruins coach Cori Close said, “their fight, their togetherness, their belief.”
The cold-shooting Bruins began three for 11 and went 5:39 without a basket in the second quarter. Christeen Iwuala’s putback with 3:36 left in the quarter ended a nearly six-minute stretch without a field goal by UCLA.
But the Bruins came out energized after halftime, using a 25-point third quarter — they had just 26 points at halftime — while holding Stanford to four field goals in the period to take a 51-50 lead heading into the final 10 minutes.
No. 16 Ohio State 74, at No. 12 Michigan 61:
Rikki Harris scored a career-high 23 points with five assists, Taylor Thierry added 15 points and the Buckeyes completed a season sweep of the Wolverines.
Men
No. 3 Kansas 63, at No. 24 Texas Christian 58: Gradey Dick scored 19 points, Kevin McCullar Jr. had 15 and the Jayhawks extended their winning streak to five games.
Polls
Houston returned to No. 1 in the Associated Press men’s poll. UCLA remained at No. 4. South Carolina stayed put at No. 1 in the women’s poll. UCLA dropped one spot to No. 17.