Cardinal pull away to reach title game
SEATTLE — Erica McCall scored 17 points and Brittany McPhee added 15 as 10thranked Stanford wore down feisty Oregon in the fourth quarter for a 71-56 victory in the Pac-12 tournament semifinals on Saturday night.
Second-seeded Stanford (27-5), which has won 11 of 15 Pac-12 tournament titles, will face top-seeded Oregon State (29-3) in the championship game at 6 p.m. Sunday. The Beavers defeated 15th-ranked UCLA 63-53. Sixth-ranked Oregon State defeated Stanford twice during conference play en route to the regular season Pac-12 title.
“We played well against Washington State (in Friday’s quarterfinals), I think we played well in spurts, not in the beginning, but 75 percent of the time against Oregon, and we’re going to need to play 100 percent of the time well against Oregon State,” said Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer. “They are an experienced team, they’re a very talented team, and a very well-coached team. We’ve lost to them twice and our team is going to have to have a chip on its shoulder and bring it.”
After allowing Oregon to score 25 points in the first quarter, Stanford gave up just 31 the rest of the way.
“I thought the difference was for us in the second half was our defense,” VanDerveer said. “We really stoked up our defense in the second quarter.”
Oregon trailed 53-47 after three quarters, but could muster only two free throws by Ruthy Hebard while Stanford was missing its first eight shots of the final period before McCall converted a three-point play to make it 56-49 with 6:03 remaining.
McCall then scored on a layin, and McPhee hit two free throws and a layup, and Stanford was suddenly up 62-49 with 3:53 left.
Sabrina Ionescu from Miramonte High-Orinda and Maite Cazorla each had 14 points for sixth-seeded Oregon (20-13), which upset 11th-ranked Washington 70-69 on Friday in the semifinals.
Stanford stretched a 36-34 halftime lead to 42-37 as Oregon made just one of its first seven field-goal attempts in the the third quarter, but Ionescu scored on a drive and Cazorla hit a three-pointer from the right corner to tie it 42-42 with 5:04 left in the quarter.
The Cardinal responded with a seven-point run, taking 49-42 lead on Kaylee Johnson’s short jumper en route to their 53-47 advantage heading into the final quarter.
The Cardinal, who trailed most of the first half, scored the final seven points of the second quarter for a 36-34 lead at the break.
With the Ducks up 34-29, McPhee hit a three-pointer and then two free throws with 19 seconds left in the half to tie the score 34-34.
After a miss by Ionescu, the Cardinal pushed the ball upcourt and Karlie Samuelson fed Smith for a layin to make it 36-34.
After scoring the first 21 points of the game in its 66-36 quarterfinal victory over Washington State, Stanford again started quickly.
After Oregon scored the first basket, the Cardinal ran off eight consecutive points. Ionescu answered with a three-pointer to trigger a 13-2 run that put Oregon up 15-10.
Ionescu’s two free throws with 5.4 seconds left in the first quarter gave Oregon a 25-16 lead.