In comforts of home, Cardinal cruise 3 way
Williams hits 5 from long range; team makes 11
Stanford 82, Gonzaga 68
Gonzaga found out Saturday what many other teams have over the years: Playing Stanford in the NCAA Tournament at Maples Pavilion is like solving a Rubik’s Cube — underwater.
The Cardinal are 85-29 alltime in the Big Dance, and they’re 35-4 in tournament games on the Farm.
Seeded fourth in the Lexington Region, the Cardinal had too much firepower and too much defense for the 13thseeded Bulldogs, beating the WCC powerhouse 82-68.
Freshman Kiana Williams, white-hot late in the season, hit 5 of 8 three-point tries on her way to a team-high 21 points. Over the pst month, she has made 27 of 44 from that distance.
“She’s killing it,” said guard Brittany McPhee, who had 11 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and two steals. “We’ll keep passing her the ball for her to keep shooting it.”
Stanford (23-10), looking for its 11th straight trip to the Sweet 16, will play at 6 p.m. Monday against 12-seed Florida Gulf Coast, which upset 5-seed Missouri 80-70.
Besides hitting 11 threes in 22 tries, to 5-for-17 for Gonzaga, the Cardinal outrebounded the Bulldogs 42-27.
“We lost last year to this team, and I think our team took it personally,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said.
Alana Smith provided 19 points and a fine defensive effort on Jill Barta, the twotime WCC Player of the Year. Barta nevertheless had 21 points. Laura Stockton added 14 for the Bulldogs, who ended their season with a 27-6 record.
“Stanford’s teams are always, always, always better this time of year than they are in the beginning,” Gonzaga head coach Lisa Fortier said.
“They get good players; don’t get me wrong. I know they have plenty of All-Americans and those kind of things, but some teams get players that are just unbelievable and Stanford gets the right ones, and then molds them into the team that they want to have and has them understand their roles and play.”
Williams is especially effective in transition. “We like to push the pace to get the ball down the floor quickly,” she said. “Everything in our offense, we have to do it with pace, so that’s just what we’ve been doing all season.”
DiJonai Carrington scored 11 points for Stanford. Kaylee Johnson had eight rebounds and three blocks before fouling out with 6:15 left.
In its 31st straight NCAA Tournament, Stanford pulled in front to stay late in the first quarter. Only 12 points by backup guard Jessie Loera, who averages 6.1, kept Gonzaga from being blown out in the first half.
Carrington and Johnson each picked up her third foul in the third quarter and had to sit for several minutes. It didn’t matter because Smith, Williams and Nadia Fingall all sank threes before the quarter ended with Stanford up 65-48. The lead reached 20 (70-50) early in the fourth quarter.
Florida Gulf Coast (31-4), the nation’s most prolific threepoint-shooting team, made just 7 of 17 from distance but smothered the Tigers (24-8) with its quickness and defense.
Reserve guard China Dow scored 21 to lead FGCU, a team from Fort Myers, Fla., with nobody over 5-foot-11. Sophie Cunningham scored 35 for Mizzou, but none of her teammates reached double figures.