Cardinal rally for win in Corvallis
CORVALLIS, Ore — Kiana Williams said Stanford didn’t get as rattled this time, sticking to the game plan even when Oregon State took an early lead.
Williams scored 17 points and Lexie Hull added 14, and the thirdranked Cardinal outlasted the eighthranked Beavers 6158 on Sunday.
Hull also had nine rebounds for Stanford (162, 51), which bounced back from its first Pac12 loss on Thursday at Oregon.
Williams said she thought Stanford let the crowd in Eugene propel the Ducks. Against the Beavers, a firsthalf deficit wasn’t as big of a deal.
“We just played ourselves out of it,” she said.
Destiny Slocum had a seasonhigh 26 points for Oregon State (162, 42), which led by as many as 11 points in the opening half before Stanford closed the gap to 3634.
Trailing 4442 heading into the final quarter, Oregon State took a 4846 lead on Slocum’s stepback jumper before Aleah Goodman’s 3 extended it. Lexie Hull’s layup and Williams’ jumper cut Stanford’s deficit to a point.
After Kat Tudor’s free throw for the Beavers, the Cardinal tied the game 5252 on Ashten Prechtel’s layup with 5:34 left. Williams’ 3pointer gave Stanford the lead but Slocum answered with a 3 for the Beavers.
Lacie Hull’s 3 put Stanford back in front with 3:46 left. Both teams struggled down the stretch, but after Lexie Hull missed a layup, Mikayla Pivec got the rebound, giving the Beavers a chance. Slocum missed a layup with 16 seconds left and Williams made free throws that all but sealed it.
“We had to really battle to win this game,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said. “I’m exceedingly proud of our whole team, but we had some great effort from Kiana: a great floor leader, made big plays over and over, played great defense for us.”
Stanford was coming off an 8755 loss at No. 6 Oregon, which likely means a shakeup when the rankings are released Monday.
“I thought we played really hard today,” Oregon State head coach Scott Rueck said. “The team was ready, clearly, from the beginning, executed well, shot the ball right off very well, defended overall well.”
Oregon State was energized at the start, taking an 132 lead as Stanford struggled, making just one of its first seven shots from the floor. Slocum had 11 points and the Beavers led 2116 lead after the opening quarter.
An 80 run pushed Oregon State’s lead to 2919, but three straight 3pointers trimmed Stanford’s deficit to a point with 3:09 left in the half. Lexie Hull’s jumper gave the Cardinal the lead but Slocum made a 3 that put the Beavers up 3634 at the break.