Cardinal’s Hull gets 24 in running Utes ragged
If you play for Stanford, you get out and run or you sit down.
“We have a lot of good people who want to play. We’re going to run, and if you don’t want to go all out, you can rest on the bench,” Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said.
The Cardinal ignored the altitude and ran right past Utah on Friday night.
Lexie Hull scored 24 points and Kiana Williams added 19 to lift No. 8 Stanford to a 9764 win over the Utes in Salt Lake City.
“We played with a lot of energy and pace. Lexie and Kiana led the way with their scoring, but we had a lot of help from other players and we’ll need that going forward,” VanDerveer said.
Fighting to keep pace with UCLA and Oregon — who played later Friday — at the top of the Pac12 standings, the Cardinal (223, 112) pushed the pace and enjoyed a 252 advantage on fastbreak points.
“Our offensive strategy is built on playing with tempo.” Williams said. “When you get out in transition, you don’t need to run too many offensive sets. You just get layups and open 3s.”
Stanford scored the most points in a conference game since 2011 and tied its season high that came in a 9771 win over USF in November.
Ashten Prechtel scored 16 points on a variety of post moves as the Cardinal outscored Utah in the paint, 4016.
Kemery Martin matched her career high with 15 points, Lola Pendande had 12, and Daneesha Provo tallied 11 for the Utes (1212, 58).
“Stanford played exceptionally well tonight. It is hard to get anything going on our end when they shoot the ball like they did tonight,” Utah coach Lynne Roberts said.
The Cardinal used a late secondquarter burst to set their seasonbest for points in a quarter (32) and match their mark for a half at 55. In the final six minutes of the half, Stanford scored 28 points. Colorado 64, Cal 57: The Bears’ Jaelyn Brown scored a game-high 13 points, but the host Buffaloes (15-9, 4-9 Pac-12) held on after taking a 14-6 lead in the first quarter. CJ West had 11 points for Cal (9-15, 1-12). USC 72, #11 Oregon State 66: Alissa Pili scored 26 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for her ninth double-double of the season, and the host Trojans (13-11, 5-8 Pac-12), beat the Beavers (19-6, 7-6). #12 Arizona 64, Washington 53: Aari McDonald scored nine of her 19 points in the third quarter when the host Wildcats pulled away from Huskies. Helena Pueyo had four 3-pointers and 14 points for Arizona (20-4, 9-4 Pac-12). Amber Melgoza scored 22 points for Washington (11-13, 3-10). #22 Arizona State, Washington State 59: Reili Richardson scored 13 of her 22 points in the final five minutes to help the host Sun Devils (17-8, 7-6 Pac-12) take the lead and hold off the Cougars (11-14, 4-9).