Stanford men eliminated from Pac-12 tournament
Stanford’s faint hopes of an NCAA Tournament atlarge bid were going to require a long run in the Pac12 tournament.
UCLA made sure that didn’t happen.
The Cardinal, coming off a rout of Cal in the firstround, overcame a slow start to briefly catch the Bruins, but UCLA pulled away in the second half to hand the Cardinal a 88-77 loss in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
Stanford ( 18-15) won four of its final five regular season games heading into the conference tournament and probably isn’t done. An invitation to a smaller postseason tournament seems almost certain.
“I can’t tell you how proud I am for us coming together,” Stanford’s Reid Travis said. “We’ve had a lot of ups and downs this year and I’m proud of the way this team fought.”
KZ Okpala led the Cardinal with 23 points, and Travis finished with 17 points and 14 rebounds.
Stanford made a late first-half run to trail by four at halftime. But the Cardinal never had an answer for Aaron Holiday, who matched a career high with 34 points, dished out eight assists and grabbed seven rebounds.
“They’re an elite- level shooting team with arguably the best point guard in the country. And he played like that today,” Stanford coach Jerod Haase said.
UCLA (21-10) moved into today’s semifinals against No. 15 Arizona.
UCLA entered the Pac-12 tournament firmly on the NCAA Tournament bubble. A regular season- ending win over rival and fellow bubble team USC gave the Bruins some breathing room, but a loss to Stanford could havemade them sweat a little on Selection Sunday.
The Bruins got off to a fast start in the Pac-12 quarterfinals, hitting 7 of their first 11 shots to build a 30-17 lead. The Cardinal stormed back behind Daejon Davis, going on a 15-2 run to tie the game at 32-all.
UCLA led 44- 40 at halftime, and Holiday and Thomas Welsh carried UCLA in the second half, helping them stretch the lead to 71- 63 with seven minutes left. Davis went to the bench with his fourth foul 66 seconds into the second half, preventing the Cardinal from making much of a run. NO. 15 ARIZONA 83, COLORADO 67 » Allonzo Trier scored 22 points, Dusan Ristic had 15 points and 11 rebounds as the Wildcats advanced to the semifinals.
Arizona (25-7) wasn’t exactly crisp on offense and Pac-12 player of the year Deandre Ayton had a rare quiet day. The Wildcats made up for it with scrappiness, earning a spot in the semifinals against UCLA.
Colorado (17-15) managed to hang with the Wildcats well into the second half despite play a tough opening-round game the day before. The Buffaloes suffered a huge blow with about 13 minutes left, when point guard McKinley Wright IV went down with a right ankle injury. Arizona reeled off 14 straight points and the Buffaloes never recovered. USC 61, OREGON STATE 48 » Chimezie Metu had 22 points and 11 rebounds, and the second- seeded Trojans (22-10) moved on to face Oregon in Friday’s semifinals.
The Beavers shot 5 of 20 from the 3-point arc. OREGON 68, UTAH 66 » Elijah Brown made seven three-pointers and scored 21 points the No. 6 seeded Ducks advanced to face USC in the semifinals.
For the second straight night, the Ducks’ victory was sealed by a block from Kenny Wooten, who swatted away a shot by Sedrick Barefield on the final play.
Mountain West
UTAH STATE78, BOISE STATE 75 » Sam Merrill scored 28 points, shooting 7 of 10 from3-point range, and the seventh-seeded Aggies (1716) rallied from 16 down to beat the No. 2 seed Broncos to advance to today’s semifinal game against New Mexico.
Koby McEwen tied it at 73 with 1:41 left and Dwayne Brown Jr.’s free throw almost a minute later gave Utah State the lead for good. Chandler Hutchison missed a 3-point attempt at the buzzer for Boise State (23-8). NEW MEXICO 85, WYOMING 75 » Joe Furstinger scored 23 points and grabbed nine rebounds as the No. 3 seeded Lobos advanced to the semifinals against Utah State. NO. 22 NEVADA 79, UNLV 74 » Jordan Caroline had 21 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Wolf Pack in a quarterfinal matchup between in-state rivals.
Top-seeded Nevada (276) used a 22- 6 run early in the second half to erase a 12-point deficit and seize momentum after hitting just 11 of 38 from the floor in the first half. SAN DIEGO STATE 64, FRESNO STATE 52 » Trey Kell scored 16 points and the fifth-seeded Aztecs (2010) avenged a pair of regular- season losses to No. 4 seed Fresno State (21-11), and will play top- seeded Nevada in the semfinals.
Bryson Williams had 23 points and nine rebounds, and Deshon Taylor chipped in 12 points for Fresno State (21-11), which lost three of its last four games.
Women
MCPHEE HONORED » Stanford senior guard Brittany McPhee was named to the USA TODAY All-America third team. McPhee, the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year and an All-Pac-12 selection, is averaging career highs in points (17.0), rebounds (5.0), assists (2.4) and steals (1.2) this season. CAL VIEWING PARTY » Cal will hold a selection show watch party on Monday at Cornerstone in Berkeley (2367 Shattuck Ave) as the Bear’s await their NCAA Tournament fate. The event is open to the public and will begin at 3:30 p.m., with the selection show starting at 4 p.m.