Bruins go cold as Ducks rally to win
— Oregon’s comeback recipe for its first berth in the Pac-12 title game was simple: Hold the No. 9 team in the country scoreless for the final 51⁄2 minutes. Mission accomplished. Sabrina Ionescu had 17 points and No. 6 Oregon scored the final 10 points to rally for a 65-62 victory over UCLA on Saturday night in the Pac-12 semifinals.
“I thought down the stretch, especially in the last half of that fourth quarter, I just thought we were tremendous defensively,” said Oregon coach Kelly Graves. “They got some second shots here and there late, we made the stops when we needed.”
UCLA opened a 62-55 lead on Kennedy Burke’s jumper with 5:28 remaining, but the Bruins failed to score again.
Lexi Bando made a three-pointer from the right corner to pull Oregon to 62SEATTLE 61 with 3:05 left. The Ducks turned it over on their next two possessions before Maite Cazorla scored on a drive to put Oregon up 63-62 with a minute to go.
After a UCLA turnover, Ionescu found Oti Gildon wide open under the basket for an easy layup and a 65-62 lead with 31 seconds left.
Jordin Canada missed on UCLA’s next possession, but the Bruins grabbed the offensive rebound. Canada was hounded on the final possession, with Japreece Dean finally missing a long three-pointer from the left side with one second left.
Oregon (29-4) advanced the title game against No. 16 Stanford.
Canada had 19 points, and Monique Billings 18 for the Bruins (24-7).
at No. 16 Stanford 58,
Arizona State 46: Kiana Williams scored 24 points to lead the Cardinal (22-9, 14-3) past the Sun Devils (21-12, 10-8) and into Sunday’s championship game.