Williams, Hull combine for 50 in surge to crown
Stanford will take a 14game winning streak into the NCAA Tournament. The Cardinal completed a dominant run through the Pac12 tournament with a 7555 romp over UCLA in Las Vegas on Sunday night.
Guards Kiana Williams and Lexie Hull combined for 50 points, with Williams scoring 26. Williams went 6for7 from beyond the arc.
Named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, Williams scored 20 points in a 7945 rout of Oregon State in a semifinal Friday night when she connected on 5 of 7 from 3point range.
“My teammates have confidence in me, my coaches have confidence in me, so I have to have confidence in myself,” Williams said in a Zoom news conference.
She was wearing the spoils of winning a conference tournament: a championship Tshirt and one of the nets she and her teammates had cut from the court’s baskets.
The senior has 294 career 3pointers, one shy of Candice Wiggins’ school record.
“Kiana does what our team needs her to do,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said, “and we needed her to step up like this today and she did. I think the bigger the game, the better Kiana plays.”
Haley Jones put together a doubledouble with 10 points and a gamehigh 13 rebounds.
Michaela Onyenwere poured in a gamehigh 30 points for the Bruins (165).
UCLA is the last team to beat Stanford. The Bruins knocked off the Cardinal 7066 in Santa Cruz on Jan. 22. In that game, the Bruins grabbed 21 offensive rebounds en route to a 4431 edge on the glass.
VanDerveer took particular satisfaction in Stanford outrebounding UCLA 3827 on Sunday, limiting the Bruins to seven offensive boards.
“I think we have showed toughness, but we can show more — and this game demanded it,” VanDerveer said. “It demanded that we rebound. It demanded that we play defense. Our team stepped up.”
Stanford held UCLA to a 19for57 (33.3%) night from the floor, including 5for19 (26.3%) from beyond the arc.
Stanford, the regularseason Pac12 champion, outscored its three conferencetournament opponents by a combined 93 points.
And in the previous Sunday’s game against Cal at Maples Pavilion, Stanford outscored the Bears 418 in the second half of a 7233 romp.
So, in the past 31⁄2 games, Stanford (252) has outscored its opponents by a combined 126 points. That would lead you to believe the Cardinal will be a rather formidable force when the NCAA Tournament starts in two weeks in the San Antonio area.
“We have things that we can do better, but sometimes whether you’re a coach or a player, you kind of have to enjoy the moment,” VanDerveer said. “Our team is very excited. I’m going to look at the good things. We’re going to talk about the goals that we accomplished.”
Williams thinks the Cardinal’s depth will prove invaluable.
“We don’t have one person that you can really key on,” she said. “We have that Warriors’ ‘Strength in Numbers’ mentality.”
The Cardinal did not trail Sunday. Stanford jumped to a 124 lead, with all of its points coming from beyond the arc, including two 3’s by Williams.
UCLA trailed 1811 late in the first quarter. Stanford proceeded to go on a 150 run to enjoy a 22point advantage midway through the second quarter.
Williams had seven points in that 150 burst, and she capped it with a steal and dish to Cameron Brink for a layup.
The Cardinal scored the final eight points of the half to take a 4320 edge to the locker room.
Williams opened the third quarter with a trey to put Stanford up 4620. UCLA trimmed its deficit to 5240 on a Charisma Osborne 3pointer with just more than a minute left in the period, which ended with the Cardinal in front 5440.
UCLA cut the margin to 10 early in the fourth quarter, but the Bruins got no closer the rest of the way.
“We have business to take care of in San Antonio, my hometown,” Williams said. “We’re going to enjoy this, but we’re getting ready for San Antonio. We want to be the last team standing.”
Briefly: Stanford has appeared in the conferencetitle game 18 times in its 20season existence. The Cardinal improved to 144. … The Bruins won their lone Pac12 tournament title in 2006, beating the Cardinal 8576 in overtime in the championship game. … In the NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool) rankings Sunday morning, Stanford was No. 1 and UCLA No. 7.