Cardinal will open tourney vs. Oregon
LAS VEGAS — The Stanford women know their first opponent in the Pac-12 tournament.
The Cardinal will play at 2:30 p.m. Thursday against Oregon, the team to which it lost in the 2020 conference championship game — the last game of that season as the pandemic shutdown began days later.
The No. 9-seed Ducks (17-13) advanced with a 5250 victory over eighthseeded Washington on Wednesday. Oregon, led by Endyia Rogers’ 28 points and 11 rebounds, made six of its last eight shots and stopped Washington’s last-second attempt to force overtime. Rogers scored 10 points in the final 4:46.
Stanford (27-4), which is the tourney’s top seed and had an opening-round bye, beat Oregon 62-54 on Jan. 29 at Maples Pavilion, the only meeting of the regular season between the teams. On that day, Cameron Brink set the Cardinal record for blocks in a game with 10 en route to her first career triple-double.
Oregon’s win against the Huskies was its third straight after a seven-game losing streak that began with the game against Stanford.
In the meeting with the Cardinal, Rogers was held to six points, the second
fewest she has scored this season and the last time she didn’t reach double figures.
The Ducks’ win Wednesday keeps Stanford from facing Washington, which beat the Cardinal 72-67 in Seattle on Feb. 5 — one of only three conference losses for coach Tara VanDerveer’s team this season.
Oregon’s offense was tied for fourth in the conference (74.9 points per game), and its defense ranked seventh (64.03). The Cardinal are second in both — 76.84 and 58.06, respectively.
“I think anytime you play Stanford, it starts with their height,” Oregon coach Kelly Graves said
Wednesday. “We’ve just got to somehow negate that height with our smaller team and keep ’em off the boards the best we can. They’re a team that if you don’t play to your scout, you’re going to be in trouble. They will make you look bad.”
The Ducks are the only team against which Stanford doesn’t have a winning record in Pac-12 tournament history (2-2). This year’s seeding is the Ducks’ second worst in the Graves era.
In that 2020 meeting, Ruthy Hebard (24 points), Minyon Moore (21) and Miramonte-Orinda alum Sabrina Ionescu (20) led the way in the Ducks’ 8956 thrashing of the Cardinal. Since then, much has changed. Oregon is 52-34 in the past three seasons; Stanford is 90-10, won the national title two years ago and made the Final Four last season.
“That’s the thing about Stanford, it’s not just one or two things you have to do well,” Graves said. “You have to do well in about five or six. Because they are so talented, so confident in this tournament. And they’re coming off a tough road trip. So I’ve got a feeling they’re going to be very, very prepared.”