Stanford women roll, Cal ousted at Pac-12 tournament
Stanford advances to Pac-12 semis, while Cal gets eliminated
Kiana Williams scored 18 points, and Alanna Smith scored 14 as No. 16 Stanford never trailed in a 69-59 win over USC in a quarterfinal game of Pac-12 women’s basketball tournament on Friday night in Seattle.
The Cardinal (21-9) entered the tournament as the No. 2 seed, and USC (20-11) was seeded seventh. Stanford will play tonight (8:30) against Arizona State, a 57-51 winner over Oregon State.
DiJonai Carrington scored 13 points, Marta Sniezek added 10, and Kaylee Johnson grabbed 10 rebounds for Stanford.
Stanford led 21-9 at the end of the first quarter and was never in jeopardy. USC’s Sadie Edwards hit a jumper with 1:20 before intermission to make it 32-24 before Williams made two foul shots before the half.
The Trojans managed to draw within six points 57-51 and 59-53 in the fourth quarter but never got closer.
Aliyah Mazyck led USC with 22 points, and Minyon Moore added 12.
NO. 9 UCLA 77, CAL 74 >> The Bears were held scoreless for more than two minutes down the stretch as the Bruins advanced to face Oregon in the Pac-12 semifinals. Mikayla Cowling’s pull-up jumper put Cal (21-10) up 69-68 with 2:40 remaining, but the Bruins (24-6) responded with six consecutive points, going up 74-69 with 38 seconds left. Kianna Smith hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer for Cal.
Cowling had 16 points, and Asha Thomas and Kristine Anigwe added 15 apiece for Cal.
Jordin Canada scored 27 points, and Kelli Hayes and Monique Billings each added 18 points for UCLA.
Cal also had 14 turnovers, which UCLA converted into 21 points. NO. 6 OREGON 84, COLORADO 47 >> Oregon freshman Satou Sabally adjusted quickly to conference tournament play. The 6-foot-4 forward scored 21 points, and Lexi Bando added 19 to help the Ducks beat the Buffaloes in the Pac-12 quarterfinals. The Ducks, the regular-season conference champions, will face UCLA in today’s semifinals (6 p.m.).
Oregon (28-4) led 45-18 at the halftime and used a 22-0 thirdquarter run for a 77-37 lead entering the final period.
Freshman forward Mya Hollingshed had 20 points, and Kennedy Leonard added 13 for ninth-seeded Colorado (15-16), which upended Utah 66-56 in the opening round.
Conference player of the year Sabrina Ionescu had 10 points, eight rebounds and tied a tournament record with 13 assists for the Ducks.
WCC tournament
PACIFIC 77, SAINT MARY’S 73 >> GeAnna Luaulu Summers took over in the fourth quarter, carrying the Tigers (15-16) on a 13-1 run that would prove to be the difference in the game, as seventh-seeded Pacific eliminated the second-seeded Gaels in Las Vegas. Saint Mary’s (2010) turned the ball over a season-high 29 times, leading to 30 Pacific points. Sydney Raggio matched career highs in both points (26) and rebounds (15) for the Gaels. GONZAGA 81, PEPPERDINE 70 >> The top-seeded Bulldogs (254) built a big first-half lead and defeated the Waves to advance to Monday’s semifinals in Las Vegas. Jill Barta led Gonzaga with 24 points, and Jessie Loera added 13, two short of her career high. Gonzaga will face fifthseeded USF. The Dons topped LMU 89-76 late Thursday.
Mountain West
AIR FORCE 66, SAN JOSE STATE 60 >> Senior Myzhanique Ladd finished with a team-high eight rebounds and scored 13 points in her final game for the host Spartans. San Jose State (7-22, 4-14 MW) made just 3 of 10 from 3-point range, equaling a season low for threes. Air Force (5-24, 5-13 MW) was led by 21 points from Kaelin Immel and 13 from Emily Conroe. With the loss the Spartans are the 11th seed heading into next week’s Mountain West tournament in Las Vegas. The Spartans will play New Mexico, the sixth seed, on Monday (7 p.m.).
Men WCC tournament
PEPPERDINE 85, SANTA CLARA 69>> Matt Hauser had 15 points, and KJ Feagin scored 14 for the seventh-seeded Broncos, but the 10th-seeded Waves shot 70.8 percent from the field to advance at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. Kameron Edwards scored 25 on 11-of-15 shooting as Pepperdine (6-25) made 34 of 48 shots to advance to face No. 22 and second-seeded Saint Mary’s in the quarterfinals on Saturday (9 p.m.). It was the Waves’ thirdbest shooting performance in program history.
Santa Clara (11-20) briefly threatened in the second half, going on a 10-0 run to close the gap to 51-44. But Pepperdine quickly turned it around with a 9-0 run and led by double digits the rest of the way.
LOYOLA MARYMOUNT 78, PORTLAND 72 >> James Batemon scored 29 points and made 11 of 12 free throws, and the eighth-seeded Lions rallied from 15 points down in the first half to beat the ninth-seeded Pilots in the opening round of the tournament in Las Vegas. LMU (11-19) faces top-seeded Gonzaga in today’s quarterfinals.