Williams lifts Stanford women with buzzer-beater
Even 40-foot desperation shots take practice.
“We practice that play a million times in practice but I would say there was a little pressure,” junior Kiana Williams said after her amazing buzzer-beater allowed the No. 8 Stanford women to slip past host Colorado 69-66 Sunday.
Williams hit a game-tying 3-pointer with 12 seconds left, then stole the ball from Mya Hollingshed and sank a 40-footer at the buzzer.
“Just another shot for me, but thank God it went in,” Williams said. “Thank God both those shots went in.”
Williams, whose 29 points and seven 3-pointers were both career highs, looked as stunned as the Buffaloes and their fans as her teammates swarmed her and celebrated in a pile in front of their bench while the officials went to the monitors to confirm the basket was good.
“It wasn’t our lucky day,” Colorado senior Quinessa Caylao-do said.
The Buffaloes (15-10, 4-10 Pac-12) were on the verge of their first win over a Top 25 team since 2016, but they were held without a basket over the final 3:06 after taking a 64-59 lead and they missed four of six free throws in the final 26 seconds with a chance to ice it.
The Cardinal (23-3, 122) won their fifth straight game, and just like the 7668 overtime win against Colorado three weeks ago, last-second heroics were necessary to escape the Buffaloes’ upset bid.
The Buffs trailed by 12 early and eight at the half, but surged ahead 62-59 on Peanut Tuitele’s 3-pointer with 4½ minutes remaining.
They didn’t trail again until Williams hit her desperate shot as the horn sounded.
With the Buffaloes ahead 64-63, Colorado’s Aubrey Knight stole the ball from Lexie Hull with 29.7 seconds remaining, and Hollingshed was fouled. She sank her first free throw and missed her second, but Caylao-do swooped in for the rebound and she was fouled with 24.2 seconds left.
Caylou-do also made one of two foul shots, putting Colorado ahead 66-63. Stanford freshman Ashten Prechtel, the star of the first meeting between the schools when her buzzerbeater sent the game into overtime, had an open 3-pointer for the tie but the shot hit the front of the iron and Colorado’s Emma Clarke corralled the rebound and drew the foul.
She missed both free throws with 18.7 seconds remaining. After a timeout,
Williams worked her way free for the game-tying 3 with 12.9 seconds left.
Colorado got the ball past halfcourt but Hollingshead was trapped and when she tried to get the ball to Caylao-do, Williams swiped it, dribbled once past halfcourt then launched the game-winner.
CAL 88, UTAH 74 » Freshman Cailyn Crocker scored 26 points in her first Cal start and the Bears had four double-figure scorers to pick up their second Pac-12 road win of the season.
Crocker scored 20 of her points in the second half as Cal (10-15, 2-12) regrouped down the stretch after allowing a 16-point lead to evaporate.
Alaysia Styles added a career-high 19 points for the Bears while Jazlen Green had 17 points and Jaelyn Brown 10.
NO. 3 OREGON 93, USC 67 » Erin Boley scored 25 points, Ruthy Hebard added 22 and Satou Sabally had 18 to lead the Ducks (24-2, 131) to the road rout.
Men
ARIZONA STATE 80, CAL 75 » Remy Martin scored 15 of his 22 points over the final 11 minutes, and the visiting Sun Devils pulled away late for their fifth straight win. Alonzo Verge Jr. also scored 22 points, including seven free throws in the final 54 seconds, for Arizona State (17-8, 8-4 Pac-12).
Matt Bradley scored 22 points for Cal before fouling out. Grant Anticevich added 18 points, and Paris Austin had 17 points, five assists and five rebounds for the Golden Bears (10-15, 4-8).
Martin, the Pac-12’s leading scorer, was mostly quiet through much of the game due to foul trouble then took over midway through the second half. He scored 12 of Arizona State’s 16 points during one stretch, then made a 3 to put the Sun Devils ahead 7163 with two minutes to go.
Cal got within 78-75 following Kareem South’s three-point play with 14 seconds left before Verge made two free throws to seal it. NO. 4 SAN DIEGO STATE 72, BOISE STATE 55 » Malachi Flynn scored 22 points, Yanni Wetzell added 14 and the Aztecs remained undefeated. San Diego State (260, 15-0 Mountain West) won in Boise for the first time since Jan. 16, 2016.
NO. 17 OREGON 80, UTAH 62 » Payton Pritchard scored 25 points and led an early 3-point shooting spree as Oregon rolled to a victory over Utah in Eugene, Ore. Will Richardson added 18 points, six assists and six rebounds to help the Ducks (20-6) regain a share of first place in the Pac-12 with Colorado at 9-4.