Santa Clara, USF women out in WCC semis
Jill Townsend led a balanced attack with 14 points and 10 rebounds and No. 18 Gonzaga defeated Santa Clara 72-62 in the semifinals of the West Coast Conference women’s tournament Monday in Las Vegas.
In today’s final, the top-seeded Bulldogs (22-3) will face No. 2 seed BYU, which beat third-seeded USF 85-55 in the other semifinal.
Lindsey VanAllen led fourth-seeded Santa Clara (14-11) with 17 points and Merle Wiehl and Ashlyn Herlihy had 16 apiece. The Broncos lost the two meetings in the regular season by 19 and 17 points and have lost 11 straight in the series.
The Bulldogs had a season-high 21 turnovers but shot 61.5% in the second half and had a 39-23 rebounding advantage.
BYU avenged a 14-point loss at USF in the regular-season finale with its win Monday.
The Cougars (18-4) overcame a seven-point, first-quarter deficit by going on a 29-3 run to take control.
During one stretch, the Dons (15-10) hit just one of 26 shots from the field.
Paisley Harding led BYU with 23 points and seven rebounds.
Ioanna Krimili had 21 points for USF.
STANFORD RISES TO NO. 2 IN POLL >>
Buoyed by an impressive run to the Pac-12 championship, Stanford jumped two spots to No. 2 in The Associated Press women’s poll.
The Cardinal won three games in the conference tournament by an average of 31 points, including a 20-point win over then-No. 9 UCLA on Sunday for the title.
Coach Tara VanDerveer’s team received five of 29 first-place votes from a national media panel. Stanford (252) trails only UConn in the poll. The
Huskies got 22 first-place votes.
No. 3 North Carolina State received the other two first-place votes. Texas A&M and South Carolina rounded out the top five.
NO. 1 UCONN 73, MARQUETTE 39 >> Paige Bueckers scored 23 points to lead the Huskies to victory and the program’s 19th Big East Tournament title.
The standout freshman also had six rebounds and four assists for UConn (24-1), which won its 160th straight conference game.
Camryn Taylor had 11 points and 13 rebounds for Marquette (19-6), which lost in the conference final for the fourth straight season after winning the title in 2017.
Men
CREIGHTON REINSTATES COACH >> Creighton announced it has lifted men’s basketball head coach Greg McDermott’s suspension for making racially insensitive remarks to his players after a game last week.
McDermott created a firestorm for twice using the term “plantation” as part of an analogy urging team unity. The university suspended McDermott indefinitely on Thursday after he had coached in a Wednesday loss at Villanova.
Assistant coach Alan Huss was in charge of the 17th-ranked Bluejays for their 93-73 home win over Butler on Saturday.
Athletic director Bruce Rasmussen said he and university President the Rev. Daniel Hendrickson had discussions with players and their parents, former players and recruits.
Noting McDermott’s public apologies and difficult discussions with his players and others, Rasmussen said the coach has shown a willingness to learn from the mistake.
GONZAGA STILL NO. 1 >> Gonzaga received 61 of 63 first-place votes in the Associated Press Top 25 poll as it attempts to become the first wire-towire No. 1 since Kentucky in 2014-15.
Baylor had two first-place votes and moved back into the No. 2 slot.