No. 2 Stanford rallies past No. 13 Oregon State 66-57 to reach Pac-12 title game

By W.G. RAMIREZ
Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Hannah Jump scored 20 points and No. 2 Stanford rallied from a 16-point first-half deficit to beat No. 13 Oregon State 66-57 in the Pac-12 Tournament semifinals Friday.

The Cardinal outscored Oregon State 23-8 in the third quarter and held off a late surge by the Beavers.

Stanford (27-4) will play for its 16th Pac-12 championship on Sunday against No. 5 Southern California, an 80-70 winner over No. 7 UCLA in double overtime in the second semifinal.

Cameron Brink had 16 points and 12 rebounds for her second straight double-double in the tournament. Kiki Iriafen added 14 points for Stanford and Brooke Demetre chipped in 10.

“Everyone contributed,” Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. “We didn’t have anyone not do something that helped us win the game. And I’m really proud of our team.”

Raegan Beers led the Beavers (24-7) with 17 points. Timea Gardiner and Talla Von Oelhoffen each scored 11 and Dominika Paurova added 10 for Oregon State.

The Cardinal trailed by eight at halftime before their decisive run, which included eight points from Demetre. Stanford shot 9 of 17 in the third quarter, including 5 of 7 from 3-point range, and led 50-43 going into the fourth.

“My thing is just always being ready and getting my shot within the offense,” Demetre said. “And we needed shots at that point. And definitely, after I shot them, I felt a momentum shift. Everybody on the team was super happy for me. It was, like, all right, let’s go, we’re in this thing.”

Oregon State opened the game by fearlessly pushing the ball into the paint, using a drive-and-kick attack and setting up Beers continuously under the basket.

After briefly falling behind 8-4 early in the first, the Beavers went on a 14-2 run including seven points from Gardiner. The Beavers led 24-12 by the end of the first quarter.

After building their lead to 16 points midway through the second quarter, however, the Beavers missed 10 straight shots and hit just 2 of 16 over a longer stretch.

Stanford wasn’t much better, despite closing the half on an 8-0 run, as it shot 36.4% from the floor over the first two quarters.

Oregon State shot 21.1% (4 of 19) in the second quarter and 40.5% (15 of 37) in the first half to take a 35-27 lead into the locker room.

“When we were kicking it out, we just weren’t hitting shots like we normally would,” Beers said. “We kept attacking. We were never scared. … Obviously, we didn’t shoot as good as we wanted to tonight, but these most recent games we’ve been shooting well and we’ve been attacking the rim and hitting tough shots.”

BIG PICTURE

Oregon State: After taking their 16-point lead early in the second quarter, the Beavers missed 28 of their next 33 shot attempts.

Stanford: Improved to 7-0 against Oregon State in the Pac-12 Tournament to avoid missing the championship game for a second straight season, something it’s never done. The Cardinal lost in the semifinals last year.

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AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball