No. 4 Stanford closes out regular season with 72-33 Senior Day win over Cal
Stanford heads into the Pac-12 Tournament as the No. 1 seed.
Nothing but smiles…. With maybe a few tears ?#GoStanford pic.twitter.com/cMmEkWorlk
— Stanford Women’s Basketball (@StanfordWBB) March 1, 2021
No. 4 Stanford (22-2, 19-2) ended the regular season on an 11-0 win streak with a 72-33 victory over California (1-15, 1-12) Sunday afternoon at Maples Pavilion. It was the sixth straight triumph over the Golden Bears and solidified the Cardinal’s place as the top team in the Pac-12 heading into this week’s conference tournament.
While the home team led wire-to-wire, starting on a 9-0 run and leading by as much as 16 in the second quarter, the Bears finished the second period on a 13-3 run to get within 6.
The teams went into the break, with Stanford leading 31-25.
“We started out okay,” Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. “Our second quarter was not very inspired.”
The Cardinal recovered from its offensive lapse in the third quarter and ramped up its defense, scoring 27 points and holding the Bears to 2 points.
“We wanted to have a good day for our seniors,” VanDerveer said. “I think we’re able to do that, especially in the second half.”
Stanford continued to dominate in the fourth quarter as they outscored Cal 14-6.
Eleven players put up points for the Cardinal. Sophomore guard Hannah Jump led with 14 points plus 6 rebounds. Senior guard Kiana Williams added 12 points. Sophomore guard Haley Jones was also in double figures with 10 points. During the game, Williams moved into tenth place on Stanford’s all-time scoring list with 1,709 points.
Freshman guard/forward Dalayah Daniels paced Cal with 11 points and 7 rebounds.
“We had a great first half,” Cal head coach Charmin Smith said. “We were able to execute a pick and roll action with Leilani [McIntosh] and Michelle [Onyiah] and did a solid job defensively containing some of their actions…We’ve got a lot of growth on this team, and we’re going to keep fighting.”
As the No. 1 seed heading into the Pac-12 tournament, which begins Wed, March 3, Stanford has a first-round bye. On Thursday, the Cardinal is set to face the winner of the Arizona State-USC first-round game.
Cal begins the tourney on Mar. 3 in a game against Oregon State.
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