No. 2 Stanford cruises past Colorado to reach Pac 12 final

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Haley Jones scored 17 points and No. 2 Stanford beat Colorado 71-45 in a Pac 12 semifinal Friday night.

The win marked Stanford’s 33rd consecutive victory over a Pac 12 opponent. The Cardinal’s last loss to a conference foe was on Jan. 22, 2021. Stanford, the defending champion, will be playing for its 15th title Sunday.

Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer, who improved to 52-6 all-time in the event, earned her 1,000th victory since taking over Stanford in 1996. She is the winningest all-time coach in women’s basketball history with 1,152 wins. The Hall of Famer is now 1,000-207 at Stanford.

Cameron Brink scored 14 points while Anna Wilson had 12 for the Cardinal (27-3).

Colorado (22-8) was led by Kindyll Wetta with 12 points, while Jaylyn Sherrod chipped in with 10 points. Mya Hollingshed had seven points and 10 rebounds for the Buffaloes.

After a tight first quarter that saw the Cardinal hold a one-point lead, Stanford outscored the Buffaloes 60-35 the rest of the way.

Stanford’s defense forced 23 turnovers and held the edge in points off turnovers, 27-8.

Colorado managed to shoot just 30.6% (15 of 49) from the floor. The Buffaloes were just 4 of 21 (19.0%) from 3-point range.

Stanford finished 27 of 56 (48.2%) from the field, including 7 of 13 (53.8%) from beyond the arc.

The Buffaloes showed plenty of mettle early on and actually held a lead through the 3:41 mark of the first quarter. Using an aggressive attack on the offensive glass, and shutting down passing lanes while leaving little to no space for the Cardinal to operate, Colorado controlled the flow before Stanford took an 11-10 lead into the second quarter.

After an early 3-pointer by Wilson, tempers flared when Brink grabbed a rebound and threw an elbow with what appeared to be no ill-intent. Hollingshead took exception and responded by palming Brink’s face and shoving her, twice. Brink then threw the ball in Hollingshead’s face, resulting in a double technical.

The brief skirmish seemingly sparked the Cardinal, which went on a 12-5 run to open a 26-15 run, with Brink scoring eight of Stanford’s points. Stanford went into the locker room at halftime with a 33-18 lead.

BIG PICTURE

Colorado: The Buffaloes shot 41.5% from the floor during the regular season, but in their two tournament games could only muster a 31.5% (30 of 95) shooting clip. Prior to Friday’s dismal shooting display, Colorado hit just 32.6% (15 of 46) against Arizona in Thursday’s quarterfinal.

Stanford: After scoring just three points in the first half, Wilson erupted to score Stanford’s final nine points of the third quarter, including a long 3-pointer at the buzzer after dribbling out the final 16 seconds, capping an 11-5 run for the Cardinal.

UP NEXT

Colorado: Sitting 28th in the current NET rankings, the Buffaloes should expect an invite to the NCAA Tournament.

Stanford: Will face the winner from the second semifinal between Oregon and Utah.

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More AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25