Stanford guard Haley Jones reacts after scoring against California during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Stanford, Calif., Friday, Dec. 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
The first full week of league play, which extended over five days and into a new year, brought the first win by an unranked team over one of the Big Five ranked teams while reinforcing Stanford’s position at the top of the heap.
The second-ranked Cardinal pummeled Arizona State 101-69, then took down No. 15 Arizona 73-57 to increase its Pac-12 winning streak to 37 games.
Cameron Brink had a 17-point, 14-rebound double-double against ASU — on her 21st birthday, no less — and followed that up with 12 points against Arizona. Her 48 blocks are the most through 15 games by a Cardinal player since at least 1999, and the 6-foot-4 junior is second nationally in total blocks.
Stanford shook off five early turnovers with a 17-5 first-quarter run against Arizona, which was playing for the third time in five days. The Cardinal led 36-22 at halftime and was not threatened in the second half.
“We looked like we were down 40,” Wildcats coach Adia Barnes said. “Not a lot of fight. I think we were really fatigued. Not ideal. Tough situation.”
Senior Haley Jones had 18 points and a season-high 16 rebounds (her career high is 19) while Cardinal teammate Fran Belibi also had a double-double (14 points, 10 rebounds; both season highs) in only 17 minutes.
Osborne, Leger-Walker absences costly
The upset of the week came Sunday in Corvallis, where Oregon State held off No. 10 UCLA.
The Bruins, playing without senior star Charisma Osborne, rallied from eight down early in the fourth quarter to lead 64-63 with 3:37 left. Oregon State scored the next eight points and iced the 77-72 victory by hitting 12-of-12 free throws over the final 3:15. (Talia von Oelhoffen made eight of them.)
The Beavers were coming off a 69-58 loss to USC on Friday but averted an 0-3 start in league play with the upset.
“We didn’t have many lost possessions,” OSU coach Scott Rueck said (per Oregonlive). “The way we executed, you’re going to get wide-open looks. We’re becoming a much better team, and that’s why we earned a win.”
Osborne had suffered a shoulder injury Friday in UCLA’s 82-74 win at Oregon after colliding with Ducks guard Taya Hanson. She leads the Bruins in scoring and rebounding and is projected as a first-round draft pick in the WNBA, so clearly her absence was significant.
So, too, was that of Charlisse Leger-Walker for Washington State. The Pac-12 scoring leader (21.1 points per game) returned to her native New Zealand to attend to a family matter, and the Cougars lost twice at home, to No. 11 Utah and Colorado.
Washington State came back from a 20-point deficit late in the second quarter to tie Utah in the final minute. But the Utes escaped on free throws and a couple of Cougars 3-point misses.
WSU coach Kami Ethridge was less pleased with the performance against Colorado, which used a late 8-0 run to complete a weekend sweep.
“It felt like from the beginning of the game that we were playing in mud,” Ethridge said. “It was concerning coming back after a hard-fought game against a team like Utah.
“We have a young team. We didn’t have some of our leadership around and didn’t reproduce that energy from the other night. It was a sluggish, undisciplined performance, and we got beat by a more disciplined, physical team.”
Utah cracks AP top 10 for first time
Utah (14-0) moved up three places to No. 8 in the AP rankings — that’s a school record — and remains one of five unbeaten teams in Division I. But neither game on the Washington trip was easy as the Utes averaged 66 points after beginning the weekend with a scoring average of 92.5.
“We didn’t have a great scoring weekend, but we found a way,” coach Lynne Roberts said. “This is going to be a great learning weekend for us. Now we know how teams are going to come after us and the mentality it takes to be successful.”
Both Mountain schools and Stanford went 2-0 on the week, while the Washington schools and ASU (0-3) were winless.
The Sun Devils, like Arizona, wore down in their third game when Cal broke open a close affair with a 12-0, fourth-quarter run to secure a 74-61 victory.
The Arizona schools were the only ones not to play their first rivalry game before Christmas, leading to the arduous stretch.
ASU coach Natasha Adair said the first in-state duel will be played Dec. 17 next season.
“With the schedule pretty much done when I took over here, there was no space,” she said. “Adia and I were on the phone night in and night out trying to figure out how we could do it because neither one of us wanted three games back-to-back-to-back.”
Beers, Marshall: Dueling double-doubles
— Oregon State’s Raegan Beers led the country with three double-doubles in a single week: 27 points and 10 rebounds against North Carolina Central; 19 and 14 against USC; and 22 and 15 against UCLA.
That seemingly would have been enough for her to sweep the Pac-12 Player of the Week and Freshman of the Week awards — something Oregon’s Grace VanSlooten accomplished a week earlier.
Instead, USC’s Rayah Marshall earned Player of the Week honors after producing 33 points and 16 rebounds against Oregon State, followed by her fifth consecutive double-double (14 and 11) against Oregon.
She and Beers lead the Pac-12 with eight double-doubles and are tied for seventh in the nation in that category.
— UCLA is No. 12 (down two places) in the latest AP poll, which came out before Monday’s games. Arizona is up three to No. 15, and Oregon is down one to No. 18.
— This week includes the second rivalry games in the Utah-Colorado, UCLA-USC and Stanford-Cal series, plus Oregon’s showdown at Arizona.
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Originally published at Jeff Metcalfe