The Associated Press
ARIZONA WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES – Jayne Appel was double-teamed, so Stanford went deep.
That meant the end of the season for the University of Arizona women’s basketball team.
Nnemkadi Ogwumike had 15 points, Lindy La Rocque added a career-high 12 and No. 2 Stanford took advantage of some solid long-range shooting to cruise past Arizona 77-46 in a quarterfinal game of the Pac-10 Tournament on Friday.
Appel, Stanford’s leading scorer with 15.4 points, was limited to four points on 2-of-7 shooting. With their post player receiving pressure, the Cardinal were able to hit open 3-pointers to beat Arizona for the third time this season. Stanford made 10 treys.
“We came in expecting that they would double,” Appel said. “We were looking to pass out right away. That was part of our game plan, to be prepared for that double team.”
La Rocque sure was. The freshman, who matched a career high with four 3-pointers for the Cardinal (27-4), had nine points in the first half during a decisive 18-3 run that put Stanford ahead for good.
Stanford, the top seed in the tourney, will face UCLA in a semifinal Saturday.
Baskets were tough to come by for the Wildcats (12-19), who couldn’t overcome a 21-point halftime deficit. Stanford led by as many as 33 in the second when Ogwumike hit a layup with 2:23 left.
Courtney Clements had 14 points to lead Arizona, which was eliminated from the conference tournament before a semifinal for the fourth consecutive year.
“Whenever a team shoots that well, it’s hard,” Clements said. “We’ve been in games like this before where people have done stuff like that to us, but we’ve come back. I think, really, we beat ourselves.”