Stanford women defeat USC, 89-64

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

USC kept it relatively close in the first half, but second-ranked Stanford came out firing after the break and pulled away for a 89-64 victory in the Pacific 10 Conference women’s basketball tournament championship game at the Galen Center.

Forward Kayla Pederson scored 25 points andhad nine rebounds and Nnemkadi Ogwumike added 14 points and seven rebounds as the Cardinal improved to 29-4 heading into the NCAA tournament.

Stanford center Jayne Appel, the Pac-10’s player of year, wason the bench because of foul trouble for most of the first half and USC trailed only 33-24 at the break. But the 6-foot-4 Appel scored 12 points in the first 10 minutes of the second half and the Cardinal led, 72-38, with 8:44 left.

Stanford guard Jillian Harmon locked down USC point guard Camille LeNoir, who had torched Arizona State and California. LeNoir did not score in the first half and finished with 13 points.

Center Kari LaPlante scored 12 points for USC (17-15).

--Gary Klein