Bruins, Trojans Close With Victories

Kristee Porter scored 22 points and led a second-half comeback as UCLA defeated No. 22 Washington, 81-56, Saturday night at Pauley Pavilion.

The loss dropped Washington into a three-way tie for the Pacific 10 Conference championship, sharing the title with Stanford and Arizona State. But Stanford gets the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament because it has the best record against fourth-place Oregon, which the conference uses as the tiebreaker.

UCLA (6-23 overall, 5-13 in the Pac-10), which made 20 of 26 shots from the line in the second half, outscored Washington, 53-22, after halftime.

Washington (19-9, 12-6) led, 34-28, at the half, but UCLA scored 10 of the first 14 points in the second half and took a 40-38 lead on a basket by Whitney Jones.

Jones, Michelle Greco and Porter each scored 14 points in the second half. Jones finished with a career-high 21 points.

USC also closed with a victory, defeating Washington State, 84-51, in front of 1,350 at the Sports Arena.

The Trojans (13-5, 8-10) were led by Tashara Carter, who finished with 14 points. Carter became the 16th player in USC history to score 1,000 points.

The Trojans raced to a 44-24 lead at halftime, earning 22 points off Cougar turnovers.

Washington State (11-16, 6-12) was led by Brittany Hawks, who had 14 points.

At Tempe, Ariz., Nicole Powell had 15 points and 12 rebounds as Stanford defeated Arizona State, 51-49.

Powell made a free throw with seven seconds left, then forced Arizona State’s Amanda Levens to miss a jump shot at the buzzer.

Bethany Donaphin added 10 points for the Cardinal (18-10, 12-6).

Melody Johnson paced the Sun Devils (20-10, 12-6) with 15 points and Natalie Tucker added 10.

Arizona State went on a 7-2 run to open the second half to take a 31-25 lead with 16:44 left before Stanford responded with an 11-3 run to go ahead, 36-34, with 12:01 to play.

The Cardinal led, 48-43, with 3:21 left after Powell’s three-point basket but the Sun Devils got a three-point basket from Levens and then Tucker’s three-pointer with 58 seconds remaining to close to 50-49.

TOURNAMENTS

Big 12--Megan Taylor scored 28 points and made a key play on defense in No. 13 Iowa State’s 68-65 victory against No. 7 Oklahoma at Kansas City, Mo. Taylor deflected an inbounds pass off Stacey Dales’ leg and out of bounds with less than seven seconds left to turn back a rally by the Sooners (25-5). It was the second conference title in a row for the Cyclones (25-5).

Missouri Valley--Jackie Stiles scored 21 of her 47 points consecutively, leading No. 16 Southwest Missouri State to an 84-69 victory over Drake (23-6) in the championship game at Springfield, Mo. The win gives the Bears (25-5) an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Big Sky--Mandi Carver scored 16 points as Idaho State defeated Montana, 68-59, at Pocatello, Ida. The victory clinched an NCAA bid for the Bengals (25-4), who have won 21 games in a row, tying Penn for the longest active streak in nation. Lauren Cooper led Montana (21-9) with 18 points.

NCAA Division II--Burgundie Porter’s basket with one second left lifted Cal Poly Pomona to a 63-62 victory over Seattle Pacific, 63-62, at Pomona. The Broncos (24-3) earned a trip to the Elite Eight tournament in Rochester, Minn., where they will play either Bentley College or Pace University.