Plenty of Powell in Stanford’s Rout

Stanford has been hard to beat under any circumstances this season. The job becomes even more difficult when its best player has her best day.

Sophomore Nicole Powell, the consensus Pacific 10 player of the year, poured in a career-high 37 points and had 14 rebounds to lead the Cardinal past Oregon State, 71-55, before 5,585 in a conference tournament semifinal at McArthur Court.

Stanford (30-1), ranked second nationally and seeded No. 1 in the tournament, plays Arizona State in the championship game tonight. The winner gets the Pac-10’s automatic NCAA tournament bid, but both teams are expected to be in the field of 64.

In a reflection of her season, Powell has seemingly done whatever she has wanted to do in the Pac-10 tournament. She made 13 of 22 shots and all eight of her free throws Sunday.

In the first half, the 6-foot-2 forward outscored fifth-seeded Oregon State by herself, 27-19. And she keyed the Cardinal’s 18-3 run at the end of the first half--including a three-point shot with less than a second left--to raise Stanford’s lead to 37-19 at halftime.

Juleen Smith led Oregon State (16-14) with 26 points.

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Arizona State 64, Oregon 58--The third-seeded Sun Devils (23-8) ended the surprising run of seventh-seeded Oregon in part because of strong rebounding (39-31) and in part because the Ducks, playing their third game in three days, seemed to run out of gas.

Oregon (17-13) didn’t help itself by playing its worst half of the season. Trailing, 31-19, after 20 minutes, the Ducks had almost as many turnovers (18) as points.

In the second half, however, the Ducks tightened their 2-3 zone, Arizona State grew hesitant, and Oregon went on a 24-4 run to go ahead, 43-35.

During a timeout Arizona State Coach Charli Turner Thorne chastised guard Amanda Levens, the team’s leading scorer.

Levens, who felt ill and scored only three points in the first half, responded, scoring 16 second-half points and keying an 18-4 run that put Arizona State in front to stay. Shaquala Williams led Oregon with 21 points.

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Tonight’s Final

* No. 1 Stanford (30-1) vs. Arizona State (23-8) at University of Oregon,

7 p.m. (FSN)