Ducks blaze to first Pac-12 Tournament title

There was inspired, energetic play in Key Arena this night; unfortunately almost all of it was produced by Oregon's Sabrina Ionescu, little by Stanford.

The first quarter went well: Kiana opened the scoring with a quick three, and both teams seemed in a good flow. After a couple of Stanford misses, Oregon took its first lead and the quarter ended at 17-18.

In the second quarter the Stanford gave up some unforced turnovers while the Ducks hit a couple of threes and began to pull away. The half ended with Stanford down seven, 24-31.

No magical adjustments were made at halftime; the Cardinal continued to play what seemed to be tentative, careful basketball -- while seemingly every shot the Ducks, and especially Ionescu, put up, dropped in.

The Oregon lead was 11 after the third quarter, but a quick run at the start of the fourth caused Tara to call time at 6:44, trailing now by 19. At this point it was announced that Ionescu's 33 points were a new tournament record, eclipsing the former record of 30 points set by Candice Wiggins. (Ionescu hit one more three-pointer, to finish with 36.)

From then on Stanford played about even with the Ducks, never closer than 12, and the game wound down to the final of 57-77.

Alanna worked hard in the paint to earn 17 points. Unfortunately she was also charged with seven of the team's 16 turnovers.

Brittany scored twelve points on 5-12 shooting.

Kiana hit three of three long-range shots and ended with eleven points total tonight. She went 13-18 from beyond the arc and scored the team-high total of 53 points in the three tournament games and was named to the All-Tournament Team.

Kaylee got seven points and four rebounds.

DiJonai scored five points and did a good job of disrupting the opposition while she was in.

Maya scored five points, four rebounds, and two blocks.

The team now returns home to await their post-season assignment, to be announced on Selection Monday, March 12th. Will they be named as a host school for the first two rounds?

Here are game reports and commentary:

• Cardinal falls in final, the Associated Press game recap (posted by Stanford Athletics)
• Oregon Ducks blow past Stanford for Pac-12 Tournament title, the Pac-12 game recap video
• Undisputed! Ducks Win Pac-12 Tournament, the Oregon Athletics game recap
• Oregon Ducks win first Pac-12 Tournament title with 77-57 win over Stanford Cardinal by Ryan Thorburn (Eugene Register-Guard)
• Ionescu’s 36 lead top-seeded Oregon over Stanford 77-57 in Pac-12 title game by Tom FitzGerald (San Francisco Chronicle)
• WBB: Oregon 77 Stanford 57 from the CARDboard

The game statistics,

And a transcript of the press conference with Tara, Brittany and Kiana