March 01, 2018

Pac-12 Tournament: First Round

Anticipation

#8 Utah 56, #9 Colorado 66

The first game of the tournament yielded the tournament's first upset, as Colorado beat Utah 66-56.

From the upper tier of Key Arena, the Buffaloes' Kennedy Leonard doesn't look like an athlete, more like a middle-school waif, but she and the rest of her squad pestered the Utes into 19 turnovers, Leonard herself getting five steals.

Under the basket they held Utah's "big girl" Emily Potter to only four points in the first half, and nine in all.

The prize for winning a play-in game? Tomorrow they get to defend Oregon's Hebard and Ionescu.

Here are game reports:

The game highlights video

And the game statistics

#5 California 71, #12 Washington 68

Washington played Cal very close through the first half, with Cal up only five at halftime.

In the third quarter the Huskies managed to gain a brief, six-point lead, but starting the fourth quarter Cal slammed the door on the upset attempt, taking and holding a seven-point lead.

In the final ten seconds Washington had the ball, trailing by three, but Amber Melgoza's magic was worn out; she put up a three that would have tied the score but it missed and Cal controlled the rebound.

Here are game reports:

The game highlights video

And the game statistics

#7 USC 47, #10 Washington State 44

An epidemic of ineptitude swept through Key Arena this afternoon, infecting both the USC Trojans and the WSU Cougars and leading to a tedious, sloppy, mistake-filled game — the kind of game that makes it hard to promote women's basketball.

How bad was it? Well, at the half the score was 18-16. One team was shooting 17% (5 of 23) and other, 22% (8 of 27). And each team had seven turnovers.

Neither team could get a clear advantage. Early in the fourth quarter WSU took a one-point lead but couldn't hold it. With 45 seconds to play it was a one-point game, USC 45, WSU 44.

USC monopolized most of the remaining time but couldn't score. Their final miss was with five seconds remaining, and if WSU could have gotten that rebound, they might have had a chance (or worse, from the crowd's viewpoint, forced overtime) but they didn't. While WSU was attempting to foul, Minyon Moore broke loose for an easy layup to end the scoring.

Here are game reports:

The game highlights video

And the game statistics

#6 Arizona State 76, #11 Arizona 47

Here are game reports:

The game highlights video

And the game statistics

Finis

It was an exciting day at Key Arena — one upset and two almosts. The quarterfinals tomorrow are:

#1 Oregon vs #9 Colorado at 11:30 am
#4 UCLA vs #5 California at 2:00 pm
#2 Stanford vs #7 USC at 6:00 pm
#3 Oregon State vs #6 Arizona State at 8:30 pm

All the games will be televised by the Pac-12 Networks.

Before the Stanford game, there will be a sendoff with the band at 3:45 pm at the team hotel (the Westin Seattle). Click here for a map.

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