Cardinal women breeze to Pac-12 tourney title

Nnemkadi Ogwumike scored 29 points, Chiney Ogwumike added 17 and No. 2 Stanford rolled to the Pac-12 tournament title in Los Angeles with a 77-62 victory over California on Saturday, extending the Cardinal’s winning streak to a school-record 28 games.

The Cardinal (31-1) won their ninth tourney title while improving to 30-2 in the event that began in 2002. It was their 78th consecutive victory against a Pac-12 opponent.

Layshia Clarendon scored 20 points and freshman Brittany Boyd added 13 for the senior-less Golden Bears (24-9), making just their second appearance in the final. Cal was the only team to force overtime against Stanford in the regular season, but it couldn’t get untracked against the dominance of the Ogwumike sisters in the Battle of the Bay south edition.

When younger sister Chiney wasn’t driving for layups, Pac-12 player of the year Nnemkadi was stepping out for 3-pointers. She hit two in the second half that twice extended Stanford’s lead to 13 points. Cal tried a full press, but it had little effect, with Nnemkadi racing through it for a layup that made it 64-48.

Stanford moves on to the NCAA tournament with only a November loss to Connecticut as a blemish on its record. Cal is likely headed there, too.

Amber Orrange added 13 points for the Cardinal, who have won 41 of their last 44 games against the Bears. Stanford’s 74-71 OT win on Jan. 28 was its smallest margin of victory this year and one of just four games decided by less than 10 points. Stanford got past Arizona State by nine points in the tourney semifinals.

Orrange, who scored five in a row, and the sisters keyed a 13-4 run to open the second half and stretch Stanford’s lead from six points to 50-35.

Over the next 5 minutes, the teams each scored 12 points, but second-seeded Cal still trailed by 15.

Stanford raced out to a 13-point lead at the start of the game before Boyd hit three 3-pointers that helped the Bears cut their deficit to four points. From there, Stanford narrowly outscored the Bears to end the half ahead 37-31.

Baylor 73, Texas A&M 50: Top-ranked Baylor proved it has more than just Brittney Griner.

Odyssey Sims poured in a season-high 26 points to help make up for an off afternoon by her All-American teammate Brittney Griner, and the Bears rolled to a victory over the No. 23 Aggies the Big 12 tournament championship game in Kansas City, Mo.

The Bears (34-0) wrapped up their second straight title and fourth overall by beating the Aggies for the third time this year.

Baylor also beat Texas A&M to win the tournament title in 2009 and again last season, when the Aggies returned the favor in the NCAA tournament.

Sydney Carter had 12 points to lead Texas A&M (22-10), which played its third straight game without top scorer Tyra White. She’s been hampered by her left foot and coach Gary Blair elected to rest her for the NCAA tournament rather than risk any more damage against Baylor.

Fresno St. 89, Louisiana Tech 61: Rosie Moult hit six of Fresno State’s tournament-record 15 3-pointers and finished with 23 points, and the Bulldogs claimed their fifth straight NCAA tournament appearance with an impressive win over the Lady Techsters in the Western Athletic Conference tourney final in Las Vegas.

The regular-season conference champion Bulldogs rolled to their second straight tourney title and NCAA bid, knocking off the third-seeded Lady Techsters for the second straight year in the championship game.

But unlike the regular season when Fresno State pulled out two narrow wins over Louisiana Tech by a combined five points, the Bulldogs turned this into a laid-back march into the NCAAs thanks to their pinpoint 3-point shooting in the first half.

Moult led the 3-point barrage, but she had plenty of help as three other Bulldogs hit at least a pair from deep.

Whitney Frazier led Louisiana Tech (17-15) with 18 points.

Idaho St. 49, N. Colorado 46: Chelsea Pickering and Ashleigh Vella scored 12 points each as the Bengals fought through shooting struggles to beat the Bears in the Big Sky Conference championship game in Pocatello.

Idaho State (24-7) earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament and won the Big Sky tournament for the third time, and its first since 2007.

Victoria Team led Northern Colorado (20-11) with 18 points, but Idaho State managed to hold standout Bears guard D’shara Strange to six points on 2-of-15 shooting.

Vella made a layup with 2:00 left to give the Bengals a 45-43 lead.

Neither team scored again until Pickering hit free throws with 21 seconds left to put Idaho State up by four.