Arizona Puts End To Cardinal Streak

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With less than 2 seconds left, Reshea Bristol’s desperation shot snapped No. 11 Stanford’s 48-game Pac-10 winning streak and gave No. 9 Arizona a 91-90 women’s basketball victory Monday night in Tucson, Ariz.

“I just jacked it up,” Bristol said. “It felt awesome.”

The last Stanford league loss was Feb. 9, 1995, to Oregon State. The last time Arizona beat Stanford was a 75-59 win on March 8, 1986.

Bristol - her foot on the 3-point line - connected for her 23rd point to spark a wild celebration. The winning shot capped an Arizona comeback from a 13-point deficit with 12 minutes left in the game, but Bristol wasn’t claiming the credit.

“Just to have us play as a team felt great,” she said. “Anybody could have made that shot on any given night.”

Adia Barnes added 22 points, Monika Crank had 14, Lisa Griffith 11 and Mikko Giordano 10.

Kristin Folkl led Stanford (6-5, 3-1 Pac-10) with 21 points. Milena Flores added 16 points, Olympia Scott 13, Vanessa Nygaard 12, Melody Peterson 11 and Christina Batastini 10.

Arizona (10-3, 4-1) tied the score at 84 on two Barnes free throws. Following a Folkl free throw, Bristol made a 3-pointer with 1:46 left. The Wildcats made a school-record 13 3-pointers.

“You don’t expect a team with experience like Arizona to roll over at home and they didn’t,” Stanford coach Tara Vanderveer said. “We made plenty of bad decisions down the stretch, while they shot well and made the plays they had to.”

After another Folkl free throw tied the game at 87, Felecity Willis’ steal and layup gave Arizona an 89-87 lead with 1 minute remaining. Batastini then put the Cardinal in front 90-89 with 12 seconds left, setting the stage for Bristol’s winning shot.

“If you are going to win the Pac-10, you have to beat Stanford,” Arizona coach Joan Bonvicini said. “Beating Stanford (was) the only thing these seniors have not done.”

Last week, Washington State beat Arizona 64-61 with a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

With this victory, the center court madhouse got a bit rough.

“I got a couple of bruises and I got hit in my jaw, but, hey, that’s what it is all about,” Bristol said of being mobbed.

(8) N. Carolina 83, (25) Duke 74

At Chapel Hill, N.C., Tracy Reid scored 31 points, hitting her last six shots, to lead four Tar Heels in double figures and pace North Carolina (13-2, 4-1) to an Atlantic Coast Conference victory over the Blue Devils (10-5, 3-2).

Michele VanGorp had 21 points to pace Duke.

Reid scored 17 of North Carolina’s last 24 points over the game’s last 8:21, including a layup with 5:00 left to play that put North Carolina up 67-64 and started a decisive 10-2 Tar Heels run. Reid scored six points during the run and Jessica Gaspar capped it with two free throws, putting North Carolina ahead 75-66 with 2:02 remaining.

It was career win No. 499 for N.C. coach Sylvia Hatchell.