Washington's Run Comes to an End in 72-61 Loss to #7 Stanford

Saturday, March 9

Las Vegas, NV

8:30 PM

University of Washington

Stanford

Washington's Run Comes to an End in 72-61 Loss to #7 Stanford

March 09, 2019 | Women's Basketball

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LAS VEGAS – Washington's Cinderella story came to an end as the Huskies were unable to pull off their third upset in as many days, falling 72-61 to No. 2 seed Stanford on Saturday night at the 2019 Pac-12 Women's Basketball Tournament at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

The season comes to an end for the Huskies, ended the year with three wins over its final six games including a pair of upset wins over No. 6 seed Utah and No. 3 seed Oregon State in the first two rounds of the tournament. Washington was just the second No. 11 seed to reach the semifinals and won two Pac-12 tournament games for just the second time in program history.

"We knew that we were going to be challenged on both sides of the ball today, and it was just tough," said Head Coach Jody Wynn. "They just make it difficult because they're very, very good, and very well coached, and they just made it difficult for us to take one thing away versus another. I will say that I'm super proud that we didn't quit. I'm proud of our overall effort for three games that we had in this tournament. We grew so much."

Amber Melgoza led the Huskies with 32 points on 12-of-24 shooting including 4-of-7 from three-point range. She finished the tournament with 62 points in the tournament including a pair of 20+ point games against nationally-ranked Oregon State and Stanford. It was Melgoza's third career game with 30 or more points and second in her career against Stanford.

"Certainly Amber was a beast today," said Wynn. "She really competed on the floor. We all played really, really hard, and no reason to hang our heads."

"Winning three straight games is obviously a very hard thing to do," said Melgoza. "But I thought that just we all just played with tremendous heart out there, and we were just battling. We've battled for 40 minutes as much as we can, and, I mean, we obviously didn't have the ending we wanted to because we obviously wanted to compete tomorrow."

Darcy Rees added nine points, three rebounds, two blocks and a steal while Mai-Loni Henson, Khayla Rooks and Alexis Griggsby each added five.

The Huskies played an all-around solid game, shooting 40 percent from the field, committing just 10 turnovers forcing 12 Stanford turnovers. Washington held an 18-8 edge in points off turnovers.

Melgoza got the Huskies going with a corner three to tie the game at the 8:17 mark. But the Cardinal would respond with a 7-0 run to make it 12-3 midway through the quarter. Darcy Rees ended the run with a three-pointer to cut the lead to six with 5:40 left. After a bucket by Stanford made it 14-6 at the midway point of the quarter, neither team scored again until the Cardinal broke the drought with a bucket with 1:59 left. Khayla Rooks answered with a jumper on the next possession and Haley Van Dyke would make a pair of free throws with 40 second to go to pull back within eight at 18-10. Stanford would get a bucket to close out the quarter and led 20-10 after one.

The teams exchanged buckets to open the second quarter with Stanford pulling away by hitting three-straight threes while Washington hit twos. The last triple which was followed by a putback in the paint on the next possession made it 33-16 with 5:03 to go. Washington slowly closed back in, using a 9-0 run to cut the Stanford lead to eight at 33-25 at the 2:34 mark. The run began with four free throws followed by a three from Alexis Griggsby and a jumper by Melgoza.

Stanford would end the run with a bucket in the paint and the teams would exchange points over the next two minutes until Melgoza's runner made it a 37-31 game with five seconds left. Stanford quickly inbounded the ball and despite what appeared to be an obvious push off before the attempt, the Cardinal would drain a half-court shot at the buzzer to make it 40-31 at the half.

Stanford kept the run going with a three-pointer and layup early on to stretch the lead to 45-31 at the 8:23 mark. Melgoza got the Huskies back in quickly, hitting three-straight buckets to make it 45-37 just over a minute later. But the Cardinal again had the answer, draining back-to-back leads to stretch the lead right back to 14 at 51-37.

Melgoza continued her hot shooting, draining a three-pointer from the corner to give her nine points in the quarter, then Rooks added a three one minute later to cut the lead to eight at 51-43 with 3:11 to go. Stanford again responded big snapping a three-minute scoreless drought with a pair of three-pointers to make it 57-43 with 2:14 remaining in the quarter. Mai-Loni Henson hit a three-pointer with 1:06 left, but the Cardinal connected on a pair of buckets to close out the half to lead 61-46 after three.

Stanford started to pull away at the start of the fourth quarter, opening the period on a 7-0 run to make it 68-46 with 7:35 to play. Melgoza ignited a run to get those seven points back, nailing a pair of free throws, then hit a three followed by a bucket by Rees to make it 68-53 with 4:59 remaining. After two Stanford free throws, Melgoza hit another three-pointer followed by a layup from Rees to make it a 12-point game at the 3:08 mark. Washington was able to get it to 11 late on a free throw, but could get no closer.

Alanna Smith led Stanford with 21 points and 12 rebounds while Maya Dodson and Dijonai Carrington each scored 14. Stanford improves its all-time record in Pac-12 semifinal games to 16-1 and will face the No. 1 seed Oregon.

The game was the final one for Washington's two seniors: Jenna Moser and Hannah Johnson.

"I looked at Jenna before the game and said no matter what the outcome is today we can be proud," said Johnson. "We won two games we weren't supposed to. If you asked me at the beginning of the season, I wouldn't have thought so. I think it's hard it's over, but I'm really proud of my team and how it ended."

"We're really proud, and we're proud of the legacy that we get to leave," said Moser. "And we're thankful for the opportunity, and we talked about just these memories are going to overpower any memories of losses. It's hard to be part of a program that's being built. People don't talk about that enough. It's hard. But we're just really proud of how far we've come, and I'm excited for the future of this program."

"I just thought our team did a great job, and I thought that we stuck together and that's something that's really important and that's going to carry on until next year," said Melgoza. "And Jenna and Hannah, they've led us this whole year. I can't be any more grateful for them. And they're some really, really special people. I know they're going to do great things after this."