Pac-12 WBB: Stanford survives, USC’s Watkins shines as five teams advance to Sweet 16

Story by Jeff Metcalfe 

The Kiki Iriafen discovery phase ended long ago in the Pac-12 but continues nationally with each NCAA Tournament showing.

Take Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly after Iriafen’s 41-point, 16-rebound performance Sunday saved No. 2 seed Stanford from a second consecutive second-round exit at home.

“She’s just one of those kids that in person was much better than on video,” Fennelly said. “Just a tremendous talent.”

Or consider the comments from Larry Vickers after Norfolk State’s first-round loss to Stanford. “We don’t have the Pac-12 Network. I had no clue she (Iriafen) was that good.”

Iriafen has been the equal of her better-known teammate, Cameron Brink, all season. The 6-foot-3 junior leads Stanford in scoring (19.2 points per game) and is nearly even with the 6-4 Brink in rebounding.

Brink is the Pac-12 Player of Year and Defensive Player of the Year, but the Cardinal would not be one of five Pac-12 teams playing in the NCAA Sweet 16 without Iriafen scoring almost half of Stanford’s points in an 87-81 overtime win against Iowa State.

Iriafen played 41 minutes to Brink’s 23 (due to foul trouble). Brink had eight points, eight rebounds and five blocks before fouling out with 2:11 left in regulation.

Brink is projected to be the No. 2 pick in the WNBA draft on April 15 (by Los Angeles). But an argument can be made that Iriafen, if she were eligible, would be selected ahead of Brink.

ESPN analyst Chiney Ogwumike, who played at Stanford, said Sunday she sees comparisons between Iriafen and two-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson.

“I just remembered where we were last year,” Iriafen said of Stanford’s 54-49 second-round loss to Mississippi. “It wasn’t a great taste in our mouth. We didn’t want that to happen two years in a row. So giving it my all to make sure we can get to Cleveland (Final Four site) was in my mind.”

Iriafen scored 11 points in the five-minute overtime as the teams combined for 36 points. The best game of the NCAA’s first weekend had “more drama than a junior high lunch table,” ESPN announcer Roy Philpott declared.

There were six lead changes in overtime and two in the final minute, courtesy of 3-pointers by Iowa State’s Addy Brown, then Stanford’s Brooke Demetre. Emily Ryan scored 36 and had nine boards for the No. 7 Cyclones but also committed 10 turnovers. Stanford scored 21 points off 19 turnovers.

Because of overtime and what was at stake, the game surpassed even the Oregon State-UCLA thriller back on Feb. 16, which featured four lead changes in the final 10 seconds — with a buzzer-beater finish — for best the Pac-12 game of the season.

“This was a heavyweight fight,” Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. “We know we can play a lot better, and we were up against a team that was hotter than snot out there.”

Five Sweet 16 teams ties record

The Pac-12 has five teams in the Sweet 16 for the third time, all since 2017.

USC and UCLA won in the second round on Monday, joining Stanford, Oregon State and Colorado in the second weekend of the tournament.

There were two casualties, however. Utah lost at Gonzaga while Arizona, after winning in the First Four, fell in the first round to Syracuse.

UCLA, Oregon State and Colorado will travel to Albany, where two of the four regionals will unfold. USC and Stanford, the Pac-12 tournament and regular season champions, respectively, are staying west in Portland. All five are facing opponents seeded No. 5 or higher.

Nothing will beat the matchups in the Albany 2 region, where Colorado tangles with Iowa and Caitlin Clark while UCLA faces LSU, the defending national champion.

The Pac-12 failed to advance any teams beyond the Sweet 16 last spring. Prior to that, the conference had one or more Final Four qualifiers in 12 of 14 NCAA Tournaments since 2008.

LA schools win at home

USC and UCLA, hosting early-round games in the same season for the first time since 1992, made the most of their advantage in second-round wins Monday.

The Bruins overcame a 10-point deficit early in the third quarter, then scored the first seven points in the fourth and held on to beat Creighton 67-63.

Sophomores Kiki Rice and Lauren Betts led UCLA with 44 combined points while the 6-7 Betts and Gabriela Jaquez teamed up for 21 rebounds. Betts returned to action after sitting out in a first-round game against Cal Baptist with a foot injury.

“At halftime I really laid into them about choices,” UCLA coach Cori Close said. “We don’t give up that many points in a half (42) to anybody. We needed to get back to doing things with our defense. I knew if we could get enough stops, we would score enough points.”

The Bruins are in the Sweet 16 for a second straight year.

Across town, USC had an easier time, beating Kansas 73-55. Freshman sensation JuJu Watkins scored 28 points in her second tournament game after totaling 23 in the first round against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

“Today was our team on display,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “I’m glad that the country got to see that. Ju is spectacular. They had to change and go to a zone because of her attacking early on. We made big play after big play.”

McKenzie Forbes supplemented Watkins with a combined 43 points in the first two rounds.

Role players meet the moment

Stars like Iriafen, Oregon State’s Raegan Beers and Colorado’s Aaronette Vonleh were central to those teams reaching the Sweet 16. But so were role players such as Stanford’s Demetre, Colorado’s Tameiya Sadler and Oregon State’s Dominika Paurova — they all stepped into the spotlight that can shine on anyone in March.

“We would not have won this game without Brooke’s contributions,” Iriafen said. All eight of Demetre’s points came at critical times in the fourth quarter or overtime against Iowa State.

Sadler scored eight consecutive points for Colorado late in the third quarter, part of a 15-3 run that created separation against Kansas State in a 63-50 win. Colorado and three other Pac-12 schools are joining the Big 12, which includes Kansas State, in 2024-25.

“I turned to Tameiya at the end of that third quarter when we were up by 10 and said that’s because of you,” teammate Maddie Nolan said.

Colorado coach JR Payne said her star guard, Jaylyn Sherrod, asked to be replaced by Sadler because “she recognized that Tameiya was playing better than she was. It’s a great example of how unselfish our team is.”

On her 19th birthday — and with her parents and sister from the Czech Republic on hand — Oregon State’s Paurova scored a season-high 17 points in a first-round win over Eastern Washington.

“Dreamy scenario,” Oregon State coach Scott Rueck said. “It’s these type of moments that we hope for everyone. You just hope those moments won’t be too big or they won’t overthink it.”

Fair too much for Arizona

Arizona, the only unranked Pac-12 team in the NCAA field, came within three minutes of reaching the second round — even with its seven-player rotation in foul trouble.

The Wildcats led by five points against Syracuse before guard Dyaisha Fair returned from what at first appeared to be a serious knee injury and took over the game, scoring her team’s final 13 points in a 74-69 win.

“That’s what stars do,” Arizona coach Adia Barnes said. “They take over in the moment when their team needs it. We just don’t have that player. We’re going to get that type of player and when we were successful, we had that type of player,” referencing Aari McDonald in 2021, when Arizona reached the NCAA championship game.

Including Arizona’s victory in the First Four, the Pac-12 posted a 12-2 record through the first weekend.

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