Local college basketball: Stanford women roll over SMU; Cal women fall to Clemson

Lara Samfai scored 19 points to lead five Stanford players in double figures and the Cardinal bolted to a 25-point first-quarter lead en route to an 87-57 win over SMU at Maples Pavilion on Thursday night.

The margin of victory for Stanford was its best its in two seasons in the ACC, surpassing its 25-point victory at Boston College in January.

The Cardinal (18-12, 7-10) shot 14-for-20 in the first quarter while the Mustangs (9-20, 2-15) were 3-for-13 in the period, including 0-for-6 from 3-point range. Stanford finished 34-for-63 (54%) while SMU was 25-for-65 (38%).

"We jumped on them right from the beginning, which was really exciting to see," Stanford coach Kate Paye said. "I wasn't really excited about our second quarter, I thought our defense let us down a little bit. But it's always great anytime you can play everybody. … This is something we want to build on. Our team feels we haven't played our best basketball yet and we feel like we're kind of moving in that direction."

Courtney Ogden scored 15 points for Stanford, Hailee Swain had 14, Nuna Agara 13 and Chloe Clardy 12.

Ayanna Thompson's 18 points led the Mustangs. 

Clemson 70, Cal 63: Lulu Twidale scored 23 points and Gisella Maul added 18 for the Bears, who never led and were unable to overcome a 13-point third-quarter deficit against the Tigers at Haas Pavilion.

Cal (17-13, 8-9 ACC) saw Clemson (20-9, 11-6) score the first seven points of the game, with the Bears trailing by eight after the first quarter, by five at halftime and by nine entering the final period. Cal, which fell behind by 12 in the fourth, got to within 67-63 on a 3-pointer by Twidale with 23 seconds left but Clemson added three free throws to lock up its win.

"We're disappointed to not get a win at home and we knew Clemson was really good team," Cal coach Charmin Smith said. "They've been playing well as of late, obviously, and we need to play better. I think we're capable of playing better than we did today, so we'll have another opportunity on Sunday, and I think we'll be better against SMU."

"They're a physical team, they're a good basketball team," Clemson coach Shawn Poppie said of the Bears. "They obviously made some shots super late to make it closer than it needed to be."

Mia Moore scored 21 points to lead five Clemson players in double figures. 

Santa Clara 87, Pacific 79: Delainey Miller and Ashley Hawkins scored 19 points apiece and all five Broncos starters were in double figures as Santa Clara (22-8, 12-5 WCC) beat the Tigers (11-17, 6-11) at Leavey Center.

Santa Clara led by 12 at halftime, then survived a push by Pacific that saw the Tigers - who beat the Broncos in Stockton on Feb. 5 behind a 56-point second half - close to within two. 

"We had a little bit different game plan coming in today," Santa Clara coach Loree Payne said. "And I feel like we put together at least a good 32 minutes. There was maybe eight in there where we fell off a little bit but I'm just really proud of the team for responding."  

The Broncos' Ava Schmidt had 14 points, Kyla Fox added 13 and Maia Jones reached 1,000 points for her career by scoring 10.

Daria Nestorov scored 20 points for Pacific. 

Loyola Marymount 66, USF 57: Mara Neira scored 18 points and Candy Edokpaigbe had 15 points and nine rebounds for the Dons (16-12, 9-9 WCC) in a loss to the Lions (20-8, 14-3) in USF's final home game of the season.

USF trailed 55-54 after Neira drained a 3-pointer with 3:14 remaining but was 1-for-5 from the field and 1-for-5 on free throws the rest of the way.

USF coach Molly Goodenbour lamented four Lions 3-pointers that came after offensive rebounds or loose ball scrambles.

"That's 12 points right there if we just come up with the basketball and hang onto it," Goodenbour said. "We compete, we play hard. (But) you know, you can only survive so many holes in your boat. Tonight we had a couple too many and we sank."  

Jess Lawson scored 17 points to pace Loyola Marymount.  

Gonzaga 75, St. Mary's 67: Addi Wedin scored 21 points but the Gaels saw the Bulldogs pour in 29 fourth-quarter points to secure a victory in Spokane, Wash.

St. Mary's (15-15, 6-11 WCC) and Gonzaga (22-8, 14-3) both were 25-for-53 from the field, but the Bulldogs benefited from a 15-for-21 effort from the foul line while the Gaels were 9-for-13 on free throws.

Malia Latu scored 15 points and Abigail Shoff had 13 for St. Mary's. Allie Turner scored 29 points to lead Gonzaga.  

This article originally published at Local college basketball: Stanford women roll over SMU; Cal women fall to Clemson.