Sweet 16 Recap: Stanford dominates with more threes

The No. 1 overall seed Stanford Cardinal took their NCAA Tournament 3-point shooting from 28-of-58 (48.3 percent) to 43-of-90 (47.8 percent) in an 89-62 Sweet 16 win over the No. 5 seed Missouri State Lady Bears on Sunday in San Antonio.

The Cardinal’s Hannah Jump was 5-of-7 from distance and finished with a team-high 17 points. Stanford leading scorer Kiana Williams was 4-of-8 from beyond the arc and had 16 points. Anna Wilson notched 13 points, six rebounds and three steals, Haley Jones had 11 points, eight boards and five assists and Ashton Prechtel (2-of-3 from long range) had eight points, 10 rebounds and five assists for the winners.

Stanford put the game out of reach with a 22-11 third that put the score at 71-37.

Cardinal freshman Cameron Brink opened the second half with a triple and Wilson created a turnover with disruptive defense on Missouri State’s next possession, which led to a Williams three. Just like that Stanford was up 29, just 38 seconds into the third. Brink helped maintain the lead with three blocks in the frame to up her total to five.

Stanford moved further ahead as the third progressed and a deep triple buried by Jump provided an exclamation mark and made the score 69-36. Stanford gained its biggest third-quarter lead of 35 on a Prechtel inside basket with 44 ticks to go before the fourth.

Elle Ruffridge led Missouri State with 18 points, while teammate Jasmine Franklin added eight and 13 boards.

Wilson had all three of her steals and 10 of her points in the first half, which saw her go 4-of-4 from the field.

Stanford opened up a 23-point lead at the break thanks to a big second quarter from Wilson. She had seven points, including a 5-0 individual run that made it 31-17 early in the period. She also had an impressive steal and fast break layup to make it 42-24 with 2:33 to go before halftime. Lexie Hull and Jones also had seven points in the second, a quarter Stanford won 26-11.

Williams scored seven points in the first and was a perfect 3-of-3 from the field. Stanford led by as many as 12 in that frame, but Abi Jackson (11 points) had seven points to keep Missouri State in it and the Lady Bears trailed by just eight entering the second.