Cal upsets Arizona State to open Pac-12 women’s tournament

Several Pac-12 women’s basketball coaches said they thought the conference was as good top to bottom as it’s ever been.

The tournament’s first game gave that statement credibility.

Jaelyn Brown scored 22 points and Cailyn Crocker 20, and No. 12 seed California went on a 20-0 run that spanned the third and fourth quarters to defeat No. 5 Arizona State 71-67 on Thursday at Mandalay Bay Events Center.

“We just as a team knew that we weren’t playing the way we wanted to play in the first half,” Crocker said. “So I don’t know if it is really something that I saw that sparked it, but we don’t want to go home and we know that we can play better. So as a team, we just rallied together and took off.”

The Golden Bears (12-18) will meet No. 4 Arizona at 11:30 a.m. Friday in the quarterfinals.

Cal led by nine points in the fourth quarter before the Sun Devils staged their own comeback. They had a chance to retake the lead in the final 30 seconds, but Reili Richardson’s 3-pointer missed. Former Centennial High standout Eboni Walker grabbed the offensive rebound and passed to Richardson for another 3-point try, but she missed again and Cal held on.

Richardson led Arizona State (20-11) with 20 points, Robbi Ryan added 14 and Ja’Tavia Tapley 13. Walker had a team-best nine rebounds.

“If I had to look for somebody that I thought probably played at least close to their aptitude, it would probably be Eboni,” Arizona State coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “As a freshman, she’s playing her best basketball down the stretch for us. She’s fearless, a phenomenal rebounder and makes plays for us.”

Cal changed the game with a full-court press that got the Sun Devils out of their rhythm. The Golden Bears also were more aggressive taking the ball to the basket, which resulted in a 25-11 advantage from the free-throw line.

No. 8 Utah 72, No. 9 Washington 63 — Brynna Maxwell and Lola Pendande scored 17 points each to lead the Utes.

Dru Gyulten had 12 points, eight rebounds and seven assists for Utah (14-16), which will meet No. 1 seed Oregon in the quarterfinals at 2:30 p.m. Friday.

Amber Melgoza led Washington (13-17) with 30 points.

No. 7 Southern California 69, No. 10 Colorado 54 — Alissa Pili scored 22 points on 10-of-16 shooting to spark the Trojans into the quarterfinals.

USC (17-13), which shot 61.2 percent, will play No. 2 UCLA at 6 p.m. Friday. Endyia Rogers had 15 points and six assists for the Trojans.

Peanut Tuitele scored 18 for Colorado (16-14), which was outscored 20-8 in the fourth quarter.

No. 6 Oregon State 82, No. 11 Washington State 55 — Kat Tudor made her first six 3-point attempts and scored 24 points for the Beavers.

Mikayla Pivec scored 17, and she and Tudor were both 7-for-9 from the floor for Oregon State (23-8), which will face No. 3 Stanford at 8:30 p.m. Friday.

Borislava Hristova scored 19 for the Cougars (11-20), who were outrebounded 41-23.

Contact Jason Orts at jorts@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2936. Follow @SportsWithOrts on Twitter.