Cal Falls To No. 9 Stanford 78-51
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) – Talana Lepolo scored a career-high 20 points with six 3-pointers, Kiki Iriafen had a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds and the No. 9 Stanford women won their third straight game by beating California 78-51 on Friday.
Lepolo, whose previous high in scoring was 17 nearly a year ago, was 7 of 11 for the game, connecting on six of her 10 attempts beyond the arc. That provided a big boost for the Cardinal (11-1, 1-0 Pac-12) while leading scorer Cameron Brink was mired in foul trouble much of the game.
Brink had 13 points and seven rebounds.
Ioanna Krimili was the only Cal player in double figures. She scored 12 points in her first game back since injuring her right meniscus in Cal's game against Cal Poly on Nov. 13. The Bears (10-3, 0-1) shot 26.5% from the floor (18 of 68) and finished 4 of 31 on 3-point attempts. Ila Lane led the Bears on the glass with nine rebounds.
After Stanford jumped out to a 11-2 lead, Cal came back with six straight points. A fastbreak layup by McKayla Williams capped off a 7-0 run to tie the game at 15-15 at the 2:50 mark in the first.
The Cardinal went up by as many as 11 points in the second quarter before the Bears used a 9-2 run to get within four points with two minutes left in the half. Stanford ended the half on consecutive 3-pointers to go into the break up 10 points.
Stanford led the entire game and was ahead 63-37 following back-to-back three-point plays from Iriafen early in the fourth quarter. Lepolo's sixth 3-pointer extended Stanford's lead to 70-41.
Stanford has won 10 straight against its Northern California rivals.
Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer, already the all-time leader in women's college basketball with 1,197 victories, needs six more wins to slip past Mike Krzyzewski's record of 1,202 to become the winningest coach in college basketball history.
UP NEXT
Stanford: Hosts Morgan State on Sunday.
California: Hosts Washington on Jan. 5.