This was a great week for Stanford women’s basketball. The Cardinal beat USC on Friday and then survived UCLA in another hard-fought game on Monday night.
Stanford’s 71-66 win over UCLA brought the Cardinal one step closer to the Pac-12 championship. Stanford, 14-2 in the Pac-12, established a one-game lead over 13-3 Utah and a two-game lead over 12-4 Colorado.
Stanford’s 2-0 week was combined with Utah and Colorado both losing in Tucson to the Arizona Wildcats. The Cardinal entered the week tied with Utah and just one game ahead of Colorado, so they gained ground heading into the final weekend of the Pac-12 regular season.
Stanford visits Colorado on Thursday and then goes to Utah on Saturday.
Colorado is almost certainly out of the Pac-12 title race. If Utah beats 10th-place Cal on Thursday, Colorado will be eliminated no matter what else happens. This is because Utah plays Stanford on Saturday. One of the two teams will win. That team will have no more than three conference losses. Colorado has four, so even if the Buffs beat Stanford on Thursday, a Utah win over Cal puts the Utes and Stanford at 14-3 with CU at 13-4.
Stanford’s win over UCLA also means that even if Stanford does lose to Colorado on Thursday, the Cardinal can win the outright Pac-12 title with a win over Utah on Saturday. Stanford can clinch a share of the Pac-12 title with a win over Colorado. That game will be on Thursday afternoon, a few hours before USC plays the CU men’s team in Boulder.
[mm-video type=video id=01gsrdaweet8yxmw6jkk playlist_id=none player_id=01f5k5y2jb3twsvdg4 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01gsrdaweet8yxmw6jkk/01gsrdaweet8yxmw6jkk-a7530a673958a1fdbdf4ac6aa93676b6.jpg]
[lawrence-auto-related count=1 tag=696091895]