LOS ANGELES – DiJonai Carrington and Brittany McPhee led Stanford back from a 14-point, third-quarter deficit and Stanford beat USC 59-55 on Friday night.
Carrington scored 10 of her team-high 15 in the third, McPhee poured in 10 of her 12 in the fourth and the Cardinal (12-7, 6-1) collected its 10th consecutive win in the Galen Center. Stanford is tied for first in the Pac-12 with No. 7 Oregon, which lost in overtime at No. 18 Oregon State, 85-79.
Up 26-23 at halftime, USC (13-5, 3-4) started the third quarter on a 14-3 run to take a 40-26 lead on a Sadie Edwards bucket midway through the period. Kristen Simon made a layup shortly thereafter, but the Trojans would then go more than six minutes without a field goal.
The Cardinal closed the third on a 10-1 run that was capped with an Alanna Smith 3-pointer at the buzzer and kept the momentum rolling into the fourth.
Stanford grabbed its first lead since the game's early moments, 53-51, when McPhee absorbed contact from Aliyah Mazyck, made her jumper and sank the free throw with just under three minutes remaining. The senior scored again the next time down to extend the Cardinal advantage, but Edwards hit a high-arcing 3-pointer from the corner at the other end to move the Trojans within one.
Edwards split a pair of free throws to tie the game 55-55 with 41 seconds to go before McPhee came up clutch. She dragged her defender all the way out to the 3-point line and took a jab step toward midcourt. Mazyck bit on the move and jumped out on McPhee, who cut backdoor and received a pinpoint pass from Marta Sniezek. McPhee, who took the ball in stride and didn't even need to put in on the floor, avoided Jordan Adams in the air and dropped in her layup with 25 seconds on the clock. Sniezek would make a pair of late free throws to give Stanford some cushion in the final margin.
Stanford made seven of its last 11 field goals and only turned the ball over once in the fourth quarter after racking up 13 in the first half. In the final 6:40, the Cardinal defense limited USC to just one field goal and forced six turnovers.
USC's 14-point lead in the third would have been much worse were it not for Carrington, who scored Stanford's first eight in the quarter. She tipped in an offensive rebound, was fouled and made the free throw to start the frame and ended her one-woman show with a 3-pointer more than five minutes in.
Stanford had 13 first-half turnovers, including one on each of its first four possessions. All of the Trojans' 14 first-quarter points came off Cardinal miscues. Simon scored all 12 USC points in the second period and ended with 17 overall. Mazyck led all scorers with 20.
