SEATTLE – Brittany McPhee scored 25 points and No. 16 Stanford survived a stern test from last-place Washington on Friday night, 86-79.
Stanford (20-9, 14-3), which has now won 20 games for 17 consecutive seasons, came out on top despite a career-high 40 points from the Huskies' (7-21, 1-16) Amber Melgoza. The sophomore was 14-of-26 shooting and made a career-high five 3-pointers in scoring the most points by a Pac-12 player this season.
Stanford has had to overcome some incredible individual performances in Alaska Airlines Arena of late. Last season the Cardinal knocked off No. 7 Washington on Jan. 29 despite 44 points from Kelsey Plum.
Stanford matched its largest lead when a Marta Sniezek 3-point play put the Cardinal up 81-71 with 90 seconds left. Melgoza answered with a 3-pointer and another bucket before the Stanford made 5-of-6 from the line in the final 37 seconds to seal it.
McPhee scored 20 for the ninth time this season and third time in her last four games. In front of family and friends, the Normandy Park native put in 13 of Stanford's 24 in the second quarter as the Cardinal was able to turn an eight-point, first-quarter deficit into a seven-point halftime lead.
Stanford closed the half on a 10-0 run and held UW scoreless over the final 3:17 to go up 42-35 at the break. Washington threatened, but made it a one-possession game just once in the second half. Alexis Griggsby hit a 3-pointer from the left wing to make it 71-68 midway through the fourth quarter, but McPhee answered right back with a triple to push it back to six.
Melgoza got Washington off to big start. She hit four 3-pointers and scored 18 points in the first quarter after which the Huskies led 26-18. Stanford was up 16-8 after Sniezek hit back-to-back 3-pointers in the opening period, but UW closed on an 18-2 run over the final 4:05, which featured 10 points from Melgoza.
McPhee led four Stanford players in double figures. Alanna Smith had 12 of her 15 in the second half, Marta Sniezek tied her career high with 13 and Nadia Fingall chipped in 10 on a perfect 5-of-5 shooting in 15 minutes off the bench. Kaylee Johnson pulled down 13 rebounds and was a team-high +19 in her 31 minutes. The senior now has 10 double-digit rebound games this season after grabbing that many just three times last year.
Both teams shot well from 3-point range. Stanford made 12-of-29 (41 percent) and Washington 13-of-29 (45 percent), but the Cardinal outrebounded the Huskies 38-22, including 19 offensive boards that led to a 27-8 advantage in second-chance points. It was the fourth time this season the Cardinal has made at least 10 from behind the arc.
The Huskies were hot from start to finish and shot over 50 percent in every quarter by the second, including a blistering 69.2 percent in the fourth. Washington's 52.8 percent clip from the field (28-of-53) was the best for a Stanford opponent since 2010, when DePaul made 59.6 percent (31-of-52) to beat the Cardinal by 20, 91-71.
With one game remaining Stanford is alone in second place in the Pac-12, one game behind No. 8 Oregon and a game ahead of No. 12 Oregon State and No. 10 UCLA. The Cardinal has secured no worse than the No. 2 seed in next weekend's Pac-12 Tournament.
The victory was Stanford's 500th conference win as a member of the Pac-12.
