STANFORD, Calif. – Stanford's senior leader and its impact freshman were honored at the national and conference levels on Monday morning. Brittany McPhee was named both espnW National Player of the Week and Pac-12 Player of the Week while Kiana Williams won her second Pac-12 Freshman of the Week award.
Brittany McPhee had two of the best games of her career as No. 24 Stanford swept a pair of ranked opponents on the road, beating No. 16 Oregon State (60-57) and No. 6 Oregon (78-65). McPhee started the weekend with her second career double-double, going for 18 points and a career-high 12 rebounds against the Beavers. Ten of her 18 points came in the second half, as did eight of her 12 rebounds.
The senior did herself one better at No. 6 Oregon on Sunday, scoring 31 of her career-high 33 in the second half to propel the Cardinal to a win over its highest-ranked opponent on the road since it won at No. 3 Rutgers in 2007. McPhee scored Stanford's final 19 points of the game and outscored the Ducks single-handedly in the second half, 31-24. She made the Cardinal's final nine field goals over the last nine minutes and shot 13-of-18 (.722) from the floor in the second half.
McPhee averaged 25.5 points on 55 percent shooting in the two massive victories, which gave Stanford a leg up for the Pac-12 regular-season crown. It's her second national player of the week honor of the season and the first time she's been named Pac-12 Player of the Week in her career. McPhee was also picked as the country's best on Jan. 1 after averaging 23.5 points on 54 percent shooting, 7.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists in Stanford's home victories to start conference play over No. 11 UCLA and USC.
Kiana Williams scored 14 points in each game of Stanford's road sweep. The freshman settled Stanford early in the third quarter when the Cardinal was down six at OSU, consistently knocking down mid-range pull-up jumpers. She finished with her 14 on 6-of-11 shooting. Against Oregon, Williams was one shy of her career high was four made 3-pointers as part of her 14-point effort.
She has scored in double figures in 12 of her last 17 games and is averaging 10.8 points in 12 conference games, better than any freshman in the Pac-12. Williams was also named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week on Jan. 8 after leading Stanford in scoring at Arizona and No. 25 Arizona State with an average of 13.0 points per game.
The Cardinal is up to No. 17 in the Associated Press Top 25 and No. 12 in the NCAA RPI. Stanford next hosts Utah on Friday at 7 p.m. for its annual National Girls & Women in Sports Day celebration.
