STANFORD, Calif. – Chloe Clardy scored a career-high 22 points and Stanford cut a 19-point deficit to two late in the game, but was unable to complete the comeback in a 75-72 loss to No. 22 California on Thursday night.
The Golden Bears (18-3, 6-2) were up 19 when Marta Suarez made a driving layup midway through the third quarter, but the Cardinal (10-9, 2-6) held Cal scoreless over the final 4:07 and trailed 61-48 heading into the fourth. After Ioanna Krimili made a bucket to open the final frame, the Cardinal reeled off a 10-0 run to make it a five-point game with 5:33 to go.
The run was punctuated by Shay Ijiwoye ripping the ball out of the hands of Michelle Onyiah, leading the break and finding Clardy for the left-handed finish in a 2-on-1 situation.
Stanford was within two, 66-64, when Courtney Ogden made a pair of free throws. But the Cardinal’s momentum was stopped when, after Ogden’s second, the officials stopped play to go to the monitor to review the rebound. Cal’s Jayda Noble had fallen under the basket on an Ijiwoye box out and the Stanford freshman was assessed an intentional foul. It was Ijiwoye’s fifth, Krimili made both at the line and Cal was give possession.
Down six with 90 seconds to play, Nunu Agara made a 3-pointer to cut it to three. Kayla Williams made a layup at the other end, but Agara answered with another triple to make it 73-71 with 49 seconds left. The teams’ traded free throws to make it 75-72 and the Cardinal had a couple of desperation 3-pointers with under 10 seconds to go, but neither dropped.
Agara was the other Cardinal in double figures with 19.
One game after scoring 44 of Stanford’s 49 in a loss at No. 16 Duke, its underclassmen again performed admirably in defeat. Cardinal freshmen and sophomores combined for 61 of their team’s 71 points, including 39 of 41 points in the second half.
Stanford is off for a week and returns to the floor when it hosts Pittsburgh next Thursday, Jan. 30 at 7 p.m. on ACCNX.