Johnson, McCall lead No. 9 Stanford women past Buffs
STANFORD, Calif. (AP) Kaylee Johnson scored a career-high 17 points and had 11 rebounds, Erica McCall added 16 points and 11 rebounds and No. 9 Stanford beat Colorado 71-56 on Sunday.
Lili Thompson scored 12 and Karlie Samuelson added 11 points for the Cardinal (13-3, 3-1 Pac-12), who won their seventh in eight games and improved to 14-4 all-time against the Buffaloes.
Haley Smith scored 15 points to lead the Buffaloes (5-10, 0-4), who lost their fifth straight. Alexis Robinson, starting a third consecutive time, added 15 points.
The Buffaloes, who have lost nine straight to the Cardinal, were within 57-52 four minutes into the final period but could not hold off Stanford, which scored the next 10 points.
Colorado cut the lead to 37-33 less than four minutes into the third quarter but the Cardinal rebuilt a double-digit lead before Kennedy Leonard hit a layup in the final seconds to bring the Buffaloes within 49-40 entering the final quarter.
The Buffaloes made six of their first seven shots and held an 11-3 advantage following Makenzie Ellis' layup with 4:22 left in the first quarter. Colorado went 3-of-17 the rest of the first half.
The Cardinal out-scored the Buffaloes 25-10 the rest of the half and took a 28-21 lead into the intermission.
TIP-INS:
Colorado: Buffaloes assistant coach Jamie Carey began her college coach at Stanford under coach Tara VanDerveer. She was the Pac-10's Freshman of the Year in 2000 but was then forced to retire when the Cardinal's medical staff deemed her concussion issues too dangerous to continue. She transferred to Texas and was cleared to play there. ... Senior Jamee Swan, Colorado's top scorer and rebounder, missed her second straight game with an injury.
Stanford: Lili Thompson hit a 3-pointer in the first half and became the 36th Stanford player to record 1,000 career points. ... The Cardinal improved to 17-6 in Maples Pavilion since 2007-08. ... Stanford has held all but two of its opponents under 40 percent shooting. Texas shot 42.4 percent in its 77-69 victory over the Cardinal on Dec. 13 and Colorado shot 45 percent.
UP NEXT:
Colorado travels to No. 14 Arizona State on Friday.
Stanford travels to Oregon on Friday.
