SEATTLE — Chucky Jeffery scored 19 points, including a game-clinching uncontested layup with 59 seconds left, and 18th-ranked Colorado survived a frigid-shooting first half to beat Washington 70-59 in the quarterfinals of the Pacific-12 tournament Friday night.
The Buffaloes (25-5), the tournament’s No. 4 seed and winners of 10 straight, face top seed and No. 4-ranked Stanford in the semifinals today. The Cardinal (29-2) cruised past Washington State 79-60 in another quarterfinal on Friday. Stanford beat Colorado by 17 and 13 points during the regular season.
Jamee Swan added 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Buffaloes, who pulled away after shooting 28 percent in the first half.
Jazmine Davis scored 17 points for the fifth-seeded Huskies, (20-11) who will have to hope for an at-large bid if it they are to play in their first NCAA tournament since 2007. Talia Walton had 13 and eight rebounds.
Colorado scored eight straight points to open the second half to build a 37-26 lead — the first double-digit margin for either team.
Washington answered with its own 8-0 run, getting back within 37-34. The Huskies got as close as two on three subsequent occasions, the last time at 51-49 with 5:50 to play.
After the Buffs pushed the lead to 63-53 with two minutes remaining, Washington got back-to-back 3-pointers from Heather Corral and Talia Walton to cut it to 63-59 with 1:06 left. But Jeffrey followed with a layup and three free throws to put it out of reach.
Colorado warmed up in the second half, shooting 48 percent.
Washington never did get on track, shooting 28 percent in the game (17 of 61) and sinking just nine field goals in the first half and eight in the second.
After hitting just two of its first 15 shots and trailing for most of the first half, the Buffs went up by three at the break, 29-26. They finished the half on a 12-6 run, going ahead for the first time at 25-23 on a jumper from the foul line by Jeffery after she stole the ball.
Washington was hoping to ride the momentum of Thursday’s dramatic comeback from a 22-point deficit to beat Oregon 69-62 in the first round. The Huskies have never won more than one game in the conference tournament.
Stanford 79, Washington State 60
SEATTLE — Once she got the clearance from doctors to be in attendance, there was no way June Daugherty wasn’t going to coach Washington State.
Even if that meant she had to view the game from a different perspective and could only be on the actual court during timeouts.
“It was definitely different. Sitting up a couple of rows higher, and able to watch it from a different perspective and then on timeouts, I just tried to help with some of the adjustments that we were trying to do and some of the substitutions,” Daugherty said. “So it was really different. I don’t want to do it anymore. It wasn’t that good.”
Chiney Ogwumike had a double-double by halftime, finished with 23 points and 21 rebounds and No. 4 Stanford remained perfect against Washington State with a 79-60 win Friday night in the Pac-12 Conference tournament quarterfinals.
The Cardinal won their 15th straight and improved to 55-0 all-time against the Cougars. But losing to Stanford was secondary for Washington State.
On Thursday, just a couple of hours before the Cougars were set to face Arizona State in the first round, Daugherty had to be rushed to a local hospital for emergency appendix surgery. The procedure was successful and Daugherty’s husband Mike, an assistant coach, led the Cougars past the Sun Devils and into the tournament quarterfinals.
“I can’t say enough about my team,” Daugherty said. “To handle the adversity yesterday, it was a major distraction, because it happened about two hours before we took off for the game and again today. And Mike and the entire staff are phenomenal leaders.”
Lia Galdeira led Washington State (11-20) with 16 points.
UCLA 54, Utah 43
SEATTLE — Jasmine Dixon and Atonye Nyingifa both scored 11 points, and No. 14 UCLA held off Utah’s second-half rally to win over in the quarterfinals.
The Bruins will play No. 5 California in the semifinals tonight. UCLA (24-6) was swept by California during the regular season, including a 28-point loss at home in February.
Michelle Plouffe had 10 points and 14 rebounds for Utah (18-13), but made just 3 of 13 shots.
California 78, USC 59
SEATTLE — Gennifer Brandon had 17 points and 16 rebounds and No. 5 California scored the first 11 points on its way to a quarterfinal win.
California, the No. 2 seed in the tourney despite sharing the regular season crown with Stanford, will face No. 14 UCLA in the semifinals tonight.
Afure Jemerigbe and Brittany Boyd both had 15 points as California (28-2) won its 16th straight. The 28 wins sets a single-season school record. Talia Caldwell scored 12 points and grabbed nine rebounds and the Golden Bears topped the 70-point mark for the eighth time in their last 10 games.
Cassie Harberts led USC (11-20) with 24 points.
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