STANFORD, Calif. (AP) — Cameron Brink had 23 points, 15 rebounds and four blocked shots, and No. 9 Stanford pulled away in the third quarter to bounce back from its lone defeat this season with an 81-51 win against Portland on Friday night.
Brink made 11 of 13 free throws and also dished out four assists, while Brooke Demetre added 10 points as Stanford (9-1) returned to the court for its first game after a two-week break for final exams. The Cardinal lost 96-78 at Gonzaga on Dec. 3 then were challenged for a half by another West Coast Conference opponent.
Hall of Fame coach Tara VanDerveer notched her 1,195th career victory to move within eight of passing Mike Krzyzewski's 1,202 to become the winningest coach in the men's or women's college games.
Emme Shearer scored 12 points to lead Portland (6-6), which was coming off a 68-63 overtime win against UTEP.
The Cardinal improved to 6-0 at home and has won all four meetings between the programs, including 87-47 last season.
After missing its first shot of the game Stanford hit 10 in a row to go ahead 24-8. But the Cardinal then went cold in an eight-point second quarter, shooting 2 for 14 and missing its last eight for a 36-25 halftime lead.
SWAT TEAM
The game featured two of the nation's top shot blockers — Brink and Portland senior Lucy Cochrane, a 6-foot-6 grad student from Australia who came in averaging an NCAA-best 4.36 blocks per game and finished with just one to push her season total to 49. Brink has 34 and is the nation's active career leader with 331.
BIG PICTURE
Cardinal second-leading scorer Kiki Iriafen, averaging 17.1 points coming into the game, played just under 6 minutes in the first half because of two fouls. She wound up with 13 points and seven rebounds.
Stanford — which shot 2 for 11 from deep in the first half and was 0 of 5 in the second quarter to finish 4 of 22 on 3-pointers — hasn't lost consecutive non-conference games since Dec. 18 and 21, 2017, to Western Illinois and No. 7 Tennessee.
Portland's bench was whistled for a technical foul late in the third. Stanford scored 15 points off the Pilots' 15 turnovers.
UP NEXT
Portland: Hosts Willamette on Sunday having won the last 10 in the series while going 7-0 at home.
Stanford: Hosts UC Davis on Wednesday afternoon.
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AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball
