Second-seeded Stanford survives cold shooting, ousts No. 11 Missouri State

Stanford survived a miserable offensive performance and managed to put away the equally inept 11th-seeded Missouri State Lady Bears, 55-46, in their Chicago Region semifinal in Chicago on Saturday evening.

Stanford won despite shooting just 25.0 percent from the floor.

Second-seeded Stanford (31-4) advances to a Monday night date to play the region's top seed, Notre Dame (33-3), which defeated No. 4 Texas A&M earlier Saturday.

Alanna Smith, the Cardinal's leading scorer at 19.8 points per game, finished with a team-high 13 points despite spending much of the second half on the bench in foul trouble. Anna Wilson added 11 points and Lexie Hull had nine rebounds for Stanford.

Danielle Gitzen, Missouri State's leading scorer at 13.0 points per game, finished with a game-high 14 points and added eight rebounds, and Jasmine Franklin scored all 11 of her points in the second half as the Lady Bears tried to make a run. Franklin also had 10 rebounds.

Missouri State (25-10), which struggled badly with its shooting, at 25.4 percent, made a game of it in the third quarter after trailing by nine at halftime.

The Lady Bears cut their deficit to 30-26 with 6:38 left in the third quarter when Brice Calip sank the team's first 3-pointer. The Lady Bears missed all four of their attempts in the first half.

Missouri State's second 3-pointer of the quarter, this one by Sydney Wilson, cut the lead to 34-31, but Anna Wilson answered with a trey for Stanford.

Gitzen hit a bucket with about a minute left to again trim the deficit to three, but Stanford, which continued to struggle with its shooting in the quarter, hit its last four shots in the stanza.

The Cardinal's Shannon Coffee hit a 3-pointer and DiJonai Carrington scored on a layup to extend the lead to 43-35 going into the fourth quarter.

Missouri State scored only one point in the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, however, and Anna Wilson's layup with 5:24 left pushed the lead to a game-high 13 at 49-36.

Stanford went cold again offensively, and the Lady Bears inched back into the game late, pulling to within 49-44 with just over two minutes left, and they had a chance to pull closer, but Coffee blocked a shot with 1:29 left.

The Lady Bears missed a layup with 40 seconds left, and Stanford secured the win.

--Field Level Media