Stanford races past Hawkeyes, 96-67

STANFORD, Calif. - This was a track meet. And the Iowa Hawkeyes got lapped.

No. 2 Stanford played breathtaking basketball in the first half and ran the Hawkeyes out of the NCAA women's tournament, 96-67, in a second-round game last night at Maples Pavilion.

Stanford (33-1) made 16 of its first 18 shots from the floor, drained its first nine 3-point attempts and scored 61 first-half points - 40 in the first 10 minutes.

“Their offense was even better than I anticipated, even better than we'd seen on film,” said Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder.

Rosalyn Gold-Onwude made 7 of 9 shots from 3-point range and scored 26 points, Pac-10 player of the year Nnemkadi Ogwumike added 23 and Jayne Appel tallied 16 as the Cardinal moved a step closer to their third straight Final Four.

They'll face No. 23 Georgia (26-8) in a Sacramento Region semifinal at ARCO Arena on Saturday.

Iowa, which reached the second round for the first time since 2002, bowed out at 20-14.

The Hawkeyes lost for only the fourth time in their last 16 games.

But this defeat was decisive.

The Hawkeyes knew they would have to be extremely good to pull the upset.

Instead, Stanford was close to flawless in the opening half. And that spelled a rout.

“They were feeling it tonight,” said Iowa's Kachine Alexander, who scored a career-high 27 points. “Stuff like that happens sometimes.”

The Hawkeyes played hard enough. Stanford was simply superior.

As expected, the pace was frenetic, and Iowa kept close for six minutes.

But the dam broke, and 3-pointers flowed for the Cardinal - mostly from the golden hand of Gold-Onwude.

She hit all six of her long-distance attempts before halftime, sprinkled in a mere 15-footer and had 20 points at intermission.

“She hit those threes and it gave them a lot of confidence,” Bluder said. “You could tell they were feeling extremely well.”

Iowa was within shouting distance at 16-14 before Gold-Onwude gave the home team some separation.

Back-to-back treys made it 22-14. It was 27-18 when the real avalanche began.

An 18-0 run in a span of 3:10 made it 45-18 at the 8:40 mark.

“They were scoring in the paint, then our guards had to suck in, and they knocked down shots,” said Iowa's Gabby Machado.

Ogwumike had 17 points in the first half, Appel 10.

All of Stanford's top three scorers were on the bench in the final eight minutes.

Alexander drew a standing ovation from the Stanford crowd when she exited with 33 seconds remaining.

She scored back-to-back baskets to cap a 9-0 run that got the Hawkeyes within 45-27, but Stanford pushed away again.

It was 61-34 at the half, and the margin grew as large as 38 points with about seven minutes to go.