By: Joe Lami

The Arizona State Sun Devils have been the thorn in the side for Stanford all season long, beating them in both appearances.  However, Stanford got their revenge on Saturday, as they outlasted the #9 Sun Devils 59-56 to move onto the Pac-12 Championship game on Sunday.

Arizona State had Stanford’s number this season, heading into Saturday nights contest defeating Stanford at Maples Pavilion by three and at Wells Fargo Arena by one.  The Cardinal were just not able to finish down the line when it mattered in both of those contests.

Arizona State pushed towards the end, once again, taking a one point lead with just 2:19 remaining, but were unable to score the rest of the way for Stanford to get the victory.

The Cardinal held Arizona State to a terrible shooting percentage of 32%, but the Sun Devils were able to stay in the contest as they were on fire from the charity strike shooting 16 of 21, as Stanford had way too many fouls, totaling 21.  There is no surprise that Sophie Brunner led the way for Arizona State, as the Sun Devils top scorer finished the night with 14 points.  Quinn Dornstauder came off the bench to add 13, including a perfect five of five from the free throw line.

Seniors, Amber Orrange and Taylor Greenfield, led Stanford in scoring with 18 and 17 respectively, as they were really the only players to get anything done for Stanford.  Greenfield was able to hit the game winning jumper with just 44 seconds remaining, taking a 57-56 lead.  The Cardinal later added two free throws to get to the final score.

Next up for the Cardinal, their rival, the California Golden Bears, as the two will square off for the Pac-12 Championship game.  Cal advanced to the game defeating Colorado 68-55.  Stanford is 1-1 against Cal this season, as each team earned a road victory last month.  Either way, both teams are pretty much automatic shoe-ins for the NCAA tournament, predicted to each be a four-seed, making the game for bragging rights on top of the Pac-12 title.