Da'Shena Stevens and the St. John's women's basketball team faced a tall order Monday night in an NCAA Tournament second round game at Stanford. The Cardinal boasted an 82-game home winning streak and are the No. 1 seed in the Spokane Regional.
Trinity Catholic grad Stevens and the Red Storm built a first-half lead, but the Cardinal rallied and went on to beat St. John's, 75-49. Stevens, who was in foul trouble most of the game, finished with 11 points in 28 minutes. Norwalk's Briana Brown, a former star at King, also got into the game for St. Johns' (22-11) and scored two points.
"I mean it was pretty tough,'' Stevens said on the St. John's website. "We came out with a lot of energy and tried to limit them on their rebounds, second-chance shots. And they just got momentum going there and got it inside and hurt us inside. And then when we tried to pack it in, they hit the open shots so it was hard to try to take something away."
Stevens had consecutive baskets in an 11-0 run to help St. John's establish an early lead. The Red Storm was up 22-14 with 9:47 left in the first half. Stanford climbed back to get within 26-22 before finishing the half with a 16-4 run. Stevens saw limited time in the second half because of fouls, and Stanford pulled away.
St. John's beat Texas Tech, 55-50, in its first-round game. Stevens scored three points, grabbed 10 rebounds and contributed three steals in that victory. She finished the season as the team's second-leading scorer with 11.8 points per game in 31 starts. She was also the team's leading rebounder.
Brown, a freshman, saw time in 18 games for the Red Storm.
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