Women’s basketball | No. 1 Stanford tops Ohio State 71-52

Top-ranked Stanford held visiting Ohio State to 38.6% shooting from the field and Haley Jones scored 15 points as the Cardinal downed the Buckeyes 71-52 Sunday night.

Jones was 6 of 9 from the field and added seven rebounds and six assists.

“She’s not just a good freshman, she’s a good player, period,” Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. “She plays every position, she has stamina, she plays hard and she’s versatile. Her biggest advantage is her brain.”

The Cardinals (9-0) led 17-13 after the first quarter but tightened up on both ends of the floor in the second, taking a 37-23 lead into halftime.

Ohio State (6-4) shot better in the third quarter (8 of 17), but it wasn’t enough to keep up with the Cardinal, which shot 50% from the field (30 of 60) for the game.

Stanford’s Lexie Hull, Kiana Williams and Francesca Belibi each scored 13 points. Hull added seven steals, and Belibi grabbed eight rebounds.

Stanford outrebounded OSU 37-32, and the Cardinal took advantage of 24 Buckeyes turnovers.

Janai Crooms led the Buckeyes with 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field, and she added six rebounds, two assists and two steals.

“Janai did a lot of good things on offense,” Buckeyes coach Kevin McGuff said. “We turned the ball over way too much. Stanford is a great team and they execute at a high level.”

Dorka Juhasz made 5 of 6 shots for 10 points.

Ohio State converted only 4 of 9 free throws for the game and were 4 of 19 from the three-point line against its third top-five opponent in six games.

“We played a difficult schedule and we’ve had growing pains,” McGuff said. “It will help prepare us for the Big 10. It’s disappointing we didn’t play better but there’s a long way to go.”