LAS VEGAS — During the regular season, Stanford held Washington to 54 and 53 points in two blowout victories.

The Cardinal was a bit more lenient Saturday, but still showed no mercy in their third win over the Huskies this season.

Second-seeded Stanford never trailed in its Pac-12 tournament semifinal at the MGM Grand Garden and moved into Sunday’s championship game against No. 1 seed Oregon after a 72-60 victory over the 11th-seeded Huskies.

“We’re really appreciate of being in the championship game,” Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. “It says a lot about our program. I think it really gets us ready for the NCAA Tournament. We’re very excited to be playing in the championship game, and we want to play well.”

The Cardinal, who got 21 points and 12 rebounds from Alanna Smith, caught fire in the first half as they shot 50 percent (17-for-34) from the floor, including a 6-for-11 effort from 3-point range.

Maya Dodson and DiJonai Carrington each scored 14 points and Kiana Williams added 12. Carrington finished with a double-double after grabbing 10 rebounds.

The Cardinal finished the game hitting 28 of 62 (45.2 percent) from the field, including 11 of 24 (45.8 percent) from 3-point range.

“Our team has worked really hard,” VanDerveer said. “The depth of the conference, the competitiveness, has prepared us. That’s our 11th team in our league; that just shows you how strong our league is. Whether it’s been the battle against Washington, being down against Colorado, hitting a game-winning shot against Arizona, we know every night we have to play well. And I think that’s a good thing. If you don’t do the right thing you’re gonna lose.”

Washington did its best to hang around thanks to Amber Melgoza, who over a 7:24 span covering the second and third quarters scored all of her team’s 17 points. Three consecutive baskets from Melgoza cut Stanford’s lead to 45-37. The Huskies pulled within eight one more time, when Khayla Rooks buried a 3-pointer with 3:13 left in the third, but Williams and Smith drained back-to-back treys to push the lead to 14.

Melgoza led the Huskies with 32 points.

“Three straight games is obviously a very hard thing to do,” Melgoza said. “But I thought we all just played with tremendous heart out there, and we were just battling. We’ve battled for 40 minutes as much as we can, and, I mean, we obviously didn’t have the ending we wanted to because we obviously wanted to compete tomorrow.”

Stanford will have its hands full with Oregon, which beat the Cardinal 88-48 at Maples Pavilion in the teams’ lone meeting this season.

“As Tara always says, we have to look at it as we’re driving a car. It’s in the rearview mirror,” Carrington said. “And we can’t always harp on that loss, but we have to look every couple seconds, right, and see what we can build from it and what we can learn from that. I think that’s what we’ve done from that point on. We’ve grown as a team, we’ve grown as a unit. We’re improving our shot percentages and our field-goal percentages, and we’re playing smart and together. And I think tomorrow that will show for us.”

W.G. Ramirez is a freelance writer. Twitter: @WillieGRamirez