Cal women deny Stanford shot at Pac-12 title

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On Senior Day at Stanford, a couple of Cal seniors stole the show.

Reshanda Gray, whom the Cardinal held in check in a 59-47 Stanford win four days earlier, scored 17 points, and Brittany Boyd had 12 points and 13 rebounds as the Bears knocked off the No. 18 Cardinal 63-53 on Sunday at Maples Pavilion.

The Bears (20-7, 12-4) moved into a third-place tie with Stanford in the Pac-12, and in the process, deprived the Cardinal of a chance for their 15th straight regular-season conference title.

No. 7 Oregon State (15-1 Pac-12) hosts Stanford (20-8, 12-4) on Thursday night.

To Cal head coach Lindsay Gottlieb, the end to the Cardinal’s title streak “speaks way more to the strength of the conference than to Stanford being any less good than they normally are. They lose the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft (Chiney Ogwumike), change their offense and they still have 20 wins.

“Stanford would have been a worthy champion. They’re just not, because there’s other really good teams in the conference.”

The Cardinal, who held Cal to three second-half baskets at Haas Pavilion on Wednesday night, couldn’t make key baskets down the stretch in the rematch.

“We weren’t as aggressive as we needed to be,” head coach Tara VanDerveer said. “We didn’t do a good enough job attacking. We turned it over too much.”

Stanford, one of the best teams in the conference at protecting the ball, committed 17 turnovers and took just three foul shots. It also committed a hard-to-fathom five shot-clock violations.

All three foul shots were taken by freshman Brittany McPhee, who gave Stanford a huge jolt of energy when she entered a few minutes into the game. She scored 15 of her game-high 24 points in the first half, after which Stanford led 29-27.

Cal broke open the game in the final minutes. The Bears made 8 of 19 three-point shots after hitting just 4 of 20 in Berkeley.

After they beat Stanford for just the second time in the past 15 meetings, Gottlieb “got emotional in the locker room,” she said, “not because I’m surprised we won.” She was just delighted because “our players are the most resilient people I know.”

Boyd and Gray, in particular, didn’t stay down after combining for just two points in the first half.

Sophomore guard Mercedes Jefflo added 15 points for the Bears, including three important treys. Meanwhile, Amber Orrange (11 points) was the only Cardinal player other than McPhee to score more than five points. Lili Thompson, Stanford’s leading scorer, was held to two points.

“We have to be focused on the Pac-12 tournament in order to guarantee ourselves an NCAA bid,” VanDerveer said.

There’s little doubt about a berth in the Big Dance for either Stanford or Cal. But for the first time in a long time, the Cardinal will enter it without a regular-season title.

Tom FitzGerald is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: tfitzgerald@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @tomgfitzgerald

Pac-12 women