Oregon's Sabrina Ionescu breaks another record but is only focused on 'cutting down nets'

LAS VEGAS -- Oregon's Sabrina Ionescu broke the Pac-12 women's tournament scoring record Saturday, then was asked if she had any other records in her sights.

"Cutting down nets," she said. "If that was a record, that's one of them. Hopefully three more to go."

Cutting down nets as the Pac-12 tournament champion, an NCAA regional winner and an NCAA champion are her goals.

The top-seeded Ducks take on Stanford on Sunday (ESPN2/ESPN App, 8 p.m. ET) in the Pac-12 final, a matchup that surprises no one. The Cardinal are the No. 3 seed, but their 67-51 victory over second-seeded UCLA in Saturday's other semifinal was not unexpected. And most people expected Oregon and Stanford -- which meet in the final for the third consecutive season (the Ducks won in 2018; the Cardinal in 2019) -- to be here when the season started.

The third-ranked Ducks won both regular-season matchups: 87-55 on Jan. 16 in Eugene, Oregon, and 74-66 on Feb. 24 at Stanford.

Will we see more of the same Ducks dominance Sunday? Here are five takeaways from Las Vegas that might impact the final.

Can Stanford stop Sabrina's scoring?

Ionescu had 31 points in an 88-70 victory over Arizona on Saturday. In Friday's quarterfinal victory over Utah, she scored 19. She now has 230 points in 11 Pac-12 tournament games, surpassing the record of 221 by Stanford's Nneka Ogwumike in 11 games.

Admittedly, the Pac-12 women's tournament only goes back to 2002, so some of the top players in league history -- such as USC's Lisa Leslie and Tina Thompson, and Stanford's Jennifer Azzi and Kate Starbird -- didn't play in a league tournament. Still, over the past 19 years, no player has totaled more points in this event than Ionescu, which is particularly notable considering she's also an elite playmaker.

"I think they're just equally impressive, you know?" Oregon coach Kelly Graves said of Ionescu's triple-threat ability. "It is not like she's the only scorer on our team. Look at her average this year: She's not even averaging 20 points a game, but it is just so consistent."

Ionescu -- who is averaging 17.4 PPG, 8.6 RPG and 9.0 APG -- scored big in both victories over Stanford, getting 37 points in the first meeting and 21 in the second. In the latter, a game played just hours after Ionescu helped eulogize friend and mentor Kobe Bryant, she had her 26th triple-double of the season while reaching the 2,000-point, 1,000-rebound, 1,000-assist milestone.

Can Stanford prevent another big offensive output by Ionescu on Sunday? That will take better defensive execution than the Cardinal had in the regular season against the Ducks.

Ducks deadly from behind arc

Oregon can burn teams offensively in a lot of ways, but the Ducks have been particularly good from 3-point range these past two games. They were 12-of-23 from long range against Utah, and 15-of-31 against Arizona. The latter is the single-game record in Pac-12 tournament history. Ionescu was 6-of-9 from behind the arc Saturday, and Erin Boley 4-of-8.

"This is a good basketball team offensively -- we're an elite team, one of the best of all time, quite frankly," Graves said. "So when we get it rolling and get to that tempo and find shooters and knocking them down, we become really difficult."

Hull squared helping Stanford

Sophomore twins Lexie and Lacie Hull have been big thus far in the tournament. In the quarterfinal win over Oregon State, Lacie had 10 points. In the semifinal win over UCLA, Lexie had 28.

And both defensively can use their size to slow down other teams' perimeter attack, which is part of what Stanford will need against Oregon.

"They're blue-collar workers," teammate Kiana Williams said of the Hulls. "They do it at both ends of the court, and their length gives them an advantage. They're experienced, and played a lot their freshmen year when we won the Pac-12 tournament."

Cardinal taking underdog role