Basketball New Zealand

Kim Barnes (right) scored a career-high 18 points on Saturday

A clutch performance from South Auckland’s Kim Barnes has extended her US college’s season at least one more game.

Barnes scored a career-high 18 points (7/9 FG, 4/6 FT) with four rebounds and a block in 20 minutes of action in UC-Irvine’s 67-59 home win over Cal State-Fullerton on Saturday, securing the Anteaters a place in the Big West conference tournament, starting Wednesday.

The sophomore will suit up on Wednesday when the seventh-seeded Anteaters (7-22, 4-12) face Fullerton again in the first round.

Tall Ferns forward Jillian Harmon and her number two nationally-ranked Stanford Cardinal captured their ninth consecutive Pac-10 regular season title with home wins over Arizona and Arizona State last week.

Harmon had nine points (4/12 FG, 0/3 3pt, 1/2 FT), six assists, two rebounds and a block in 34 minutes in the 70-67 win over Arizona on Thursday, and seven points (3/9 FG, 1/3 FT), 10 rebounds, four assists and a steal in 36 minutes in a 77-68 victory over the Sun Devils.

As number one seeds, Stanford, last year’s beaten national finalists, finished the regular season 23-7, 15-3 in-conference, and will face the Washington State-Arizona first round winner in the Pac-10 tournament quarterfinals on Friday.

National team-mate Micaela Cocks could not prevent her Oregon Ducks from losing back-to-back games to finish the regular season.

Cocks scored 20 points (4/9 FG, 3/5 3pt, 9/9 FT), four rebounds, two assists and two steals in 36 minutes in a 70-69 home loss to UCLA on Thursday, and nine points (3/12 FG, 2/9 3pt, 1/1 FT), a rebound, assist and steal in 31 minutes in a 94-64 home loss to USC on Saturday.

Oregon (9-20, 5-13) now play Washington in the first round of the Pac-10 tournament on Thursday.

Harbour guard Kezia Kelly logged four minutes of court-time in Washington State’s 62-55 home loss to Washington on Friday, ending the year 11-18, 4-14 in the Pac-10.

Harbour freshman centre Rebecca Dew managed two points (1/1 FG), three rebounds and an assist in 13 minutes in a 75-57 road loss to Nevada on Saturday to close out their WAC regular season. The eighth-seeded Rainbow Wahine (7-22, 4-12) play San Jose State in the first round of the WAC tournament on Tuesday.

Canterbury’s Donna Lavea and the Lambuth Lady Eagles (25-5) booked a place in the NAIA-D1 national tournament with a win at the Association of Independent Institutions tournament on Sunday, defeating Vorhees College 88-69 in the title game.

Lavea scored four points (2/2 FG, 0/2 FT) with 10 boards in 17 minutes in the final, following on from six points (1/4 FG, 4/4 FT), five rebounds, two assists, two blocks and a steal in 19 minutes in a 91-87 semifinal win over Morris College on Saturday.

In Australia, former Tall Ferns guard Lisa Pardon will play for the Women’s National Basketball League title when her Bulleen Boomers meet the regular season champion Canberra Capitals on Friday.

Pardon went scoreless (0/4 FG, 0/3 3pt) with an assist in five minutes in the Boomers 79-68 home preliminary final win over the Townsville Fire on Friday to secure their place in the grand final.

Tall Ferns captain Aneka Kerr had two points (1/5 FG) with six rebounds, a steal and block in 21 minutes for the Fire.