STANFORD, Calif.- Alanna Smith scored 28 points with four 3-pointers, Brittany McPhee added 17 points and nine rebounds and No. 4 seed Stanford is headed back to the Lexington Regional for a third straight March after beating scrappy 12th-seeded Florida Gulf Coast 90-70 on Monday night.
Freshman Kiana Williams shined on the big stage for the second time in three days with 12 points and six assists for the Cardinal (24-10), on to the Sweet 16 for the 11th straight season.
Florida Gulf Coast (31-5) set the single-season 3-point record with 431, breaking Sacramento State's mark of 424 from 2014-15, but didn't have the depth or talent to keep up against a taller Stanford team that made it hard for the Eagles to do their signature move: drive and dish.
Stanford will take on No. 1 Louisville - the first matchup between the power programs - on Friday in the regional semifinals. Playing previously in Lexington, the Cardinal lost to Washington in the 2016 Elite Eight then advanced to the Final Four from that regional last season.
China Dow found her shooting touch following intermission and hit the tying and breaking 3s in the third quarter as FGCU set the 3-point mark after the Eagles made nine in the first half.
Dow finished with 23 points all in the second half and six 3-pointers as the Eagles ran up their remarkable 3-point total for the season.
Yet do-everything Dow didn't have the kind of steady game she produced in a first-round win against fifth-seeded Missouri. She missed her first five field-goal tries, and four 3s, before she connected from deep with 7:39 left in the third for her first points of the night. She hit again from 3 at the 6:16 mark of the third for the single-season record.
The Eagles, without a single 6-footer on the roster, won 11 of their final 12 games and 21 of 23.
Stanford shot 12-for-17 in the first quarter to take a 33-17 lead but went 3-of-11 for only 10 points in the second as their halftime lead was cut to 43-35.
Notes: FGCU scored its first 12 points all on 3s. The Eagles, with their RainingThrees hashtag, finished another special season. They were in the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in seven years with Division I postseason eligibility and won an NCAA game for the first time since beating Oklahoma State in 2015. Stanford is 36-4 in NCAA games at home in Maples Pavilion.