by Bob Sims

Brittany McPhee has come back home again.

The former Mount Rainier High basketball star, a Stanford Cardinal now, is in town with her team for the Pac-12 Conference women's basketball tournament.

The 19th-ranked Cardinal (21-9, 13-5 Pac-12) square off against UCLA (13-17, 8-10) in a quarterfinal game Friday at 2 p.m. at Key Arena. Stanford, which has won 10 of 13 conference championships, needs to advance to the title game at 6 p.m on Sunday to be seriously considered as a host site for the opening games of the NCAA tournament.

McPhee, a 6-foot freshman guard, is getting more and more playing time for Stanford after overcoming a preseason foot injury. She has averaged 12 points and 5.7 rebounds in her past four games, starting for the first time a couple of weeks ago.

McPhee, of Normandy Park, was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week on Feb. 23 after coming off the bench to score a career-high 24 points against California on Feb. 22. It was the most points a freshman has scored since Nnemkadi Ogwumike exploded for 27 against San Diego State in the 2009 NCAA tournament.

"She runs the floor really well; she scores; she rebounds," Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer told the Stanford Daily. "She does everything we need in her position."

VanDerveer is the fourth-winningest coach in women's Division I basketball, compiling a 945-216 mark over 24 seasons. Her Cardinal teams have won two NCAA championships and 18 Pac-12 titles.

At Mount Rainier, McPhee was a 2014 Parade All-American and a three-time Washington state Gatorade Player of the Year in girls' basketball. She had a 4.0 GPA in high school.

Tickets for the four-day tournament can be purchased at Ticketmaster.com, or pac-12.com/tickets.