Cardinal survives bear traps

It looked so easy for 20 minutes. There was little evidence of the Bruins' vaunted pressure defense; their star freshman, hampered by an injured nose, couldn't find the basket; Ros was having a fabulous game; the Cardinal took a double-digit lead into the second half.

Then the Bruins cranked up the defense – cranked it way up – and the Cardinal's game started to fall apart. They missed shots; they got into foul trouble (Nneka got her fourth foul with 12 minutes left to play; Jayne fouled out at 2:44). The Bruins narrowed the lead little by little – to two points on Doreena Campbell's three-pointer with a 1:40 left to play. But Nneka made her free throws, and Ros made her free throws, and the Cardinal won 65-61.

The Cardinal had two MVPs in this game – Ros and Nneka.

Ros was shooting the lights out. She scored a career-high 18 points. She made 41.7% of her field goal attempts, 66.7% of her three-pointers (four of six!) and 100% of her free throws, including two that sealed the victory with four seconds left to play.

Nneka played hard and well throughout the game, even after she got that fourth foul. She was the top scorer, with 21 points, and had nine rebounds. Crucial to the Cardinal's victory: she made 11 of 12 free throws, four of them in the last two minutes of the game.

Here are the game reports:

• UCLA misses mark on complete effort against Stanford by Michelle Smith
• Stanford women get a scare from UCLA by Jake Curtis
• Stanford women escape Bruin trap with a 65-61 Pac-10 victory from Palo Alto Online
• No. 2 Stanford Holds On Against Bruins, 65-61 from the Associated Press

The box score and play-by-play,

And more photos:

Mel goes up for a shot Kayla drives to the basket Jayne fights for a rebound Kayla on defense