Cardinal breezes by the Bruins

Were the Bruins worn out from their tough win over Cal on Thursday? Was the Cardinal determined to get a prettier win this afternoon? Some of both probably. In any case, the Cardinal posted a definitive victory over the Bruins: 77-50.

The Bruins clearly were tired — moving slowly, making poor shot selections, missing bunnies. Thea Lemberger, who shot the lights out against Cal on Thursday, had been suffering from severe leg cramps and scored just eight points today.

The Cardinal weren't playing great either for the first ten minutes. But they pulled themselves together for a 17-3 run and were up by 17 points at the break. The second half was no contest — the Bruins never managed to narrow the gap.

The Sisters racked up another double-double-double. 18 points and 10 rebounds (and two assists, two steals and a block) from Nneka. 15 points and 11 rebounds (and an assist, a block and zero fouls) from Chiney.

Toni had another fine game. She played the '2' for much of her 26 minutes on the court and scored 11 points, several on drives to the basket and "Wow!" layups.

Amber played the point for 19 minutes. I don't know if she's found her voice yet, but she did everything you want from a team leader. She dealt fast, hard passes leading to five assists with just one turnover. She played a pesky one-player press at times and got two steals. And she scored six points on three-of-four shooting — two of them on fast breaks.

Tara put in the reserves for the last 10 minutes or so, and they maintained the Cardinal dominance. Joslyn had nine points, four rebounds, a block and a steal. Sarah had eight points, three rebounds, an assist and a block. Sara had seven points and two rebounds.

The Cardinal were somewhat better at the stripe today - 70%. But they left their 3-pointers at home. They made four of 16 attempts against USC on Thursday and just two of 13 this afternoon. I trust that the 3-pointers are not lost completely — just temporarily misplaced.

Here are game reports:

• No. 4 Stanford Rout UCLA 77-50 Behind Ogwumike Double-Doubles by Beth Harris (Associated Press)
• Ogwumike sisters sees double in conference win over UCLA from Palo Alto Online
• New Year’s Eve in Westwood by Wally Mersereau

The box score and play-by-play,

A gallery of photos by Rob Ericson (Stanford Photo),

And photos by Richard Hartog (Associated Press):

Chiney on the move Toni launches one Sarah shoots while being punched in the mouth? Chiney lays up a shot Taylor and Toni battle for a loose ball