Cardinal clamps down on the Cougars

The Cougars played a great game — for 15 minutes. Their defense kept our bigs away from the basket, and their driving offense kept them in the lead from the opening basket until the 05:27 mark.

Then the Cardinal tightened their defense, stepped up the pace and took control of the game. The first half finished with a beautiful coast-to-coast layup by Toni, and the Cardinal went into the locker room ahead by eleven points. They stayed in control for the second half and won 75-41.

The "new" lineup was in effect again tonight, with Joslyn and Amber joining Nneka, Chiney and Toni.

Nneka had the biggest double-double with 22 points and 10 rebounds. Chiney was close behind with 19 points and 12 rebounds, and she may be over her charity-line slump — she made five of six free throws.

Joslyn had an almost double-double with nine points and eight rebounds, but that's not all. She also had four assists, two blocks, three steals and zero turnovers.

Toni played the most — 30 minutes. She didn't tally a lot in the box score — four points, three rebounds, five assists and two steals. But she was also a tiger on defense. She forced held balls and turnovers and generally disrupted the Cougars' offense.

Amber did a good job at the point for 21 minutes. Her only score was a free throw, but she grabbed five rebounds, stole the ball three times and had three assists with no turnovers. Her assist-to-turnover ratio is now a very good 2.25.

Bonnie came in and tried to take advantage of the Cougars' zone defense, but her shot wasn't quite on tonight. She made just two of seven attempts. There was an entertaining sequence late in the first half when, in the space of 11 seconds, Bonnie missed a 3-ptr, Nneka got the rebound, Bonnie missed a 3-ptr, Joslyn got the rebound, Bonnie missed a three-pointer, Amber got the rebound.

Some of the most gratifying statistics (for Cardinal fans) didn't appear on the scoreboard. The Cardinal were handling the ball beautifully with hard, fast passes and tallied 19 assists. They out-stole the Cougars (who were second in the Pac-12 in steals) 12-4. And they turned the ball over three times less than the Cougars (who had the best turnover margin in the Pac-12).

Here are game reports:

• Stanford Tops Washington State, 75-41 from the Associated Press
• No. 4 Stanford Cardinal continues dominance over Washington State in women's basketball by Elliott Almond (Mercury News)
• Ogwumike sisters foil Cougars' upset bid from Palo Alto Online
• WBB: Stanford 75 WSU 41 from The CARDboard
• Stanford wins 72nd straight home game by Jake Curtis
• Stanford breezes by Cougars by Tom Taylor (The Stanford Daily)

The box score and play-by-play,

A gallery of photos by Don Feria (isiphotos.com)

And more photos by Paul Sakuma (Associated Press):

Chiney shoots through her triple team Nneka soars above her defenders Toni and Joslyn are fierce defenders Nneka trips over a Cougar Held ball! Ouch!!! The bench celebrates