January 12, 2012

Cardinal Up-ends the Utes

Strong defense and balanced offense led the Cardinal to a 62-43 victory over the Utah Utes.

The Cardinal defense held the Utes to a tie of their season-low 43 points on 28% shooting. Toni's and Chiney's dogged defense of Iwalani Rodrigues reduced her three-point production to three of ten (she popped a fourth one, unguarded, in the Utes' last possession). The Cardinal out-rebounded the Utes 43-34 and had seven blocks and six steals.

The Cardinal weren't shooting particularly well either – 43% on field goals isn't bad, but 69% at the charity stripe and 9% beyond the arc!

However, Nneka and Chiney did get their usual double-doubles – 18,13 and 11,14 respectively. They each had two blocks and a steal.

Toni also scored in double-digits (13) and sank the Cardinal's only three-pointer of the evening.

Amber started tonight and ran the point for 20 minutes. She tallied eight points, two rebounds, two steals, three assists and zero turnovers. Not fully reflected in the box score was her ferocious defense, which Chiney described as, "... all up in the grill, forcing turnovers and deflecting the ball."

Here are game reports:

The box score and play-by-play,

And lots of photos by Jim Urquhart and Chris Detrick (Associated Press):

Chiney drives past Michelle Plouffe Chiney gets all tied up Nneka reaches for a rebound Nneka grabs a rebound Nneka lays on a perfect block Nneka blocks another one Nneka jumps over a fallen Ute Nneka tries a bit of robbery The sisters gang up on Taryn Wicijowski Amber, Nneka and Chiney triple-team Taryn Wicijowski Joslyn and Amber on defense Joslyn on defense Amber battles for the ball Sarah is not so easily distracted

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