December 29, 2012

Cardinal schooled by the Huskies

UConn, who was clearly the better team today, defeated Stanford easily 61-35.

Stanford had no answer for UConn's superb defense. It almost literally stopped the Cardinal in its tracks time and time again. It held them to the fewest points in a game and the lowest shooting percentage (19.3) in the 24 years that those stats have been recorded.

The Cardinal defense was pretty good too. It held the Huskies to their fewest points of the season, and the Cardinal got more rebounds (44-40) and more O-boards (17-6) — the only encouraging stats for them and their fans.

Chiney was heavily defended — double- and triple-teamed — but she never stopped trying. She kept forcing up shots — many of which teetered on the rim, then fell out of the basket. I don't believe she got a single sweet roll today. She made only 27% of her shots, but her persistence earned her yet another double-double of 18 points and 13 rebounds.

Bonnie brought a gleam of hope to Cardinal fans when she sank back-to-back three-pointers midway through the second half.

But it was far too little, far too late. The Cardinal will have many lessons to learn from the video of today's game.

Chiney speaks to the team after the game

Here are game reports and commentary:

The box score and play-by-play,

A gallery of photos by Bob Drebin (Stanford Photo),

A gallery of photos from the (Mercury News),

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