Welcome back, Cardinal!
Our team played with speed and determination and aggression tonight — quick moves, crisp passes, tough defense, confident shooting. It took every bit of that effort to down the ambitious Buffs.
The Cardinal looked to have the game well under control until six minutes into the second half, at which point they led by 21. Then the Buffs stepped up the aggression and went on a 16-2 run.
With eight minutes left to play and their lead down to seven, the Cardinal regained control with a 7-point burst — a jumper by Jos, a three-pointer by Toni as the shot clock expired, and a rebound and put-back of Toni's missed free throw by Chiney.
The Buffs kept up their pressure, but the Cardinal held strong to a 69-56 victory.
The Cardinal's strong defense held the Buffs to 36% shooting and forced 18 turnovers, off which the Cardinal scored 21 points.
The Cardinal plan is still, "get the ball in to Chiney when possible," and she led her team as usual with 20 points and 12 rebounds (her 15th double-double) and an assist and three blocks. Her free-throw shooting is not as dependable as it had been for most of the season. She missed five of nine tonight. To give her full credit, two of the misses came after a very hard foul by Chucky Jeffery that had Chiney hobbling around on a badly tweaked ankle for a few moments.
But other players were taking their shots tonight, most notably Toni, who made six of eleven attempts, including three of four from beyond the arc. Toni also had the team-high five assists and stole the ball twice. It was great to see her play with the energy and confidence she showed so often last season. Her dependable excellent perimeter defense was a major factor in holding the Buff's second-best scorer, freshman forward, Arielle Roberson, to zero field goals.
Jos did everything for her team tonight, She scored inside and outside (but not way outside — no 3-pointers tonight) and made all her free throws for a total of 16 points and had five rebounds, four assists, three blocks and a steal. She and Mikaela performed their "Tinkle to Ruef to Tinkle with just a few seconds on the clock" inbound play twice tonight, to the great delight of the 3904 fans in attendance.
Mikaela didn't tally much in the box score tonight (two points, four rebounds and an assist (that should be two assists on those inbound plays)), but her so-tough defense inside for 21 minutes was a great contribution to the Cardinal victory.
Amber drove to the basket by various routes through or around the Buff defense and scored ten points. She also tallied four steals, three assists and two rebounds.
The lid came off the basket for Bonnie tonight as she made two of her five quick 3-point attempts. She was also a strong defender during her eight minutes on the court.
Here are game reports and commentary:
- No. 6/6 Stanford Topple No. 20 Colorado from the Associated Press
- Stanford holds off Buffaloes' charge by Tom FitzGerald (San Francisco Chronicle)
- Sixth-ranked Stanford women hold on to beat Colorado Buffaloes by Elliott Almond (Mercury News)
- Stanford women grab gritty Pac-12 hoop victory by Rick Eymer (Palo Alto Online)
- Stanford women top No. 20 Colorado by Jake Curtis
- CU Buffs fall short at Stanford by the Buffzone, Boulder Daily Camera
- WBB: Stanford 69 Colorado 56 from the CARDboard
A gallery of photos by Bob Drebin (Stanford Photo),
And a few photos from the above galleries:
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