Cardinal routs the Beavers

The Beavers have a very good freshman class and promise to be a strong team next season, but they haven't pulled it together yet. They battled to the end tonight, but fell to the Cardinal 90-53.

It was a lively game with so many good things for the Cardinal.

The most spectacular play was made by Chiney, who flung the ball toward the basket as she went flying into the courtside seats. The look on her face when her teammates pulled her up and congratulated her on making the shot was priceless. She ended with 19 points and 12 rebounds – the only double-double tonight and her 21st of the season – and four blocks, two assists and two steals. Eleven of her points were free throws – a career high.

The biggest step up was taken by Taylor, who matched her career high scoring with 18 points. Her prior 18-point game was against Gonzaga with six three-pointers. She was more versatile in her scoring tonight – four (of five) three-pointers, a layup on a back door cut and a crisp assist from Mikaela, a layup on a fast break (again on an assist from Mikaela), and two pull-up jumpers.

The most notable shot was Jos' jumper two minutes into the second half that increased her career total to 1,001 and made her the 34th member of the Stanford 1,000 Point Club. She sank two three-pointers later and ended with 11 points, four rebounds, two blocks and two steals.

Amber was on her game tonight. She was dogged by a Beaver (is that possible?) on every trip down the court, but had zero turnovers. She scored 15 points, dished out six assists and had three rebounds and two steals.

Mikaela did her thing – assists (six) and rebounds (ten). She also blocked a shot and scored six points.

The Cardinal made 45.5% of their three-point attempts tonight (10 of 22) – four by Taylor, two each by Jos and Sara, one each by Bonnie and Amber. One of the very good things about tonight's game is that Chiney accounted for only 21% of the Cardinal scoring.

The Cardinal defense was, as usual, outstanding. "Know what they like to do, and don't let them do it," executed beautifully.

Here's a game report and commentary:

• No. 4 Stanford women rout Oregon State 90-53 by Janie McCauley (Associated Press)
• WBB: Stanford 90 Oregon State 53 from the CARDboard

The box score and play-by-play,

And photos by Tony Avelar (Associated Press):

Taylor launches one of her treys

Amber puts up a shot

Chiney drives through the defense

Mikaela boxes out

Amber takes the ball away from Alyssa Martin

Jamie Weisner drives against Sara

Cheers from the bench