January 31, 2014

Cardinal survives Bear attack

What a battle! It felt more like a "didn't lose" than a win, but it still counts: Stanford 70, Cal 64.

It started pretty much as expected, with the Cardinal ahead, but the Bears hanging close, for about 16 minutes. Then the Cardinal began a 28-7 run that put them ahead by 18 points at the break and by 30 points at the 13:35 mark.

I'm not sure what happened then, whether the Cardinal relinquished control or the Bears clawed it away, but the pace and intensity of the game increased and the margin shrank steadily.

During that last 13:35 minutes the Cardinal committed (or at least was called for) 11 fouls, turned the ball over seven times, grabbed 13 rebounds and scored 11 points. The Bears grabbed 22 rebounds and scored 35 points. The Cardinal did well to hang on for its 6-point victory.

The Bears double- and triple-teamed Chiney and succeeded in holding her to just 23 points and a 47% field goal percentage. The Cardinal did better on its defense of Reshanda Gray, the Bears' top scorer. She was held scoreless.

The Cardinal defense didn't slow down Brittany Boyd. She sank two 3-pointers (that gives her a total of 10 for the season) and matched her season-high score of 25 points.

The Bears defended the perimeter better than the Cardinal. They (the worst 3-point shooting team in the Pac-12) made 6 of 16 3-pointers and we (the best 3-point shooting team in the Pac-12) made 5 of 19 — two apiece by Karlie and Taylor, one by Lili.

All in all, it was way too close for comfort. The Cardinal made two more 2-pointers, one less 3-pointer and five more free throws than the Bears. Rebounds were even — 44 each.

Sunday at Haas will be very interesting

Here are game reports and commentary:

The box score and play-by-play,

Stanford-California postgame notes from Stanford Athletics,

The game recap video from Stanford Athletics

A postgame interview of Chiney from Pac-12 Networks,

A gallery of photos by Nhat V. Meyer (Mercury News),

A gallery of photos by Don Feria (Stanford Photo),

And photos by George Nikitin (Associated Press):

Chiney goes against Justine Hartman
Mikaela drives past Courtney Range
Chiney shoots over Gennifer Brandon
Looking good - Karlie's 3-pointer ends the first half
Mikaela, Reshanda and Sara battle for the ball

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