January 24, 2016

Cardinal shut down by Bruins

Offense against a zone was a "point of emphasis" at Cardinal practices this past week, after OSU's switch to a zone defense led to its dramatic comeback against Stanford last Sunday.

UCLA treated Stanford to another forty minutes of practice against an aggressive 2-3 zone tonight, and the Cardinal were still unable to solve it. UCLA led from the start and Stanford could not find any sort of offense.

The Cardinal played strong defense, holding the Bruins to .400 shooting percentage, a bit below their season average.

But the Cardinal offense never took hold. Their shooting percentage was just .204, perilously close to the school-record low of .193 against UConn in 2012.

The low point of the evening was the second quarter. Stanford entered trailing 10-12, but could score only four points in the entire period, ending the half behind 14-28. They slipped a bit further behind in the second half to a final score of 36-56.

The only glimmer of a highlight would be Bird's being the top rebounder with 11 and just short of a double-double with nine points.

Lili was the only other Cardinal to score more than one field goal. She sank two of her 13 attempts, nine from beyond the arc, often as the shot clock was winding down.

Here are game reports and commentary:

The box score and play-by-play.

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