Heading North

Scott Bland (The Stanford Daily) previews The Cardinal's trip to the Beaver State.

Tara says, “It’s a really great trip. The crowds are great. It has such a great tradition. We know it’s a tough place to play.”

Rob Mosely (Eugene Register-Guard) writes about the Ducks' resting up after their strenuous Arizona trip before taking on the Cardinal and Bears.

Bizarro Cardinal Out-Shoot Santa Clara

Fortunately, Sue Bair's premium-quality report of the Santa Clara game has been classified as non-premium by The Bootleg -- enjoy!

The Cardinal rode their best shooting day of the season to slide by the Santa Clara Broncos 96-74 at Santa Clara on Tuesday. JJ Hones scored a career-high 20 points on 5-6 shooting from beyond the arc.

(More ... )

JJ leads the way

JJ had the big game for the Cardinal last night -- she shot a career-high 20 points, including a career-high five 3-ptrs (of six). She also had three assists, two steals and her usual zero turnovers.

It was a night of 3-ptrs at Leavey Pavilion. No surprise -- that's the Bronco's strength. Their average this season is 7.7. But sadly, last night they were missing their leading scorer, Chandice Cronk, who suffered a torn ACL and MCL in their prior game against Gonzaga.

The surprise is that the 3-ptrs came from the Cardinal: JJ's five, three from Candice, two from Kayla!, and one each from Cissy, Hannah and Rosalyn, for a season-high total of 13, at a rate of 50%.

Here are the game reports:

• Hones sparks Stanford women to eighth straight by Rick Eymer (Palo Alto Online)
  
  
• Card shoots past Broncos by Scott Bland (The Stanford Daily)
  
  
• Stanford is solid in topping Broncos by Michelle Smith (San Francisco Chronicle)
  
  
• Minus top scorer, SCU is no match for Stanford by Darren Sabedra (Mercury News)
  
  
• An audio slide show by Nhat V, Meyer (Mercury News)
  
  
• And the AP game recap, photo gallery and the box score from Stanford Athletics.

Cardinal/Bruin Photo Gallery

SportsPage Magazine has just published their photo gallery of Saturday's game against UCLA. Here are a few of my favorites:

Next up, Santa Clara

Is Stanford Santa Clara's Tennessee? Not quite.

Tuesday is the 38th meeting between the Broncos and Cardinal. Stanford leads the series 27-11. The two teams last met on Nov. 29, 2006 when the Cardinal registered a 89-56 victory at home. The two teams have not played at the Leavey Center since the 1998-99 season, when SCU interrupted Stanford's six game series win streak with a 81-65 triumph.

The Broncos (16-5, 5-2 WCC), despite having a five-game winning streak snapped at Gonzaga Saturday, come into Tuesday's contest having won 12 of their last 14 contests. Under the guidance of sixth-year head coach Michelle Bento-Jackson, Santa Clara boasts four players averaging over 10 points a game: guards Chandice Cronk (17.1 ppg, 40.6% 3-pt.), Liz Doran (10.5 ppg, 44.9% 3-pt.), Tracey Walker (10.3 ppg, 4.79 apg), and forward Jen Gottschalk (16.5 ppg, 8.4 rpg).

Here are two articles about tonight's game:

• Guards key to Stanford's success by Wyndam Makowsky (The Stanford Daily)
  
  The Cardinal offense is clicking at the right time, and the key seems to be the floor leadership of the guards — their increasing ability to create opportunities for themselves and others has led to good results.
  
  The Cardinal’s potent attack matches up well against Santa Clara, but, while Stanford has little to gain beyond a win, the Broncos could define their season with a victory tonight. They can place themselves right back on the bubble with a win over the highly ranked Cardinal tonight.
  
  
• Bronco Busting by Haley Murphy (The Stanford Daily)
  
  Though the Broncos may be able to find an edge in free throws and threes, the story of the night, as usual, will be whether the Cardinal can remain focused on its own capabilities. Home court advantage and the prospect of a marquee win against Stanford should rally the Broncos, but they stand little chance barring a slip-up on the Cardinal’s end.
  
  The Cardinal heads to Santa Clara looking to focus on the weaker points of its own game, like shooting percentages from behind the arc and at the line. With seven consecutive victories and a No. 6 national ranking, Stanford has little to prove at Santa Clara beyond its continued success.

Pac-10 Player of the Week Again

Candice is Pac-10 Player of the Week for the second consecutive week, the fifth time this season and the ninth in her career (the conference record)!



Here's the official announcement

Don't push Kayla around

"I just wanted to come out there and be the aggressor and not let them push me around," she said. "I don't like people pushing me around."

She pushed back with a monster game: A career-high 28 points and 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 blocks and 3 steals.

Candice contributed 31 points; Jayne 9 points, 16 rebounds and 5 blocks.

It all added up to a very satisfying, although not pretty, win over UCLA.

Here are several game reports:

• One-two punch KOs UCLA by Michelle Smith (San Francisco Chronicle)
  
  
• Wiggins, Pedersen help grab another win by Rick Eymer (Palo Alto Online)
  
  
• Women exact revenge on Bruins by Wyndam Makowsky (The Stanford Daily
  
  
• An audio slide show by Nhat V. Meyer (Mercury News)
  
  
• And the AP game recap, photo gallery and the box score from Stanford Athletics.

Jayne & Tara's bet

Jayne will get the green light to shoot three-pointers if she finishes first nationally in field-goal percentage. It's a win-win for everyone except Cardinal opponents.

Read more about how Jayne's doing this season in this article by Michelle Smith (San Francisco Chronicle)

More about the Stanford/USC game

Sue Bair (The Bootleg) has written her usual first-rate report of the game and Candice's new records:

Wiggins Gets Record as Card Wipe Out Trojans

Candice Wiggins and Stanford blew by Southern California Thursday evening at Maples Pavilion, prevailing 77-51 to avenge a painful defeat in Los Angeles. Wiggins scored 18 points to pass Kate Starbird and become the all-time Stanford scoring leader with 2222 points and counting. (More ...)



Don Anderson wasn't able to photograph the game. In an attempt to compensate for that, here are a few photos from the AP Wire Service. You'll find more photos in Stanford Photo.

Candice sets new career scoring and free throw records

Lots of reports today of Candice's new Stanford career scoring record and the win over USC.

None of them mention that the free throw that tied Kate Starbird's record also broke the Stanford career free throw record (481) held by Val Whiting.

Wiggins gets record, Stanford gets the win by Rick Eymer (Palo Alto Online)

Wiggins passed Kate Starbird as Stanford's all-time leader when she grabbed an offensive rebound and converted it with 8:21 left to play in the first half.

Wiggins breaks scoring record by Michelle Smith (San Francisco Chronicle)

It wasn't one of her soft-touch three-pointers, or an explosive drive through the lane that officially put Candice Wiggins in a class by herself. Instead, it was a simple put-back of a Jeanette Pohlen miss, a play that so perfectly encapsulates Wiggins' remarkable college career. Always at the right place at the right time.

Farm's Finest by Wyndam Makowsky (The Stanford Daily)

“She’s right up there with anyone I’ve coached against,” Mark Trakh said. “She’s an exceptional player that will be very good on the next level. I’d rather sit in the stands and watch her play someone else. Her graduation day will be one to celebrate.”

Stanford's Wiggins sets career points record by Elliott Almond (Mercury News)

"It's great to get it over with, the whole record thing," said Wiggins, who wasn't thinking about it before the game.

Here are the AP game recap, photo gallery and the box score from Stanford Athletics.