January 23, 2010

The Nneka Show

The Cardinal – all of them – stepped up to the challenge today, but Nneka gets the gold-plated, diamond-studded game ball for this victory.

She scored a career-high 30 points and snatched, grabbed, demanded 23 rebounds. That's a new Stanford single-game rebounding record, two more than Nicole Powell got against the Ducks in 2002.

Sore knees and ankles didn't slow the Cardinal down noticeably. Jayne had 17 points and six rebounds. Jeanette had 15 points and six assists. Ros had 11 points, three rebounds and five assists. JJ had 10 points and six assists.

The Cardinal not only outscored the Ducks 100-80; they outscored them from the perimeter – 13-9 threes, 41.4%-36%. Jeanette sank five 3's, Rosalyn had three, JJ two and Kayla, Lindy and Joslyn had one apiece.

After some early difficulties, the Cardinal did a terrific job of breaking the Ducks' swarming in-your-face defense. They ended with a very respectable 16 turnovers.

Here are the game reports:

The box score and play-by-play,

And more photos:

The Ducks try to stop Nneka Kayla chases after a loose ball Nneka takes a poke in the eye Tara gives some good advice JJ leads the celebration

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the Cardinal. They stepped up and played tonight with passion. Passion they MUST have every game until we meet UConn! Play like it's the last time you will play. They should only get better. I truly believe the UConn team can be beat. Give them their kudos and agree that they are the nations Number one team and also agree that anyteam like that can have a bad day while any team like the cardinal can play the best game of their careers and beat them. The Cardinal absolutly has the talent to beat UConn! I BELIEVE!

Anonymous said...

With all of the superlatives one could spread around after this game to the players AND the coaching staff (they outcoached Westhead and crew), my hat is off to Jeanette Pohlen. That was one of the gutsiest, most courageous games I've seen. I, too, love this team ad this program.
Cyd Crampton

Anonymous said...

It's too bad that Grace didn't hit her 3-point shot in the final seconds. We could have called it the coup de grace.