Cardinal roast the Gamecocks

Coach Dawn Staley and her team got a warm welcome from the women's basketball fans at Maples, but no mercy was shown on the court as the Cardinal powered on to a 70-32 victory.

There's been some concern this season about Stanford's being able to handle a small, fast, guard-oriented team. They had little trouble handling South Carolina. Stanford held South Carolina to 21.8% shooting, and shot 53.1% against their scrappy defense.

There's been some concern too about Stanford's shooting from beyond the arc. Not today — Jeanette sank four long ones, Joslyn had two, Kayla and Sara each had one (Sara's the first of her college career).

There are lots more good things to report about today's game:

• No one played more than 30 minutes. Nine played between 13 and 30 minutes.


• Jeanette led all scorers with 14 points. She also improved her assist-to-turnover ratio with four assists and three turnovers.


• Kayla did everything well, as usual: 11 points, seven rebounds, four assists and a block


• Nneka left her niceness on the bench and played tough under the basket: ten points, seven rebounds and a block.


• Joslyn is really earning her place in the starting rotation. She had another strong game: ten points, six rebounds, two assists and a steal, zero turnovers.


• Sarah played her steadiest game of the season: seven points, two rebounds, two blocks, a steal, and just one turnover.


• Chiney had nine points, four rebounds, two beautiful assists to Nneka, a block, a steal, and she didn't get into foul trouble.


• Toni's 14 minutes at the point was partially responsible for some of Jeanette's three-point success. She was also strong on defense, beginning to show some of Ros' intensity. My favorite play of the game was when she snagged a rebound, blew past her defenders all the way down the court, and flipped the ball to Lindy who laid it up and in.


• Sara played a career-high 13 minutes and sank her first three-pointer.

Here are the game reports:

• No. 3/2 Stanford Dominates South Carolina, 70-32 by Janie McCauley (Associated Press)
• USC women's basketball team falls at no. 3/2 Stanford from the University of South Carolina
• Stanford gets its wish in women's basketball win from Palo Alto Online
• Stanford women clobber South Carolina by Jake Curtis

The box score and play-by-play,

And photos:

Sarah impedes Gamecock progress Nice block, Jeanette Good D from Sarah and Kayla Sarah grabs a rebound Jeanette launches one of her four three-pointers Chiney goes up for a shot Nneka goes way up for a shot! Good job Chiney!