Cardinal tames the Cougars

Two very different halves tonight. The Cougars brought their very best defense and offense to Maples, took a two-point lead seven minutes into the game, and stayed within nine points of the Cardinal for most of the first half.

Tara thought the Cardinal started off a bit too casual. She reminded them that the Cougars really were the best 3-point shooting team in the Pac-10 and recommended better guarding and more aggressive offense. The Cardinal heeded her advice and pulled ahead – way ahead – to a 14-point lead at the end of the first half and a 41-point lead (100-59) at the end of the game.

Nneka led the scoring with 19 points on 8-of-9 shooting. One of her shots was the play of the game — the ball was going out-of-bounds, Kayla lunged wildly and swatted it back in, Nneka flew through the air sideways and flipped it into the basket. Truly amazing!

All the starters played their usual fine game. Kayla scored 15 points and had five assists and five rebounds. Jeanette hit two 3-pointers, made all four of her free throws, scored a total of 12 points and had eight assists. Chiney had eight points, two steals and seven rebounds — five of them O-boards. Lindy hit two 3-pointers and scored nine points.

The entire team contributed to this victory — all the reserves got into the game, and five of them played double-digit minutes. The bench scored 37 points — more than 1/3 of the total.

Toni, Joslyn, Mikaela and Sarah had very good games. Toni scored 13 points (in 13 minutes!), sank both of her 3-point attempts, and had three assists and a steal. Joslyn had the game-high eight rebounds and scored seven points.. Mikaela had six points, five rebounds and two assists. Sarah scored eight points and had no turnovers

The Cardinal's defense focussed very effectively on the Cougars' two best shooters. Ireti Amojo was held to five attempts and three points. Sage Romberg, last week's Pac-10 Player of the Week ("Not this week," said Tara.) attempted four shots and scored two points.

Here are game reports:

• No. 3 Stanford Runs By Washington State, 100-59 from the Associated Press
• For Stanford women, the hits keep on coming by Elliott Almond, Mercury News
• Stanford women set record for consecutive Pac-10 wins in 41-point victory by Jake Curtis
• Pohlen joins some elite company at Stanford by Rick Eymer, Palo Alto Online
• WBB: Stanford 100 WSU 59 from The CARDboard

The box score and play-by-play

The postgame video with Ros and Lindy

A gallery of photos by John Todd, Stanford Photo

And photos from the Associated Press:

Chiney soars above the defense Kayla keeps her eye on the ball Jeanette hits the deck Nneka grabs the rebound Kayla fights for possesion Nice game!