Cardinal erupts in second half

The Sun Devils figured they had a chance to win if they could hold the Cardinal well below their scoring average. The Cardinal scored 17 points below average, but that was more than enough: Stanford 62, ASU 49.

The Sun Devil defense was all that it's cracked up to be. The Cardinal was stymied both on the perimeter and in the paint until well into the second half when the score was tied 40-40. Then the Cardinal busted loose – I have no idea how – and went on a 20-2 run en route to their 67th consecutive conference victory.

The Cardinal was able to stop one of the Sun Devils' star players — Kimberly Brandon was held to four points and three rebounds. They couldn't stop Kali Bennett for a long time — she was an impressive force in the paint on both offense and defense all through the first half, but had just one block and no points in the second.

The Sun Devil defense didn't stop:

• Nneka, who got 22 points and 16 rebounds.


• Chiney, who got 20 points and 16 rebounds.


• Taylor, who sank three from beyond the arc that kept the Cardinal in the game when things weren't going well, grabbed several key rebounds, and was strong on defense for 26 minutes.


• Toni, who played dogged defense for 39 minutes, took care of the ball (six assists, three turnovers), and scored on a couple of drives to the basket and on a steal & fast break.


• Joslyn, Lindy and Amber, who contributed to the defensive effort that held the Sun Devils to well below their scoring average.

Don't ever think that free throws don't matter. As with the game against Cal, Stanford and ASU made almost the same number of field goals (Stanford 22, ASU 20), and the scoring margin was largely due to free throws. ASU's 17 fouls gave Stanford 22 free throws, of which they made 15. Stanford's 11 fouls gave ASU 10 free throws, of which they made 7.

Here are game reports:

• No. 5 Stanford Overpowers Arizona State, 62-49 by John Marshall (Associated Press)
• Stanford women hoops reach a perfect 10 in Pac-12 from Palo Alto Online
• No. 4 Stanford pulls away from ASU women's basketball by Jeff Metcalfe (Arizona Republic)
• Bennett sets record, injured in loss to Stanford by Edmund Hubbard (ASU State Press)
• Tough triumph in Tempe by Wally Mersereau

The box score and play-by-play,

A few photos by Rick Scuteri (AP Photos):

Chiney drives Nneka puts one up Jos, Nneka and Chiney celebrate the outcome