Cardinal defends home court

Tennessee got its toe in the door and scored the first four points. Then Stanford slammed it shut with a 13-0 run. They held on to the lead (with considerable difficulty at times) for the remaining 35 minutes and won 76-70.

The Lady Vols almost pulled it out at the end, as they are wont to do. They closed the gap to two points with 1:05 minutes to play, but the Cardinal held on with a layup and a free throw by Amber and, for good measure, two free throws by Mikaela!

The Lady Vols' talented frontcourt wasn't able to slow Chiney down at all — she had a monster double-double of 34 points and 20 rebounds (she needs just another 20 to break the Stanford record for career rebounds) and blocked three shots.

The Cardinal's strong perimeter defense kept the Lady Vols' speedy backcourt in check. The Lady Vols sank their first 3-pointer four minutes into the second half and made only four of their 15 attempts from beyond the arc. Credit for this is largely due to Lili who played for 35 minutes and Amber who played for 34.

Lili also made a huge contribution to the Cardinal offense — she sank three of her five 3-point shots and scored a career-high 14 points.

Amber drove to the basket repeatedly, connected when it really mattered (the aforementioned 1:03) and dished out five assists.

Taylor left no doubt that she's back in the game 100%. She played for 30 minutes and made three of her five 3-point shots.

Mikaela was beat up by fierce Lady Vol defenders in the paint, but never gave up (although she was a bit slower getting up from the floor toward the end of the game). She made six of her eight free throws — a welcome improvement over her prior sub-50%. She grabbed eight rebounds, made three assists and blocked a shot.

Here are game reports and commentary:

• Ogwumike leads No. 6 Stanford women past No. 3 Tennessee by Rick Eymer (Palo Alto Online)
• Stanford women knock off No. 3 Tennessee by Elliott Almond (Mercury News)
• Ogwumike dominates in Stanford's win over Tennessee by Tom FitzGerald
• Tennessee cuts deficit to two late, but can't stop Chiney Ogwumike or Stanford by Dan Fleser (Go Vols Xtra)
• Stanford star too much for Lady Vols by Michelle Smith (espnW)
• Cardinal give biggest fans good reason to dance by Ann Killion (San Francisco Chronicle)
• WBB: Stanford 76 Tennessee 70 from the CARDboard
• Cardinal turns back Lady Vols, the game recap from Stanford Athletics
• Lady Vol Rally Falls Short vs. Stanford, the game recap from Tennessee Athletics

The box score and play-by-play,

Stanford-Tennessee postgame notes from Stanford Athletics

An especially good slideshow with triumphant music by Deb Gumbley,

A gallery of photos by Karl Mondon (Bay Area News Group),

A gallery of photos by John Todd (Stanford Photo),

And photos by Tony Avelar (Associated Press):

Chiney shoots over Isabelle Harrison

Amber drives to the basket

Isabelle Harrison shoots over Chiney and Mikaela

Lili guards Meighan Simmons

Chiney and Bashaara Graves look for the rebound

Bashaara Graves gets past Mikaela

Kailee doesn't let a broken nose slow her down

Chiney congratulates Amber on her last-minute shot