Cardinal survives Bear attack

What a battle! It felt more like a "didn't lose" than a win, but it still counts: Stanford 70, Cal 64.

It started pretty much as expected, with the Cardinal ahead, but the Bears hanging close, for about 16 minutes. Then the Cardinal began a 28-7 run that put them ahead by 18 points at the break and by 30 points at the 13:35 mark.

I'm not sure what happened then, whether the Cardinal relinquished control or the Bears clawed it away, but the pace and intensity of the game increased and the margin shrank steadily.

During that last 13:35 minutes the Cardinal committed (or at least was called for) 11 fouls, turned the ball over seven times, grabbed 13 rebounds and scored 11 points. The Bears grabbed 22 rebounds and scored 35 points. The Cardinal did well to hang on for its 6-point victory.

The Bears double- and triple-teamed Chiney and succeeded in holding her to just 23 points and a 47% field goal percentage. The Cardinal did better on its defense of Reshanda Gray, the Bears' top scorer. She was held scoreless.

The Cardinal defense didn't slow down Brittany Boyd. She sank two 3-pointers (that gives her a total of 10 for the season) and matched her season-high score of 25 points.

The Bears defended the perimeter better than the Cardinal. They (the worst 3-point shooting team in the Pac-12) made 6 of 16 3-pointers and we (the best 3-point shooting team in the Pac-12) made 5 of 19 — two apiece by Karlie and Taylor, one by Lili.

All in all, it was way too close for comfort. The Cardinal made two more 2-pointers, one less 3-pointer and five more free throws than the Bears. Rebounds were even — 44 each.

Sunday at Haas will be very interesting

Here are game reports and commentary:

• Ogwumike leads No. 4 Stanford women to 19th straight win with 70-64 victory against No. 21 Cal, the Associated Press game recap
• No. 21 Cal Nearly Completes Comeback, Falls To No. 4 Stanford 70-64, the Cal Athletics game recap
• Stanford holds on, the Stanford Athletics game recap
• Stanford women end first half of conference play unbeaten from Palo Alto Online
• Stanford women beat Cal by Elliott Almond (Mercury News)
• No. 4 Stanford women hold off late charge by No. 21 Cal by Tom FitzGerald (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Cardinal blows lead, narrowly takes down Cal by Ashley Westhem (Stanford Daily)
• Stanford 70, Cal 64: Bears go down fighting by Nick Kranz (California Golden Blogs)
• Stanford nearly blows lead, beats Cal by Michelle Smith (espnW)
• WBB: Stanford 70 kal 64 from the CARDboard

The box score and play-by-play,

Stanford-California postgame notes from Stanford Athletics,

The game recap video from Stanford Athletics

A postgame interview of Chiney from Pac-12 Networks,

A gallery of photos by Nhat V. Meyer (Mercury News),

A gallery of photos by Don Feria (Stanford Photo),

And photos by George Nikitin (Associated Press):

Chiney goes against Justine Hartman

Mikaela drives past Courtney Range

Chiney shoots over Gennifer Brandon

Looking good - Karlie's 3-pointer ends the first half

Mikaela, Reshanda and Sara battle for the ball