Cardinal defense: A++

The Cardinal defense was unrelenting. It clogged the paint so thoroughly that ASU didn't make a basket until eight minutes into the game — the second one came five minutes later.

The Cardinal defense held the Sun Devils to 24.1% shooting from the field and their top four shooters to a total of 12 points.

On offense, the Cardinal abandoned the perimeter (they launched only four shots from beyond the arc and made none of them) in favor of driving to the basket.

Amber led the charge as she scored eight of the Cardinal's first ten points. She scored 14 points in all — four of them on fast breaks off of steals. She matched her career-high of five steals.

Chiney, Lili, Mikaela, Taylor, Bird and Karlie also scored on drives to the basket.

Chiney got a good rest tonight — she played for only 27 minutes, during which she tallied her 19th double-double of the season with 20 points and 13 rebounds. She needs only 49 more points to take 2nd place on the Stanford all-time scoring list away from Nneka. Looks like that's going to happen in L.A. next weekend. By the way, she broke the Stanford and Pac-12 record for career field goals made last weekend at UW.

The Cardinal not only outdid the Sun Devils in rebounding from last Sunday's losses — they out-rebounded them tonight 41-35.

The final score: Stanford 61, ASU 35.

In other top-of-the-standings Pac-12 action tonight, Cal beat Arizona and USC beat Oregon. ASU, Cal and USC are now in a tie for second place, three games behind Stanford.

Here are game reports and commentary:

• No. 6 Stanford women rout No. 15 Arizona State, the Associated Press game recap by Janie McCauley
• No. 15 Sun Devil WBB Unable to Find Offense in Loss at Stanford, the Arizona State Athletics game recap
• Shut Down Mode, the Stanford Athletics game recap
• Stanford women takes care of business in win over Sun Devils from Palo Alto Online
• Stanford rebounds, crushes Arizona State by Jeff Faraudo (Mercury News)
• Women’s basketball: Even without a 3, Cardinal crush second-place Sun Devils 61-35 by Tom FitzGerald (San Francisco Chronicle)
• WBB: Stanford 61 ASU 35 from the CARDboard

The box score and play-by-play,

Stanford-Arizona State postgame notes from Stanford Athletics,

A gallery of photos by Bob Stanton (USA Today Sports),

And photos by Marcio Jose Sanchez (Associated Press):

Amber drives past Sophie Brunner

Lili drives past Katie Hempen

Chiney drives past Joy Burke

Briana drives against Deja Mann

Chiney shoots over Kelsey Moos

Lili sticks with Deja Mann

Chiney puts a block on Elisha Davis

Chiney fights for position