Cardinal buffaloes Colorado

Stanford capitalized on a career-best 26 points from Amber to grind out a close, 62-55 victory over a determined Colorado squad.

Lili added 17 more points; no other Cardinal was in double digits.

Although it seemed at times that Colorado’s bigger, more aggressive players were mopping up every loose ball, in the end the Cardinal won the battle for rebounds, 37-35. The rebounding was a great team effort for the Cardinal, with ten players each grabbing from two to five rebounds.

Although Colorado came in with a reputation for sloppy ball handling, the Cardinal actually gave up more turnovers in this game, at 16-13.

Colorado took the lead for just a few seconds in the second half, but a Stanford win never seemed a certainty until the final seconds, and the shower of “victory balls” after the buzzer was very welcome.

Here are game reports and commentary:

• Orrange Ensures Opening Win, the Stanford Athletics game recap


• Lappe's Buffs fall at No. 15 Stanford from the Daily Camera


• Orrange has career game in Stanford's win over Colorado from Palo Alto Online


• Orrange, Thompson lead Stanford past Colorado in Pac-12 opener by Tom FitzGerald (San Francisco Chronicle)


• Stanford women have to work to beat lowly Colorado by Elliott Almond (Mercury News)


• WBB: Stanford 62 Colorado 55 from the CARDboard


• Pac-12 video game recap

The box score and play-by-play,

The postgame interview of Amber by Ros (video),

The postgame press conference, with Tara, Amber and Lili (audio)

A gallery of photos by Bob Drebin (Stanford Photo),

And photos by Jeff Chiu (Associated Press):

Lili takes it to the hoop

EPayne disagrees with a foul call

Good sibling defense

Bri harasses Haley Smith

Jasmine Sborov, Bird and Karlie fight for possession

Chiney and Sara are happy fans

Sweet victory