Cardinal romps over Wildcats

Cardinal players feasted on a weak Arizona defense and tucked away the first (and possibly the only) really easy win of the Pac-12 season. The final score was 77-47, but the the game was pretty well in the bag midway through the first half when Stanford quadrupled UA's score at 16-4.

With a comfortable 32-point lead heading into the fourth quarter Tara began substituting, and just about everyone got to play. The Stanford scoring slowed down as the bench players took over, except during the final 60 seconds during which Alex Green and then Brittany MacPhee got steals for breakaway layups.

A number of performances stood out during this cheerful rout. Especially notable was Erica McCall's first collegiate double-double: a career-high 16 rebounds and 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting. She really seemed to know where the basket was for the first time this season. For the third time she came out wearing glasses instead of contacts. The glasses look as if they were styled for a World War One aviator, but if they are helping, style doesn't matter.

Bri Roberson brought the crowd to life with a number of athletic plays, including a sparkling assist on a bang-bang play, Amber to Bri to Kaylee. Bri matched her career high at 12 points.

The Samuelsons contributed a total of eight three-pointers, with Bonnie hitting 4-7 and Karlie, 4-5; plus, Bonnie had one layup.

Lili worked very hard to get 12 points, hitting the floor hard at both ends of the court on several offensive and defensive plays.

The team as a whole made 10 of 13 free throws, a welcome improvement.

In other Pac-12 action tonight, OSU squeezed past WSU in the last 24 seconds of the game to a 73-70 victory, and ASU routed Cal 67-53. ASU, OSU, Stanford remain in the top three spots in the Pac-12 standings; Cal has dropped to sixth place.

Here are game reports and commentary:

• Bonnie Samuelson leads No. 13 Stanford past Arizona 77-47, the Associated Press game recap (posted by espnW)


• Women's Hoops Falls at No. 13 Stanford on Friday, the Arizona Athletics game recap


• Spreading the Wealth, the Stanford Athletics game recap


• 'Bird' soars to new heights in Stanford's win over Wildcats by Rick Eymer (Palo Alto Online)


• No. 13 Stanford women overpower Arizona 77-47 by Tom FitzGerald (San Francisco Chronicle)


• Stanford women's basketball team routs Arizona 77-47 by Elliott Almond (Mercury News)


• WBB: Stanford 77 Arizona 47 from the CARDboard


• Stanford women's basketball cruises past Arizona, the Pac-12 game recap video

The box score and play-by-play,

The press conference audio, with Tara, Bird and Karlie,

The postgame interview video of Bonnie and Karlie by Ros,

A gallery of photos by Norbert von der Groeben (Stanford Photo).