Britt beats the Buffs

Two-thirds of this game were hard for Cardinal fans to watch as the Cardinal seemed unable to make any headway against a fast, clever Colorado defense that frequently alternated zone and player strategies. Then, suddenly, just into the fourth quarter, everything was all right again, largely thanks to Brittany McPhee.

The first quarter may have been the lowest-scoring quarter in forever, or certainly in the season. Both teams are known for defense; and neither team seemed able to score consistently; so the quarter ended in a tie, 9-9.

In the second quarter, the Buffaloes found some offense and pulled ahead by five, 16-21. Five felt like a seriously deep hole in such a low-scoring game. Then Brittany hit a jumper, and another, and another, to end the half with a more optimistic three-point deficit, 24-27.

In the third quarter Bri hit a three to tie the score; Brittany hit three more buckets, and the Cardinal finally got their first lead, 39-37, on a layup by Alanna. That quarter would have ended with Stanford down by one, except that Bird hit a three-pointer on the buzzer to make the score 46-44.

Entering the fourth quarter it still seemed like anyone's game and fan fingernails were down to the quick. But then Colorado's offense stalled; they stayed at 44 points for almost four minutes while Karlie, Erica and especially Brittany scored steadily. Suddenly fans looked up and realized Stanford was ahead by double digits with only a few minutes to play. Stanford out-scored Colorado 18-7 in that fourth quarter and that put the game decisively away.

Brittany led all scorers with 26 points, plus a career-high eleven rebounds for her first career double-double. (It wasn't quite her season-high scoring; that was 28 against Texas.)

Bird also had a double-double with 15 points (six of them on free throws) and ten rebounds.

Alanna had seven points and eight rebounds and five blocks.

Karlie scored only four points, but that was enough to make her the 38th member of the Stanford 2,000/1,000 Point Club.

Four other players scored a few in this low-scoring game. At this point in the season, any win is a good win; and this one kept Stanford in a three-way tie for the PAC-12 lead.

Here are game reports and commentary:

• McPhee Marvelous in Win, the Associated Press game recap by Jeff Faraudo (as posted by Stanford Athletics)
• No. 8 Stanford women's basketball uses 40 point 2nd half to beat Colorado, the Pac-12 game recap video
• Buffs' Fourth-Quarter Slump Helps No. 8 Cardinal Coast To 64-51 Win, the Colorado Athletics game recap
• WBB: Stanford 64 Colorado 51 from the CARDboard

The game statistics,

The game highlights video,

A video interview of Brittany, "We're tired of losing on our home court."

And the press conference with Tara and Brittany: