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By Rick Eymer
Palo Alto Online Sports

The last week of practice has been about possibilities for the Stanford women's basketball team. While others felt the sixth-ranked Cardinal was suddenly lacking the ability to stay with top teams, Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer was looking for some kind of spark.

The Cardinal muscled its way back into a share of first place in the Pac-12 with a convincing 75-49 victory over No. 14 UCLA on Friday night in Maples Pavilion. Stanford suddenly seems to have its groove back.

Not that ever went missing. After all, Stanford (4-1, 15-2) won three straight after its setback to the then-No. 2 Huskies, and has now responded to its loss at home to No. 7 California (4-1, 14-2).

"You saw how our team learned from the last game," VanDerveer said. "We've won some big games and this was a big game. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves what we're capable of doing."

There's still plenty of time for concern though. Stanford hosts USC (4-1, 7-9) on Sunday at 4 p.m. in a battle of co-leaders. UCLA (4-1, 13-3) goes to Cal, which needed overtime to beat the Women of Troy on Thursday.

Stanford junior Chiney Ogwumike scored 25 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, her 11th double-double of the season and her first since the Connecticut contest.

"It was very difficult," Ogwumike said. "We love to play at Maples. After those two losses we thought we needed to play harder for each other and for the people who support us. We really didn't want to lose three straight at home."

So the Cardinal went out and made a statement, limiting the Bruins to their season low in points and worst shooting percentage (31.4) of the year. UCLA entered the game as the Pac-12's top scoring and was on a six-game winning streak.

Joslyn Tinkle added 16 points and Amber Orrange had 15 for the Cardinal. With Ogwumike, those are the most reliable players VanDerveer puts on the court.

Other contributions will come, but they won't look anything like double figures in scoring or rebounding. It may look more like Sara James, who made her second start of the season and scored seven points in 17 minutes of pure energy.

"Sara James was the X-factor," Ogwumike said. "She motivated people by her play, diving for loose balls even when she knew they would end up jump balls."

James may be even more valuable in practice. It's where she shows the coaching staff what it means to be aggressive and how she pushes her teammates.

"We all focused on being more aggressive in practice this week," James said. "We had a whole week to show how much we wanted to improve."

Ogwumike made sure Stanford avoided its first three-game home losing streak in 26 years, energizing her team with her constant hustle all over the court.

The Bruins were within 15-13 midway through the first half when Mikaela Ruef hit a shot that sparked a 10-0 run and gave Stanford a double-digit lead it never relinquished.

"I thought we competed," VanDerveer said. "We were aggressive, tight on people and Amber broke them down off the dribble."

The Cardinal opened the second half on a 13-2 run, improving on a 36-24 halftime advantage to put the game away.

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