December 31, 2004

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Palo Alto Online

Stanford women suffer basketball upset

by Rick Eymer

With six of its next eight games at home, the Stanford women's basketball team can try to mend their wounds since the road suddenly got treacherous again.

The fifth-ranked Cardinal split a pair of games earlier in the week, losing to host Oregon, 62-58, on Wednesday night after beating host Oregon State on Monday, 83-45.

They won't have to wait to try and straighten things out. Washington State comes to Maples Pavilion on Sunday for a 2 p.m. matinee. Washington follows on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

The Cardinal will be playing at home for the first time since christening the renovated facility with a victory over Pepperdine on Dec. 10.

Stanford (1-1, 9-2) needs only to look to last season, where it lost six games on the road, four in conference play, to see that things need to be toughened up. A loss to Oregon (2-0, 9-2) isn't the end of the world, but the Cardinal still need to start taking care of business away from home.

The loss at Tennessee was supposed to have hardened Stanford to the perils of the road, but the Ducks were able to beat Stanford by being the aggressor. Oregon beat the Cardinal for the second straight time in Eugene, and for the fifth time in seven games.

"This is the most upset I've been with this team all year," Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. "We missed some key shots and we had some knucklehead plays."

Stanford took a 20-6 lead in the early going, but could only watch as Oregon steadily chipped away at the lead. The Ducks took their first lead at 53-51 and then held off the Cardinal.

Neither team shot particularly well; Stanford was just under 34 percent and Oregon was just over 32 percent. The Ducks were 3-of-16 from long range, while Stanford was 2-of-18, its worst performance since a 2-of-25 effort in a 20-point loss at Arizona State last year.

Sebnem Kimyacioglu and Kelley Suminski, usually reliable shooters from 3-point range, combined to go 1-of-13. That contributed to Stanford's lowest offensive output of the season.

"We were not our normal selves," Suminski said. "We did not play with that sense of urgency."

Washington State, coming off a tough 54-51 loss against Arizona, may be visiting at the right time. Stanford is 38-0 against the Cougars and hasn't scored fewer than 76 points against them since 1988.

Candice Wiggins led Stanford with 16 points, while Brooke Smith added 10. T'Nae Thiel's 12 rebounds helped the Cardinal hold their own on the boards. Despite getting 15 rebounds each from Andrea Bills and Catherine Kraayeveld, Oregon only outrebounded the Cardinal by 39-38.

What hurt was Oregon's 11 offensive rebounds and Stanford's 22 fouls. The Ducks went to the line 28 times, nearly double Stanford's 17 free-throw attempts.

Bills and Kraayeveld were nearly unstoppable for the Ducks. They combined for 34 points on 11-of-25 shooting and had the 30 combined rebounds, 10 off the offensive glass.

The loss came on the heels of an impressive victory at Oregon State, a game in which Kimyacioglu recorded her first career double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

All one really needs to know about the game is how Wiggins helped frustrate the nation's leading scorer in Oregon State senior Shannon Howell.

On the one-year anniversary of Howell's brilliant 32-point effort against Stanford in her first game with the Beavers, she was limited to two points on 1-of-14 shooting.

A stifling defense coupled with an aggressive offense put the game safely in Stanford's pockets early. Oregon State shot just .297 from the field while the Cardinal enjoyed a healthy .515 shooting night.

After toying with the Beavers early, Stanford slowly but surely pulled away and never trailed by more than 11 points after Suminski hit one of her four 3-pointers with 8:42 remaining to play - with an assist from Kimyacioglu - to put Stanford ahead, 27-16.

Here's how tough Stanford played defensively. The Cardinal could have gone scoreless the final 18 minutes of the game and still won. They scored their 46th point on a Suminski free throw with 18:06 left to play. The rest of the contest was a clinic in fundamentals.

Howell made one of her first three shots and then missed 11 straight as Wiggins hounded her all over the court. Howell also turned the ball over four times in the first seven minutes.

"Candice got on her right away and just got the ball away from her," VanDerveer said. "That was really disruptive."

Suminski scored 14 points, making four of her six 3-point attempts and making both of her free throw attempts. Smith had a solid effort with 18 points on 9-of-10 shooting, three rebounds, six assists, two blocked shots and two steals.

Freshman guard Cissy Pierce made all four of her shots, including a 3-pointer, and also had two steals in 13 minutes. Thiel and Azella Perryman each grabbed eight rebounds as Stanford enjoyed a 50-31 advantage on the boards.

Senior guard Susan King Borchardt, recovered from a stress reaction in her foot, saw her first action of the season, playing five minutes. She connected on her first shot attempt of the year with 1:55 remaining in the first half to give the Cardinal a 39-23 lead.

Kristen Newlin added six rebounds and two blocked shots.

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