Publication Date: Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Women's College Basketball
Stanford can grab sole possession of first in Pac-10
Stanford can grab sole possession of first in Pac-10
(January 19, 2005) by Rick Eymer
The Stanford women's basketball team gets a close up look at its closest conference rivals this weekend and after winning its sixth straight with a 76-66 nonconference victory over visiting Boston College on Saturday things are looking bright.
As the smoke cleared from a tumultuous Pac-10 weekend, the fifth-ranked Cardinal (6-1, 15-2) find themselves sharing first place with an unexpected roommate in USC (6-1, 12-4).
Stanford hosts No. 25 UCLA (5-2, 11-5) on Thursday night at 7 p.m. The Bruins were the only unbeaten team left in the conference until they lost twice at home over the weekend.
USC won twice to move into a first-place tie with Stanford.
UCLA was expected to compete for the conference title, but the Trojans figured to go through a rebuilding process under first-year coach Mark Trakh, the only male coach in the Pac-10.
The Trojans, who come to town on Saturday at 7 p.m., were picked to finish seventh. But Trakh, a successful coach at Pepperdine, has melded a team which includes two seniors, a junior and four freshmen into a top-notch program. Nine different players have started for the Trojans this year.
USC, which has a six-game winning streak for the first time in 11 years, swept Arizona and Arizona State over the weekend and freshmen Brynn Cameron (10.0 points) and Camille LeNior (a team high 51 assists) are leading the way. Sophomore Eshaya Murphy combined for 33 points and 14 rebounds against the Arizona schools.
Stanford, which has won six straight, will worry about UCLA first though.
"They come in with some talented players," Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said of players like Nikki Blue, Nicole Quinn and Lisa Willis. "I don't know if UCLA is a team we can press. We'll have to grind it out in the half court and get on the glass better. We also have to come up with an offense well-suited to play Brooke (Smith) and (Kristin Newlin) together."
Quinn is UCLA's top scorer (16.9) and rebounder (7.1), and that's where Smith and Newlin together would make a difference. Willis (14.6 points, 6.2 rebounds) is also a factor inside.
Smith and Newlin combined for 27 points and nine rebounds against the Eagles, but they are usually replacing each other. That's because T'Nae Thiel has also been producing enough to play extended minutes.
VanDerveer also has a pleasant problem along the perimeter since Susan King Borchardt has returned to the lineup. She started along with Kelley Suminski and Candice Wiggins in Thursday's 88-53 victory over Cal and played a season-high 27 minutes against Boston.
Gee, too many good players. What's a coach to do?
The first thing will be to play as well in the second half as the Cardinal do in the first half. Take Saturday for example.
The Cardinal never trailed and built a 41-21 advantage on 57 percent shooting. They also turned the ball over just four times in the half, and the guards didn't turn the ball over at all.
"What a great first half," VanDerveer said. "I'm excited about the way we got out."
The only bad news was Wiggins, who missed her first seven shots of the game. She responded down the stretch though, making all six of her free throws in the closing minutes as Boston climbed back to within seven at one point.
"I was missing simple, easy layups," Wiggins said. "It was frustrating. But everybody else picked it up."
Thiel said the issue of not maintaining the same level of intensity in both halves was discussed in the post game meeting.
"We'll definitely be working on it," she said. "We have to work on our second half and not let them get back into the game. We have to maintain what we were doing in the first half throughout the game."
Boston cut into the lead immediately, scoring the first seven points of the second half and causing Stanford problems with its full court pressure.
"Unfortunately that's not the first time that has happened," VanDerveer said. "Maybe we need to look at a different rotation. We had our hands full."
Stanford did make all 10 of its free-throw attempts in the second half, all of which came in the final three minutes. Wiggins scored nine of her 13 points in the final seven minutes.
Suminski added 15 points and Borchardt had 11.
Stanford has won 50 of its last 53 games at Maples, and has won 31 straight home conference games.
Against Cal, Borchardt made her first start of the season, and responded with 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting in a team-high 21 minutes.
Smith is shooting over 60 percent on the season, and she's been even better during the Pac-10, with a .639 shooting percentage.
After an early deficit, Stanford went on a 26-2 run and never looked back. The Cardinal held Cal without a field goal for over nine minutes during one stretch of the first half, and led by as many as 42 points.
California coach Caren Horstmeyer called it a tornado.
"They really set us back," she said. "Stanford just jumped on us."
Despite the lop-sided victory - it was 49-17 at halftime - Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said it wasn't easy.
"It was made to look easy," she said. "People worked very hard."
Even sophomore Eziamaka Okafor got into the act, setting career highs for points (14), minutes (16), rebounds (5) and free throws (6).
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