December 07, 2005

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Palo Alto Online

Silver lining in loss

by Rick Eymer

There's a trend developing for the Stanford women's basketball team and it should warm the hearts of Stanford fans everywhere.

In a nutshell, the trend is Kristen Newlin. The 6-foot-5 junior center has rapidly developed into one of Stanford's top players and that will only benefit the rest of the team.

Newlin stepped up to the challenge on Sunday afternoon against No. 2 Tennessee and showed she wasn't about to take a back seat to one of the more formidable front lines in women's basketball.

That 12th-ranked Stanford (4-2) lost, 74-67, to the Lady Vols (7-0) is really a minor part of the story. Tennessee ended Stanford's 23-game home winning streak and extended its winning streak against the Cardinal to 10 games.

Both teams are relatively young, and both have a chance to extend their seasons well into March and perhaps into April. Stanford should relish the thought of facing Tennessee again, because it will be a different game.

Newlin recorded a career-high 20 points and had 10 rebounds for her third consecutive double-double, and her fourth of the year. She's averaging a double-double with 12.3 points and 10.3 rebounds a game.

Newlin has six career double-doubles, and four of them -- three this season -- have been against nationally-ranked opponents. With opponents ganging up on first team All-Pac-10 selection Brooke Smith, it became necessary for another post player to step forward and share the burden.

"This should tell Kristen Newlin she can get in there and play with the big kids," Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. "We have to get her the ball more."

The good news is that Stanford has another 10 days to work on things until it takes the court at Maples Pavilion against Rice on Saturday, Dec. 17 at 2 p.m. The Pac-10 season begins with a trip to Washington State three days later.

Newlin figures the whole team will be better as a result.

"We're all going to build on this collectively," Newlin said. "We're not going to forget this loss. We'll use it to fuel how we play later on. Tennessee's post players are big, athletic and aggressive. You're not going to find a better post rotation. That helped me a lot."

It will also help Smith, who took a 17.4 scoring average into the contest but managed just nine points and one rebound while getting manhandled by the physical Lady Vols.

"I don't worry about Brooke," Newlin said. "We can't expect her to have good games every day. We still want to get her the ball. She's a scorer."

Last year in Knoxville, Candice Wiggins and Smith combined for 25 points and 11 rebounds in 63 minutes of playing time. Three others - Krista Rappahahn, Cissy Pierce and Newlin - played a total of 17 minutes and had a total of one rebound among them.

On Sunday, Wiggins (16 points, five rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots) and Smith combined for 25 points and six rebounds. Rappahahn and Pierce netted another 15 points.

Tennessee had six players returning who played at least 15 minutes against Stanford last year, while only Wiggins and Smith reached double digits in minutes played last year.

Clare Bodensteiner, Eziamaka Okafor, Rosalyn Gold-Onwude and Jillian Harmon all made their first appearances against the Lady Vols.

The point being that Stanford has a sharper learning curve, and Newlin is at the head of the class. VanDerveer called it a barometer game but it was more like a pop quiz.

"The barometer says we can compete and do well in spurts," VanDerveer said. "We need to be more consistent. We need to develop Candice and Roz at point guard and we need more from Jillian. The best thing is that people feel disappointed and hurt by the loss."

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