December 30, 2005

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Palo Alto Online

Back-to-back losses has Stanford reeling

by Rick Eymer

A tough week just got a little tougher for the Stanford women's basketball team after a special cross country holiday trip ended with a disappointing 77-69 nonconference loss to host Boston College on Wednesday.

It's still early in the Pac-10 Conference season but with USC visiting tonight at 7 p.m., it's a crucial weekend for the 14th-ranked Cardinal (1-1, 6-4), which is off to its worst start in five years. Stanford needs a victory, plain and simple. Losing would sink Stanford into a ditch that might be tough to climb from.

All wins count, and all losses hurt. The 24th-ranked Lady Eagles repeated a scenario that led Stanford to dropping its second game in succession, something that hasn't happened in 23 months. Boston overcame a double-digit deficit in the first half to win. Washington did the same thing against the Cardinal last Thursday.

"I've never experienced back-to-back losses in college," Stanford sophomore guard Candice Wiggins said. "It's difficult to handle a loss in general and this is harder."

Well Candice, there's some good news. No one currently on the playing roster has ever experienced a three-game losing streak in college and no one has ever lost more than one home game in a season. Those items come into play when the Women of Troy invade Maples Pavilion. USC (2-0, 8-3) was the last Pac-10 team to beat Stanford in Maples on March 1, 2001.

The last time Stanford lost three in a row was in 2001, also the same year it dropped more than one home game. Stanford's last four-game losing streak occurred in 1987.

USC put itself back on the map last year with a 20-win season and a first-round win in the NCAA tournament. It was USC's first trip to the NCAA in eight years - and that was with a young team.

The Women of Troy lost two seniors from that team, and return seven players who started at least four games and played in at least 30. They return the top four scorers, the top three rebounders and their top two playmakers.

USC comes to Stanford loaded with confidence and likely with a sense that the Cardinal is indeed vulnerable at this point in the season.

Against the Eagles, Wiggins led Stanford with 20 points and eight rebounds. No one else had more than five rebounds and the Cardinal were outrebounded by a 42-32 margin. Even more significant is that Boston outboarded Stanford 33-10 in the second half and got to the foul line for 26 free throws overall (making 23).

"We are a young team," Wiggins said. "We start two freshmen and Brooke (Smith) and I are only in our second year of playing really. We're used to playing behind seniors. We do over think things at time and make mistakes that people with more experience wouldn't make."

The Cardinal was 5-of-10 from the foul line and is shooting an alarmingly low 63.2 percent for the season, a figure that would rank last in school history since records were kept. Stanford is also making it a habit of sending its opponents to the line more often than not.

The Cardinal has been whistled for 195 fouls this year, a 19.5 average per game. Its opponents have been called for 168 fouls. Opponents have shot 76 more free throws and made 62 more than Stanford.

Last year Stanford attempted 20 percent more free throws than their foes, and made 28 percent more of them (shooting 75 percent as a team). Wiggins went to the line an average of 5.5 times a game last year. She's currently at 2.6 this year.

Stanford misses junior center Kristen Newlin, who has been out of commission the past four games with a stress reaction in her leg. Newlin, who averages 12.3 points and 10.6 rebounds, will likely be a game-time decision today. She accompanied the team to Boston.

"We're doing all the hard things but we're not doing all the easy things," Wiggins said. "We need to rebound, play with heart and intensity. We can't just be a 20-minute team."

Brooke Smith added 17 points and had four rebounds before fouling out in the final 55 seconds. Her final foul came out of frustration. She had a shot blocked by Brooke Queenan, who finished with 23 points and 13 rebounds and thoroughly dominated inside with the help of forward Aja Parham, who added 15 points and seven rebounds.

Stanford led 47-33 with 18:46 left but scored just four points over the next 7:40, allowing Boston the chance to rally.

The Eagles took the lead for good in the final seven minutes.

Freshman Jillian Harmon scored 12 points.

"We had the game and we felt we had control," Wiggins said. "I guess with every loss some good comes out of it but we can't walk away feeling good about the way we played."

Stanford, which lost five seniors to graduation abut were still picked to win the Pac-10, continues to find its way after losing for the third time in four games against ranked opposition.

USC and UCLA (2-0, 7-4) are not currently ranked but they should be, and the Cardinal is fully aware of the implications this weekend.

"Those are two hard matchups," Wiggins said. "UCLA has those three guards in Nikki (Blue), Noelle (Quinn) and Lisa (Willis) and USC has great balance. I grew up in Southern California so I know all their games. We'll get ready to watch a lot of video and start getting ready for USC."

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