Publication Date: Friday Oct 17, 1997

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL: Lasers' ABL opener a Stanford reunion

It's not often one has reason to root for the home team and the visiting team. Tara VanDerveer, however, had to do just that Wednesday night in the San Jose Arena. The Stanford women's basketball coach had to pull for the San Jose Lasers, which featured three of her former players. And VanDerveer had to cheer for the Seattle Reign, which had four ex-Cardinal standouts on its roster.

Talk about divided loyalties.

VanDerveer, however, probably wasn't alone as she sat among the crowd of 10,809 that watched the Lasers and Reign open their 1997-98 American Basketball League seasons. That was evident during the pregame introductions when all the former Stanford players took the floor.

Of all the former Cardinal stars on the court Wednesday night, the biggest cheers were for Seattle's Val Whiting, a former San Jose Laser, and for Jennifer Azzi, the current Laser who is the fan's favorite daughter. Whiting looked like she was taken back a little by her reception. She managed to recover nicely though and waved to the crowd who appreciated what she had done for the Lasers in their first season in 1996-97.

Whiting was involved in a trade with Seattle that brought Charlotte Smith to San Jose. Whiting was San Jose's leading rebounder last year.

Not that there was any less cheering for Kate Starbird, returning to the Stanford neighborhood as a Seattle Reign and teammate to Whiting.

"It felt like home for the first two minutes," Starbird said. "There were a lot of familiar faces."

It was a Stanford reunion all the way around in the Lasers' 90-70 victory over the Reign as the ABL opened its second season with a flourish.

The Lasers have Stanford grads Azzi, Sonja Henning and Anita Kaplan. Seattle has Starbird, Whiting, Kate Paye and Christy Hedgpeth.

Azzi guarded Starbird. Henning guarded Paye. Paye guarded Azzi. Starbird guarded Henning. The Stanford women's team, in attendance among the many celebrities, probably had a hard time deciding which way to root. Probably decided they'd just root for anyone who used to wear the Stanford uniform. That would have been the easiest route.

And VanDerveer probably was smiling through the evening, watching her former pupils working to keep the ABL going strong.

Whiting finished with 14 points and seven rebounds, while Paye had 14 points and a team-high four assists. Starbird scored eight points, shooting just 3-of-11 from the floor and 1-of-4 from the foul line.

"I didn't play as well as I had hoped," said Starbird. "When Azzi was on me, she did a great job."

With less than three minutes to play in the first quarter, Starbird started one of her patented drives to the basket. At Stanford, she was usually unstoppable. But this is the pros, and it took a 1996 Olympian and Stanford grad (Azzi) to show Starbird things will be a little different at this level.

"Coach (Angela Beck) wanted to focus on her," said Azzi. "Either not let her get the ball or get up tight on her when she did get the ball."

It was Starbird's professional debut, and she has better games ahead.

"Starbird played with a lot of heart," said Beck.

At one point, for about 30 seconds, she also played without a shoe. Early in the third quarter, she ran out of her right shoe on Seattle's end of the court. San Jose took the ball up court and Starbird was left behind. Seconds later she ran out of her shoe again trying to get back on defense. This time she let the shoe go. At the next break she was able to get it back on.

Azzi finished with 10 points, three in the first three quarters, and she credited Paye with a fine defensive effort.

"She's a good defensive player," said Azzi, who also had eight assists. "She bumped me all night.

Henning finished with seven points, though she made three of her five shots. Kaplan has been bothered by a wrist injury. She fractured her left wrist on Sept. 11, and just had her cast removed on Friday. As a result, she missed most of the preseason.

For Seattle, Hedgpeth was coming off an ACL injury, then pulled a calf muscle in Wednesday's game and played less than a minute.

"When she went in, she stabilized the team," said Seattle coach Jacquie Hullah. "It hurt us when we couldn't go back to her."

And while Starbird thought Azzi did an excellent job on her defensively, she's glad Henning didn't guard her.

"I played pick-up game with her all summer," said Starbird. "She knows both my moves."

There were no real losers Wednesday, especially if you were a Stanford rooter. At least two people wore T-shirts that featured half the Stanford logo and half the Lasers' logo. Now if only someone could design a shirt that featured Stanford, San Jose and Seattle. VanDerveer just might buy it. 

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