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WBB: Stanford 78 USC 64 - Viking_Guy - 02-18-2011

Not a full, but at least a partial %#&$#*.

Stanford rallied after a tough shooting first half.  But that rally was almost derailed by what looks like a pretty nasty sprained right ankle for Nneka Ogwumike, who appeared to land on a defender\'s foot after converting a lob pass into an alley-oop layup early in the second half. She would hop off the court into the locker room, and later return with a brobdingnagian ice bag on her ankle.  I doubt she\'ll see time in Sunday\'s game against UCLA, which makes that already difficult game all the tougher.

It felt like the team hadn\'t exorcised the shooting demons from the UW game last week in the initial stages of tonight\'s contest.  After an early Jeanette 3, the Cardinal missed their next 5 shots and turned the ball over, allowing the Trojans to build a 9-3 advantage, almost entirely the result of work by Briana Gilbreath, who seemingly couldn\'t miss.  Three pointers, runners, and step-back jumpers all were falling, and combined with Jacki Gemelos, the two perimeter players scored SC\'s first 16 points.

Stanford, however, also began to exploit the center of SC\'s defense, getting into the lane with entry to Nneka or Boothe, or driving with both Pohlen and LaRocque.  And when other SC players shot (and missed), Stanford quickly got back into the game, eventually tying it on a Pohlen 3 at 16 apiece.

The big problem?  SC was getting nothing inside, but on the perimeter, Stanford again was having issues controlling the point of attack.  This led to either Gilbreath getting into the lane for pull-up jumpers, or Gemelos driving and dishing to Gilbreath outside.

Stanford\'s inside advantage, however, slowly pulled them out to a 9 point lead as SC settled for jumpshots (posts Kari LaPlante and Cassie Harberts finished a combined 4-10 with 10 boards) and those shots refused to keep falling at the ridiculous rate they were early on, at least through the middle part of the first half.  In a reverse of the normal pattern, Stanford won the middle of the first half, but let up at the end, again letting the perimeter hurt them, as SC hit 4-5 three-pointers in the last 3 minutes of the half to end up only trailing by 2, 38-36.

I didn\'t think they could keep it up.  The Trojans hit over 50% of their shots in the first half, almost all jumpers of one variety or another, including 5-9 from 3 point range.  The Cardinal, meanwhile, were shooting under 40%, their offensive half to a large extent being salvaged by hitting 10-10 at the FT line, in a sign of their inside dominance.

Early in the second half, that seemed to reassert itself.  Stanford went inside early and often, most especially Kayla, who scored 6 quick points, then fired up a lob pass to Nneka that she grabbed in mid-air and laid up from the right side to push the lead out to 10.

And then collapsed to the floor, writhing in pain and clutching her right ankle.

She would hop off the floor, and eventually to the locker room, supported by her teammates.  But after a dominant first half, and with SC hanging around and hanging around, I was extremely concerned.

Tinkle came in to replace her, but you could tell Stanford was out of sorts offensively, as over the next few minutes they could only muster a couple of baskets, and SC took advantage of a bad mistake by Boothe under the basket, throwing a bad outlet pass that was picked off and converted into a 3 pointer that pulled them back within 5 at 52-47.

Then one of the rarest of happenings.  Toni Kokenis drove the lane and put the ball up off the offensive glass - and had the basket wiped out on an offensive foul call.  And Tara went ballistic and drew a technical.  Don\'t know whether it was worry about Nneka, or the game status, or simply what she felt was a bad call (even the SC announcer, looking at a replay, said he didn\'t see much contact or anything that really looked like a foul).  SC had two FTs and the ball coming, down 5.

And Gemelos short-armed them both, clanking both off the front of the rim well short.  And then Briana Gilbreath travelled to turn the ball over.

Whatever else you might say, the T did seem to fire Stanford up a bit.  Well, more than a bit.  They outscored the Trojans 14-4 over the next 4 minutes, concluding the run with a Tinkle 3 that made it 66-51, and the game was pretty much done.  During the run, they got the ball inside to Kayla and Chiney, and Jeanette hit a 3, but most importantly, they strung together some stops on the defensive end while punishing the Trojans\' lack of inside defense and rebounding.  The lead eventually would push out to 19, and Stanford finally was able to pull the starters with about 2 minutes left.

Color me extremely worried about Sunday, but proud of how the team pulled together tonight.

Gameball for me to Kayla, who hit the big shots at the beginning of the second half to push the lead out, then stabilized things when Nneka left - 17 points on 5-7 shooting, 7-9 FTs, 8 boards, 5 assists and 0 turnovers.

More...

Re: WBB: Stanford 78 USC 64 - Viking_Guy - 02-18-2011

Jeanette came close, with 5-9 three point shooting and leading scorer with 19, BUT she had another bad play on defense that helped SC on their closing run in the first half - gambling for a steal on the perimeter, letting her player drive and draw Toni Kokenis from the far side, where Stefanie Gilbreath (who hit 4-4 from 3 point range) buried a shot to cut Stanford\'s lead going toward halftime.

Also strong consideration to Chiney (rebounding from a horrid shooting first half to post 13 with some key offensive boards in the decisive run in the second half) and Toni, who got some quality time as a defensive sub for Lindy, who again had a tough time staying in front of her mark, whether Gemelos, or later Len\'Nique Brown, who got into the lane easily and drew defenders away from jump shooters.  

Going forward?  Well, it will be interesting.  Assuming Nneka can\'t go on Sunday, what will Tara do?  UCLA doesn\'t have much of a post threat, so defensively Stanford should be okay in that sense; they rely much more on their slashers in Walker, Dixon, Morris and Gardiner off the bench (who led them with 16 tonight in beating da Bares and pretty much ending UCB\'s chances at the NCAA tournament barring a miracle run in the Pac-10 tourney).

Will it be Tinkle, with Chiney and Kayla in the post offensively and Tinkle defensively?  Or will she try to go big with Boothe, who had a tough game tonight but could be a factor simply with her size against the Bruins?  Or some other strange permutation, with Kokenis, Pohlen and LaRocque operating with Chiney and Kayla to try to offset the UCLA slashers?  Would definitely help to have ball handlers galore out there against Nikki\'s ball pressure.

Whatever the case may be, hope they can pull it together and pull it out (how about some zone against the woeful outside shooting of the Bruins?)  And Nneka, heal up soon.  I would really consider resting her both Sunday and next week against the woeful Oregon schools at home.

Darn it.

VG



Re: WBB: Stanford 78 USC 64 - sheriand - 02-18-2011

What a strange game!!   Glad to see Jeannette hitting her threes, and excellent all-around play as usual by Kayla.   Good contributions from Toni and Rueff.   But what happened with Jos and the four fouls in something three minutes??   Would have really liked to see the play that led to the technical on Tara (I was listening on KZSU, so great to have Jake Kelman back!!).    Very concerned about Nneka\'s injury, and I agree with VG that resting/healing is the priority, but it really ramps up the pressure for the Sunday matchup with UCLA.