02-12-2011, 08:16 PM
Blech. Â Ugh. Â And other expletives of disgust.
Stanford survived its worst performance in years at Maples today, outlasting the Huskies, their own shooting and a trio of less-than-even-the-Pac-10-norm-for-competence officials.
Washington, in the meantime, returned to its Chris Gobrecht-era strategy against the Cardinal: if you can\'t beat them, beat them up.
And it nearly worked.
The first half was one of the roughest, most loosely officiated periods I\'ve seen outside of games against Tennessee in Knoxville and the game that shall remain nameless against the thugs Penichero, Machinguana et al. Â Washington was called for 11 fouls, and it could\'ve and should\'ve easily been 15-18. Â Essentially, Tia Jackson appears to have instructed her players to hit, hit and hit some more, especially every time Stanford got the ball into the post. Â And the officiating crew decided to "let \'em play."
Every time Chiney or Nneka got the ball down low, they got hit. Â If they tried to go up for a shot, they got bodied. Â Twice in the first half, Jeanette Pohlen got called for a charge when she collided with a set Husky defender - because another defender essentially shoved her into that player as Jeanette tried to cut back inside the defender. Â And Pohlen, trying to drive into the heart of the Husky zone, got hammered twice as she rose up to shoot, both times leading to balls coming nowhere near the rim, and neither time called either a foul or a deflection by the defender.
How bad was it? Â Ten minutes into the game, Washington had been called for their fifth foul, and Stanford had scored EIGHT points. Â Luckily, the Stanford defense was holding up, and UW only had 10.
The key? Â Washington was playing a 2-3 zone, and Stanford couldn\'t get the ball inside, because every time the ball went in, the Huskies would hack away, and calls were few and far between. Â So the Cardinal would revert to their bad habit of tossing the ball around the perimeter. Â That wouldn\'t have been that bad, except for the fact that, given looks at open 3 pointers, they were missing - not badly, but they couldn\'t knock anything down.
Strong inside play by Nneka and Chiney in the latter stages of the first half started to right the ship; they played through the fouls, with the two sisters scoring all but two of Stanford\'s points over the last ten minutes of the first half, the vast majority at the free throw line. Â In that stretch, Stanford had three field goals, one each for Chiney, Nneka and Jeanette, and shot 8-10 from the free throw line.
They got the lead out to 8, at 22-14, but the Huskies\' mammoth, and I mean that in the sense of elephantine, center Regina Rogers basically bulldozed her way to an offensive rebound and converted, and, after a Chiney offensive board and stickback, Kristi Kingma shook Lindy in a sign of things to come to get free for a short 12 foot jumper and-1 opportunity when Lindy brushed her arm. Â Kingma missed the FT, and the teams went into the lockerroom with Stanford leading 24-18.
The key stat at the half? Â Stanford, 0-11 from 3 point range. Â With UW hitting everyone inside and sending them to the line, crashing down out of their 2-3 zone to slap at the ball when it was in the post, there were open looks to be had - Jeanette and Kayla in particular had wide-open chances that they just couldn\'t knock down. Â It kept the Huskies in the game.
Or rather, it kept the Huskies as a team in the game. Â Individual players began to get in (deserved) foul trouble, especially down in the post. Â But Stanford still couldn\'t hit from outside, and began to have issues at the free throw line as well, often going 1-2 and keeping UW in the game. Â And then Kingma started to get going. Â Lindy to put it kindly did not have a very good defensive game against her, unlike the game in Seattle. Â Part of it was that Stanford\'s help defense when Kingma drove again seemed to be late, but also, Lindy dropped a bit too far off her inside the arc, and Kingma started to hit from 23 or 24 feet. Â
Stanford had managed to push it out to a 10 point lead when Kingma hit her first. Â But the play that really kept them in the game was a blown call by official Kyle Bacon, who called Nneka for her third personal foul as she grabbed Rogers\' left arm on defense. Â Of course, Rogers had just brought her elbow up into Nneka\'s face when she did that to try to throw Nneka off-balance, so it seemed a rather odd call. Â But when Nneka left, Stanford\'s inside offense lost half its punch, and with the outside still ice-cold, Chiney had to keep on trooping to the FT line. Â And every time Stanford got out to a 10 point lead, there was Kingma with another 3. Â Then she hit two in a row, and UW was only down 4, 39-35, with under 12 minutes left.
The Cardinal kept working the ball inside, kept drawing fouls, and finally UW started to lose players (albeit one on an absolutely ludicrous mistake, again by Kyle Bacon).
More...
Stanford survived its worst performance in years at Maples today, outlasting the Huskies, their own shooting and a trio of less-than-even-the-Pac-10-norm-for-competence officials.
Washington, in the meantime, returned to its Chris Gobrecht-era strategy against the Cardinal: if you can\'t beat them, beat them up.
And it nearly worked.
The first half was one of the roughest, most loosely officiated periods I\'ve seen outside of games against Tennessee in Knoxville and the game that shall remain nameless against the thugs Penichero, Machinguana et al. Â Washington was called for 11 fouls, and it could\'ve and should\'ve easily been 15-18. Â Essentially, Tia Jackson appears to have instructed her players to hit, hit and hit some more, especially every time Stanford got the ball into the post. Â And the officiating crew decided to "let \'em play."
Every time Chiney or Nneka got the ball down low, they got hit. Â If they tried to go up for a shot, they got bodied. Â Twice in the first half, Jeanette Pohlen got called for a charge when she collided with a set Husky defender - because another defender essentially shoved her into that player as Jeanette tried to cut back inside the defender. Â And Pohlen, trying to drive into the heart of the Husky zone, got hammered twice as she rose up to shoot, both times leading to balls coming nowhere near the rim, and neither time called either a foul or a deflection by the defender.
How bad was it? Â Ten minutes into the game, Washington had been called for their fifth foul, and Stanford had scored EIGHT points. Â Luckily, the Stanford defense was holding up, and UW only had 10.
The key? Â Washington was playing a 2-3 zone, and Stanford couldn\'t get the ball inside, because every time the ball went in, the Huskies would hack away, and calls were few and far between. Â So the Cardinal would revert to their bad habit of tossing the ball around the perimeter. Â That wouldn\'t have been that bad, except for the fact that, given looks at open 3 pointers, they were missing - not badly, but they couldn\'t knock anything down.
Strong inside play by Nneka and Chiney in the latter stages of the first half started to right the ship; they played through the fouls, with the two sisters scoring all but two of Stanford\'s points over the last ten minutes of the first half, the vast majority at the free throw line. Â In that stretch, Stanford had three field goals, one each for Chiney, Nneka and Jeanette, and shot 8-10 from the free throw line.
They got the lead out to 8, at 22-14, but the Huskies\' mammoth, and I mean that in the sense of elephantine, center Regina Rogers basically bulldozed her way to an offensive rebound and converted, and, after a Chiney offensive board and stickback, Kristi Kingma shook Lindy in a sign of things to come to get free for a short 12 foot jumper and-1 opportunity when Lindy brushed her arm. Â Kingma missed the FT, and the teams went into the lockerroom with Stanford leading 24-18.
The key stat at the half? Â Stanford, 0-11 from 3 point range. Â With UW hitting everyone inside and sending them to the line, crashing down out of their 2-3 zone to slap at the ball when it was in the post, there were open looks to be had - Jeanette and Kayla in particular had wide-open chances that they just couldn\'t knock down. Â It kept the Huskies in the game.
Or rather, it kept the Huskies as a team in the game. Â Individual players began to get in (deserved) foul trouble, especially down in the post. Â But Stanford still couldn\'t hit from outside, and began to have issues at the free throw line as well, often going 1-2 and keeping UW in the game. Â And then Kingma started to get going. Â Lindy to put it kindly did not have a very good defensive game against her, unlike the game in Seattle. Â Part of it was that Stanford\'s help defense when Kingma drove again seemed to be late, but also, Lindy dropped a bit too far off her inside the arc, and Kingma started to hit from 23 or 24 feet. Â
Stanford had managed to push it out to a 10 point lead when Kingma hit her first. Â But the play that really kept them in the game was a blown call by official Kyle Bacon, who called Nneka for her third personal foul as she grabbed Rogers\' left arm on defense. Â Of course, Rogers had just brought her elbow up into Nneka\'s face when she did that to try to throw Nneka off-balance, so it seemed a rather odd call. Â But when Nneka left, Stanford\'s inside offense lost half its punch, and with the outside still ice-cold, Chiney had to keep on trooping to the FT line. Â And every time Stanford got out to a 10 point lead, there was Kingma with another 3. Â Then she hit two in a row, and UW was only down 4, 39-35, with under 12 minutes left.
The Cardinal kept working the ball inside, kept drawing fouls, and finally UW started to lose players (albeit one on an absolutely ludicrous mistake, again by Kyle Bacon).
More...


