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Joined: Dec 1969
I was too bummed out after the game to post anything. Stanford was down 2-0 but the teams went back and forth to 5-5 at the half. Stanford was never behind in the second half, leading 10-8 early in the 4th. But, USC tied it up shortly in the last minute or so. Stanford had a disasterous 1st period in the first overtime (two 3-minute periods). Stanford won the sprint, but turned the ball over. A Stanford player gets called for an exclusion, extending the USC possession, but USC misses the shot. Stanford again turns the ball over. Stanford's goalie blocks a shot but it goes out of bounds, giving possession back to USC. USC scores with 44 seconds left. Stanford AGAIN turns the ball over immediately while a USC player was still in the back court. The ball is passed to her, and it is just her and the goalie. USC scored a 2nd goal just 13 seconds after the 1st. Stanford hasn't taken a shot in overtime while USC has scored twice.
For the last half of the 2nd overtime period, Stanford's goalie position was playing as a field player. Even so, they couldn't get good looks. Stanford got a meaningless goal with one second left.
It was clear that Stanford was relatively gassed. Too my eyes, several of the final four USC goals were due to Stanford not fighting into a good position. At least two of the turnovers were due to steals by players less tired. They don't show stats of how much time was played by players, but it seemed that USC was liberally substituting, while Stanford mostly played the same people.
While I am curious about some of the fouls called, including one spot where two Stanford players were ejected at the same time, resulting in a USC score, I think I'll pass on asking CompSci87 to upload the video. I would have felt different if we'd pulled it out. Thanks though...
If you ever think foul calling is a black art in basketball, watch water polo. I swear I can not distinguish ejections called versus non-ejections. A player can have both hands out of the water and be ejected, without any obvious interference done.
Stanford lost to UCLA and then 2 in a row to USC. This is the first time Stanford has lost 3 in a row since 1998.
Even if Stanford was ranked #2, I don't see much chance of beating USC. There is a chance, but not much.