12-15-2012, 11:41 PM
Stanford handily beat a very good (7-2) Pacific team, but there is plenty to worry about as we look forward to the next few teams that collectively simulate an early NCAA tournament. Pacific could easily be a 1st round opponent, South Carolina is up next, then Tennessee, and finally Connecticut. If we are going to run the gauntlet we will need better play from everyone not named Ogwumike. Then again, this was the first game back after finals and there must have been some rust to dust off.
The atmosphere for the game was much better than the last home game around Thankgsiving. We had 4200 instead of 3100 present, we had our popular announcer back, and the band showed up. There were a few fabulous plays that brought the crowd to its feet, but I am sure the next home game (UConn) with be several orders of magnitude louder yet.
Two truly significant events of this game: First, Taylor Greenfield had a nasty crash as a Pacific player attempted to take a charge off her (unsuccessfully--it was a blocking foul.) She fell to the floor and stayed there for several minutes before being helped off to to the locker room. She walked off very slowly and was supported on both sides. The AP story says she hit her chin and they worked on her neck. What that means we cannot yet know. Let's all hope it proves to be a minor injury and not a major one.Â
Second, Chiney scored a career high 31 points and could have scored more had she been kept in. She also had 13 rebounds, 7 of them offensive.Â
The game did not start off in such a promising fashion at all. For the first 12 minutes of the game Pacific lived up to its excellent record and Stanford led only 21-18, with Chiney being doubled and only contributing 6 points. Then Stanford went on a 17-2 run and any remaining suspense went out of the game.
Pacific started out with a very aggressive defense that constantly came out to the perimeter and into the perimeter passing lanes, making it difficult to do any of the old triangle stuff. At first Stanford seemed to have problems with this, but by the end of the first half and beginning of the second half we were punishing Pacific by passing to Chiney and Joslyn who got behind the defense for easy layups. There was a lot of high-low stuff this game, with Ruef getting five assists, while our guards got relatively few.
As the game wore on it was clear that they had absolutely no answer for Chiney. If the shot clock was coming down she would get it at the top of the key, put the ball on the floor, take it to the hoop and score. She looked like a woman among girls.Â
In the early going Joslyn looked very good--as they doubled Chiney Jos would sometimes be the one to get behind the defense to receive the high-low pass. As the game wore on, no one looked that great on offense other than Chiney. I was left thinking that this will dispose of Pacific, but some of the games that are coming up will demand greater contributions from the rest of the team.
Particularly woeful was our three point shooting. Actually, in the first half we took very few three point shots--it seemed as if the strategy against Pacific was to get it inside as our top priority. For the game, we were 2/11 from three point range. We will need to do better.
Tara seems to be playing around with the point guard slot again. When Toni was in the game, she brought the ball up most of the time rather than Amber. Amber was pretty aggressive about driving to the basket, and finished 4/11 for nine points. Toni was 3/6 for eight points. Jasmine played for 19 minutes and also slashed to the basket a couple of times, but wound up 0/4. Her defense and her ball handling looked good to me, but her shot just is not returning to her after her year off. None of the guards had many assists, the three combined were 4 assists to 5 turnovers.
All in all, a wonderful game for Chiney, a worrisome injury for Taylor, an effective game for Ruef (who had 13 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 5 assists) and an opportunity for Tara to see all her players. Sara, Tess, and Bonnie all had significant minutes and some points in the latter going.
(In good news for WBB in the Pac12, Colorado beat number 8 Louisville and Washington State beat number 20 Ohio State tonight.)
The atmosphere for the game was much better than the last home game around Thankgsiving. We had 4200 instead of 3100 present, we had our popular announcer back, and the band showed up. There were a few fabulous plays that brought the crowd to its feet, but I am sure the next home game (UConn) with be several orders of magnitude louder yet.
Two truly significant events of this game: First, Taylor Greenfield had a nasty crash as a Pacific player attempted to take a charge off her (unsuccessfully--it was a blocking foul.) She fell to the floor and stayed there for several minutes before being helped off to to the locker room. She walked off very slowly and was supported on both sides. The AP story says she hit her chin and they worked on her neck. What that means we cannot yet know. Let's all hope it proves to be a minor injury and not a major one.Â
Second, Chiney scored a career high 31 points and could have scored more had she been kept in. She also had 13 rebounds, 7 of them offensive.Â
The game did not start off in such a promising fashion at all. For the first 12 minutes of the game Pacific lived up to its excellent record and Stanford led only 21-18, with Chiney being doubled and only contributing 6 points. Then Stanford went on a 17-2 run and any remaining suspense went out of the game.
Pacific started out with a very aggressive defense that constantly came out to the perimeter and into the perimeter passing lanes, making it difficult to do any of the old triangle stuff. At first Stanford seemed to have problems with this, but by the end of the first half and beginning of the second half we were punishing Pacific by passing to Chiney and Joslyn who got behind the defense for easy layups. There was a lot of high-low stuff this game, with Ruef getting five assists, while our guards got relatively few.
As the game wore on it was clear that they had absolutely no answer for Chiney. If the shot clock was coming down she would get it at the top of the key, put the ball on the floor, take it to the hoop and score. She looked like a woman among girls.Â
In the early going Joslyn looked very good--as they doubled Chiney Jos would sometimes be the one to get behind the defense to receive the high-low pass. As the game wore on, no one looked that great on offense other than Chiney. I was left thinking that this will dispose of Pacific, but some of the games that are coming up will demand greater contributions from the rest of the team.
Particularly woeful was our three point shooting. Actually, in the first half we took very few three point shots--it seemed as if the strategy against Pacific was to get it inside as our top priority. For the game, we were 2/11 from three point range. We will need to do better.
Tara seems to be playing around with the point guard slot again. When Toni was in the game, she brought the ball up most of the time rather than Amber. Amber was pretty aggressive about driving to the basket, and finished 4/11 for nine points. Toni was 3/6 for eight points. Jasmine played for 19 minutes and also slashed to the basket a couple of times, but wound up 0/4. Her defense and her ball handling looked good to me, but her shot just is not returning to her after her year off. None of the guards had many assists, the three combined were 4 assists to 5 turnovers.
All in all, a wonderful game for Chiney, a worrisome injury for Taylor, an effective game for Ruef (who had 13 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 5 assists) and an opportunity for Tara to see all her players. Sara, Tess, and Bonnie all had significant minutes and some points in the latter going.
(In good news for WBB in the Pac12, Colorado beat number 8 Louisville and Washington State beat number 20 Ohio State tonight.)
