02-24-2013, 09:13 PM
Chiney set a Stanford record for rebounds in a single game today (24), and also broke the Stanford record for double-doubles with 52 for her career. An unstoppable Chiney, a very good Amber, and a decent defense were all that were needed to beat Oregon on this emotional senior day.
Stanford got off to a much faster start than usual and it did not much involve Chiney at first. Amber kept swishing mid range jumpers, and Sara and Bonnie each made their first three point attempts. Before anyone blinked, it was Stanford 16 Oregon 6 and Westhead called a time out.
Oregon tried to stop Chiney...really, they did. Their zone seemed designed to deny her the entry pass and they did succeed for a time in making other players do the scoring. But the longer the game wore on the more openings to Chiney we found, until she racked up 27 points on 9/15 shooting. Making 9/10 free throws and getting both Oregon bigs into foul trouble (with 4 each) certainly helped. Chiney had a double double at halftime, and Tara took her out just after she broke Nneka's rebounding record. Chiney has had a habit of diving for loose balls and doing contortionist moves that make me cringe with fear of injury at this stage of the season. The deal is--they usually work. Not all of her shots were easy ones at all--quite a few that went in were difficult bank shots, hooks, etc.Â
Amber was not merely hitting jumpers, she was swooshing them through nothing but net. She was 6/10 with 4 assists.Â
Sara, Taylor, and Bonnie each hit early threes which began to make us look unstoppable. I know Westhead throught so--he called a lot of timeouts to try to cool off our shooting. It worked. As the game wore on our three point shooting declined, and we wound up at 6/28 for 21%. It is a good thing that Chiney took over because we obviously were unable to sustain our early three point success. In fairness, though, some of the missed three pointers wound up becoming offensive rebounds and putbacks by Chiney, so maybe they should be thought of as assists instead of misses!
The two seniors had so-so games. Senior day must be very emotional for them--it was emotional for this fan just watching them. I understand that Tinkle had both parents watching her play at Stanford for the first time. I got choked up watching them all come onto the court after the game. Joslyn had one of the most satisfying blocks during this game--it made a brobdingnagian smacking sound that was heard all over Maples and brought loud cheers from the crowd. Ruef defended well and had 9 rebounds, but shot poorly and went back into her free throw slump. Still, the crowd surrounded her with affection when the game was done, even though we hope to see her again.
Jasmine Camp looked a little better this game than last. She hit a nice trey and had 5 points in 9 minutes. Tess continues to look a bit awkward on offense, but she had 2 blocks in 4 minutes. Taylor and Bonnie got lots of minutes, Tara clearly trusts Bonnie more on defense than she once did, and Taylor's fine three point shooting last game must have earned her some more minutes. Bonnie had an excellent layup and Taylor hit a nice 8 foot floater today, showing that they can do more than shoot threes. But their overall scoring was 2/8 and 3/10, respectively. Taylor is beginning to look streakier from three than Bonnie.
Tara remarked that we did not play particularly well--except for Chiney and Amber, and I would have to agree. This was not the balanced offensive juggernaut we saw on Friday. We shot 37% from the field, and made 70% of our free throws. Turnovers (12) and assists (15) were around average. The game was won with defense, with a 45-34 rebounding advantage, with 9 blocked shots, and with the Chiney machine.
Stanford got off to a much faster start than usual and it did not much involve Chiney at first. Amber kept swishing mid range jumpers, and Sara and Bonnie each made their first three point attempts. Before anyone blinked, it was Stanford 16 Oregon 6 and Westhead called a time out.
Oregon tried to stop Chiney...really, they did. Their zone seemed designed to deny her the entry pass and they did succeed for a time in making other players do the scoring. But the longer the game wore on the more openings to Chiney we found, until she racked up 27 points on 9/15 shooting. Making 9/10 free throws and getting both Oregon bigs into foul trouble (with 4 each) certainly helped. Chiney had a double double at halftime, and Tara took her out just after she broke Nneka's rebounding record. Chiney has had a habit of diving for loose balls and doing contortionist moves that make me cringe with fear of injury at this stage of the season. The deal is--they usually work. Not all of her shots were easy ones at all--quite a few that went in were difficult bank shots, hooks, etc.Â
Amber was not merely hitting jumpers, she was swooshing them through nothing but net. She was 6/10 with 4 assists.Â
Sara, Taylor, and Bonnie each hit early threes which began to make us look unstoppable. I know Westhead throught so--he called a lot of timeouts to try to cool off our shooting. It worked. As the game wore on our three point shooting declined, and we wound up at 6/28 for 21%. It is a good thing that Chiney took over because we obviously were unable to sustain our early three point success. In fairness, though, some of the missed three pointers wound up becoming offensive rebounds and putbacks by Chiney, so maybe they should be thought of as assists instead of misses!
The two seniors had so-so games. Senior day must be very emotional for them--it was emotional for this fan just watching them. I understand that Tinkle had both parents watching her play at Stanford for the first time. I got choked up watching them all come onto the court after the game. Joslyn had one of the most satisfying blocks during this game--it made a brobdingnagian smacking sound that was heard all over Maples and brought loud cheers from the crowd. Ruef defended well and had 9 rebounds, but shot poorly and went back into her free throw slump. Still, the crowd surrounded her with affection when the game was done, even though we hope to see her again.
Jasmine Camp looked a little better this game than last. She hit a nice trey and had 5 points in 9 minutes. Tess continues to look a bit awkward on offense, but she had 2 blocks in 4 minutes. Taylor and Bonnie got lots of minutes, Tara clearly trusts Bonnie more on defense than she once did, and Taylor's fine three point shooting last game must have earned her some more minutes. Bonnie had an excellent layup and Taylor hit a nice 8 foot floater today, showing that they can do more than shoot threes. But their overall scoring was 2/8 and 3/10, respectively. Taylor is beginning to look streakier from three than Bonnie.
Tara remarked that we did not play particularly well--except for Chiney and Amber, and I would have to agree. This was not the balanced offensive juggernaut we saw on Friday. We shot 37% from the field, and made 70% of our free throws. Turnovers (12) and assists (15) were around average. The game was won with defense, with a 45-34 rebounding advantage, with 9 blocked shots, and with the Chiney machine.
