[Viking_Guy]

Stanford first got starter McKenzie Argens disqualified, then in came Regina Rogers, operating with four fouls.  With Stanford ahead 42-38, Nneka got to the endline against Mollie Williams (#34).  Williams definitely hacked her, and Bacon signaled a foul.  Then proceeded to say it was against #43, Rogers, and was therefore her fifth foul.  Rogers was standing about 15 feet away from where the contact occurred.

I don\'t know if he saw another foul off the ball on Rogers, but it definitely appeared as if he signaled the wrong number and disqualified the wrong player.

And Stanford still couldn\'t hit an outside shot.  Even when Pohlen sent one through the hoop, it was waved off because the Huskies had committed a foul underneath.  And, with Nneka on the bench after picking up her fourth, Stanford held onto a precarious 3-5 point lead.

Which was whittled down to 3 on a Morton three off a feed from Kingma at 44-41, then to 2 on 1-2 FTs after Jos missed Stanford\'s SEVENTEENTH consecutive shot from 3 point range.  Stanford again pushed it out to 5 on free throws, in the process fouling out Washington\'s third inside player, Williams, on three fouls in 52 seconds of game time.  Kingma again hit a 3 to cut it back to 2, and the two teams traded FTs, before the single biggest shot of the game.

All credit to Toni Kokenis.  Left wide open at the wing of UWs 2-3 zone, she didn\'t let the fact that Stanford was 0-18 from 3 point range phase her.  Launched, and connected.  Stanford up 5, and the lead never got below 4 again in the game.

Not to say there weren\'t still anxious moments, but Kingma finally missed a three, and with all of UW\'s posts either sitting or in foul trouble (their fourth, Heard, fouled out in the last two minutes), Stanford got free on the offensive boards for stickbacks to make up for their continual shooting woes.  I was extremely relieved when the buzzer finally sounded.


Not to put too fine a point on it - this was Stanford\'s worst game in years.  Not this year, but multiple years.  Not just because of the officiating (more on that in a moment), but because, against a fairly simple and not very quick 2-3 zone, their offense became very predictable, and with their inability to hit from outside, ineffective.

How about 1-21 for a stellar 4.9% from 3 point range for the game?  The Ogwumikes raised the overall shooting level up by hitting 14-22, over 60%, inside the arc.  And that percentage would\'ve been even higher if they hadn\'t drawn probably 15 fouls between them every time they touched the ball down low.

Defensively?  Again, they left Lindy LaRocque on an island, and Tara\'s unwillingness to come out of a man into a more floating defense let Kingma drive against her time and time again, forcing rotations and leaving shooters open on the baseline for 12-14 footers.  If Lindy dropped off, Kingma hit from 3 out to 25-26 feet.  Especially in the second half, I would\'ve liked to have seen something more creative on defense when it became clear that Kristi was UW\'s only real offensive weapon, especially with Rogers in foul trouble.  Maybe a trap on Kingma to force her to give up the ball?  Or something?

On the officiating - they set the tone early in the first half, letting them play to the extent that Nneka got hit across both forearms as she went up to shoot, the ball hit the underside of the rim, and not a whistle to be heard.  Given the looseness of the whistles on the Huskies\' defense, the fact that 4 players fouled out gives you an idea of how physical a game it was.  And, as I mentioned, the mistakes ran both ways - the missed call on Rogers was probably the most egregious of the game, but there were plenty of other candidates.

More generally, UW showed other teams what you can do, if you\'re willing to simply beat up on Stanford.  I would\'ve like to see Stanford try to pick up their physicality a bit - most of the fouls that were called on the Cardinal were not nearly as physical as those committed by the Huskies.  And in a game called this loosely (at least for the first half and the first part of the second), it will throw Stanford\'s offense off its game.

The scary part of the game?  Stanford had exactly 5 players score, and two of them, Jeanette and Toni, only had 3 points apiece, with Nneka, Chiney and Kayla hitting for 22, 21 and 13 respectively.  

Statistically, either Nneka or Chiney deserves the gameball, but I\'m going to give it to Toni, for that one shot.  Stanford was on its heels, reeling under a barrage of Kingma 3s, with an 11 point lead cut to 2, when she hit it.  It didn\'t end the game, but it put Stanford back on balance a bit.  For a freshman to hit that shot in that situation gives me hope for next year when Jeanette is gone.

Ugh.  Yuck.  Hoping not to see the rest of our opponents take too much of a lesson from this game, or the last three weeks are going to be some ugly basketball.  And hoping not to see Mr. Bacon on the same court as Stanford again this year.

VG

[Viking_Guy]

Stanford first got starter McKenzie Argens disqualified, then in came Regina Rogers, operating with four fouls.  With Stanford ahead 42-38, Nneka got to the endline against Mollie Williams (#34).  Williams definitely hacked her, and Bacon signaled a foul.  Then proceeded to say it was against #43, Rogers, and was therefore her fifth foul.  Rogers was standing about 15 feet away from where the contact occurred.

I don\'t know if he saw another foul off the ball on Rogers, but it definitely appeared as if he signaled the wrong number and disqualified the wrong player.

And Stanford still couldn\'t hit an outside shot.  Even when Pohlen sent one through the hoop, it was waved off because the Huskies had committed a foul underneath.  And, with Nneka on the bench after picking up her fourth, Stanford held onto a precarious 3-5 point lead.

Which was whittled down to 3 on a Morton three off a feed from Kingma at 44-41, then to 2 on 1-2 FTs after Jos missed Stanford\'s SEVENTEENTH consecutive shot from 3 point range.  Stanford again pushed it out to 5 on free throws, in the process fouling out Washington\'s third inside player, Williams, on three fouls in 52 seconds of game time.  Kingma again hit a 3 to cut it back to 2, and the two teams traded FTs, before the single biggest shot of the game.

All credit to Toni Kokenis.  Left wide open at the wing of UWs 2-3 zone, she didn\'t let the fact that Stanford was 0-18 from 3 point range phase her.  Launched, and connected.  Stanford up 5, and the lead never got below 4 again in the game.

Not to say there weren\'t still anxious moments, but Kingma finally missed a three, and with all of UW\'s posts either sitting or in foul trouble (their fourth, Heard, fouled out in the last two minutes), Stanford got free on the offensive boards for stickbacks to make up for their continual shooting woes.  I was extremely relieved when the buzzer finally sounded.


Not to put too fine a point on it - this was Stanford\'s worst game in years.  Not this year, but multiple years.  Not just because of the officiating (more on that in a moment), but because, against a fairly simple and not very quick 2-3 zone, their offense became very predictable, and with their inability to hit from outside, ineffective.

How about 1-21 for a stellar 4.9% from 3 point range for the game?  The Ogwumikes raised the overall shooting level up by hitting 14-22, over 60%, inside the arc.  And that percentage would\'ve been even higher if they hadn\'t drawn probably 15 fouls between them every time they touched the ball down low.

Defensively?  Again, they left Lindy LaRocque on an island, and Tara\'s unwillingness to come out of a man into a more floating defense let Kingma drive against her time and time again, forcing rotations and leaving shooters open on the baseline for 12-14 footers.  If Lindy dropped off, Kingma hit from 3 out to 25-26 feet.  Especially in the second half, I would\'ve liked to have seen something more creative on defense when it became clear that Kristi was UW\'s only real offensive weapon, especially with Rogers in foul trouble.  Maybe a trap on Kingma to force her to give up the ball?  Or something?

On the officiating - they set the tone early in the first half, letting them play to the extent that Nneka got hit across both forearms as she went up to shoot, the ball hit the underside of the rim, and not a whistle to be heard.  Given the looseness of the whistles on the Huskies\' defense, the fact that 4 players fouled out gives you an idea of how physical a game it was.  And, as I mentioned, the mistakes ran both ways - the missed call on Rogers was probably the most egregious of the game, but there were plenty of other candidates.

More generally, UW showed other teams what you can do, if you\'re willing to simply beat up on Stanford.  I would\'ve like to see Stanford try to pick up their physicality a bit - most of the fouls that were called on the Cardinal were not nearly as physical as those committed by the Huskies.  And in a game called this loosely (at least for the first half and the first part of the second), it will throw Stanford\'s offense off its game.

The scary part of the game?  Stanford had exactly 5 players score, and two of them, Jeanette and Toni, only had 3 points apiece, with Nneka, Chiney and Kayla hitting for 22, 21 and 13 respectively.  

Statistically, either Nneka or Chiney deserves the gameball, but I\'m going to give it to Toni, for that one shot.  Stanford was on its heels, reeling under a barrage of Kingma 3s, with an 11 point lead cut to 2, when she hit it.  It didn\'t end the game, but it put Stanford back on balance a bit.  For a freshman to hit that shot in that situation gives me hope for next year when Jeanette is gone.

Ugh.  Yuck.  Hoping not to see the rest of our opponents take too much of a lesson from this game, or the last three weeks are going to be some ugly basketball.  And hoping not to see Mr. Bacon on the same court as Stanford again this year.

VG