Pac-10 Finals

I call R and tell her to hurry over to my house. I can pause live TV and then go backwards and make our own replays. I turn on the shopping channel that had the game yesterday and see the game is not on. I call R in a panic and tell her I can't find the game. She says she already stressed and looked all up and down all the channels and found it on channel 89. What? Okay, it is the CSNCA channel, whatever the heck that is.

We turn on the channel and we see a Stanford fan holding up a sign that says, "Jill the Thrill." The TV features shots of Jill. This is going to be a good game against underdog USC.
Stanford goes with the big line up of Jayne, Kayla and Necka, then Jill and Jeanette. Kayla wants to contribute more this game, as she didn't score a point last game. She drives inside and is fouled. She makes both shots.

We seem to be playing a perimeter offense, setting up on the three point line with quick passes but we can't work it inside. Luckily, Jeanette hits a three. Next possession, another long three by Pohlen but she missed and USC gets the rebound and Jayne reaches in and fouls. Bye Jayne. Lindy comes in, which is good because we need some better three point shooters if we are going to play on the perimiter. Necka takes it inside and gets whacked in the face mask, she stays down for awhile. Once hit in the nose, twice shy.

Jill flies in for a rebound and shoots and is fouled. Her shot goes in and she shoots her one free throw and she misses. This ain't high school. She makes up for it by hitting a three next time down, and we go up 14-6.

One of the announcers goes into the stands to talk to the USC men's basketball team. They just won the men's PAC-10 tournament and they are there to support the women. That is nice.
Ros comes in and gets a quick three. She picks up where she left off last game.

Next time down on offense, the USC center hits Jayne hard she doubles over and her hands touch the ground. Jayne gets up and "accidentally" swings her arm backward and hits the center in the face. It wasn't as obvious as the push but Jayne gets called for it. So she gets taken out.
But that is okay, Kayla is playing great defense, and we are up 21-8.

C and R love to see that Stanford is starting to drive in, as we normally don't see that from Stanford. A USC player knocks into Necka and she falls to the floor. USC gets called for the foul. The replay shows Necka helped herself down to the floor a little, just a little.

They press us and 6'4 Kayla takes it up the court, no fooling around. USC starts chipping away at our lead. Jill makes a basket and then a left-handed block on USC at the other end with a minute left.

Stanford plays great defense in the next 30 seconds and forces them into a thirty second shot clock violation. We get it with 7.8 seconds left. Pohlen is just going to take the whole thing in and she does, driving down the lane and makes it. We are up 33-24 at the half.

The announcers catch Tara and she praises her team's defense and guarding against the threes.
The half starts and Jayne is back in. Yay. She connects under the basket and the announcer says that is her first basket of the game! And yet we are still in the lead. She has been passing off the whole game, when not on the bench.

Kayla knocks down 2 quick shots, she has 16 points already. She wants to prove a point after not scoring last game.

Jill makes a steal and is tiptoeing up the sidelines on her way to the basket when she runs smack into the ref and runs out of bound. Jill turns and gives her a look that says, "Hey, I would have had a lay up!" Then she sees the ref is in pain and holding her knee and Jill pats her on the back as if to say, "Oh yeah, sorry I hit ya."

Jayne starts hitting inside and scores easily, we are up 57-37.

Jill goes up for a rebound and gets poked in the eye. She dribbles out of the key one-handed, holding her eye with the other hand. She dribbles to the sideline not sure what to do. Tara calls a time out for her. Now we are up by 30 points.

C says to R that we need to win by at least 20 to get a number one seed in the upcoming NCAA tournament. It was doubtful going into this weekend that we would get a number one seed. With Oklahoma losing in their Big 12 tournament, and with us destroying all the teams we have faced, we are looking good. Luckily, our second string is doing well, as now Melanie Murphy, Cinnamon, Michelle, and even Grace goes in. We are up 87-55.

The subs hold on to win it 89-64.

Nobody is in the stands to see the trophy presentation. If this were played up north....

They announce the tournament first team and Jill got on it for the first time. So does Necka for the first time, because, well, she is a freshmen. Most outstanding player....R guesses it will be Jayne.....Kayla Pederson! Kayla Pederson gets most Outstanding Player?! Granted she had a great championship game, but she didn't even score a point in the semis. Did Jayne make anything? No Pohlen or Jayne. That was surprising.

Congratulations to Stanford. Tomorrow we see what the seeding committee thinks.