Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Dukin' it out With Duke

So after our little girl’s basketball game, in which a more athletic team beat us, we jumped in the car and tuned to 90.1, the Stanford station. We hoped Stanford was doing better. When we turn the radio on, it is just halftime in the Stanford/Duke game, and the announcers say it has been all Stanford. They are leading 39-23 and Duke is shooting about 25% to Stanford’s 50%. That won’t cut it. Both C and R let out a whoop; we are winning by a lot.

We are almost at C’s house when the second half starts. A mad scramble to get inside, dig up a real radio and not an ipod, and start the laptop to get the Game Tracker going. We get the Stanford station, if not a bit fuzzy. C discovers if she holds the antenna and leans over, we get the station to come in clear. The Game Tracker from the website, however, is another story and is stuck on 17 and a half minutes in the second half.

After trying to heat things up in the microwave and alternating holding the antenna, we discover we are only leading by 9! Duke has been making a comeback somewhere in between all that static! Then we hear some more static and Kayla all alone for a lay up.

In fact, we keep hearing Kayla’s name all the time. That and Jiminy Christmas. C thinks she is hearing things until R explains that someone from Duke has the last name of Christmas. Someone grabbed Nneka Ogwumike hard and elbows were swung. We think it was Merry Christmas and Nneka gets the international foul called and makes both shots. Then we hear someone from Duke fouled out. Nneka got an elbow in the face and I am sure she is thinking, “I don’t want to have to wear that plastic mask again like last year.”

We also hear Stanford is not rebounding well, and that doesn’t bode well for Tennessee. Then the announcers say the only other time Stanford opened the season 8-0, as they currently are, it was stopped by a loss from Tennessee. Double uh oh.

We get the lead back up to 15 and then it stays that way. The game ends 71-55, and Kayla Pederson saves the day, Kayla Pederson passed well, Kayla had 8 rebounds and two blocks, and Kayla Pederson was the high scorer with 22.

We call out field reporters to get their report, but they must be busy trying to catch the red victory balls.

Oh, wait, R’s cell phone rings. Here is what they said.

P and M:
Hello, can you hear us? It was a hard fought game, very physical. Duke was very aggressive and scrappy and all over Jayne. She did not have good night, nothing dropped for her, but lots of left-handed lay-ups (her fave). Tinkle came in for her but looked out of place and it appeared the starters may not have confidence in her yet (Our field reporters calls ‘em like theys sees ‘em!). The people behind us had Tinkle Bells and rang them when she was in (Oh Yay! C and R’s grand experiment worked. The people behind us saw us with the bells last game and brought their own. Now we will bring some to Tennessee! Back to the report)

P and M:
Duke gave a lot of flagrant fouls, some were whistled and some were not. We saw arms locked around necks. Duke looked young, quick, aggressive but not disciplined, and were over our backs a lot. They gave some serious flagrant fouls, as we said, one to JJ Hones in the first, but it was not called. In the Nneka foul, the Duke player grabbed her and swung her around, and had Nneka around the neck, literally. But the tough, physical game will be good to get them ready for Tennessee. When the Duke player fouled out, the band marched her off! (Oh, we miss seeing the game live!). And Pederson was a superstar (we already knew that!). At half time they brought out the Stanford football team that is heading to the Sun Bowl, and they threw T-Shirts, even Toby Gerhart! (Ugh, now C and R are REALLY bummed they did not see the game live! It was cool the football team cheered the women’s basketball team on).

Wow, great reporting, P amd M. They are meeting us at the Tennessee game and we will get more of their insights.

See you there with you Tinkle Bells, and if you don’t have any, you can borrow some from C

No comments:

Post a Comment