Round Two-Stanford vs. Iowa

KA-RAY-ZEE!

Just crazy. The game between the Stanford Women’s Basketball team and Iowa in the second round of the NCAA tournament was just plain crazy. Ros raining threes, back door plays to Jayne and Nneka, 40 points in the first ten minutes, 61 points by half …nazi usher trying to chase everyone away… it was just crazy!

So, C and R have noticed all year long Stanford has a habit of playing to the other teams…I don’t know, tempo, strength? When Oregon pushes the ball and scores quickly, we like the energy and push the ball and score even more quickly. Iowa was a three-point specialist team, hitting 10 threes to down Rutgers. So we nailed threes like there was no tomorrow, and for seniors Ros Gold-Onwude and Jayne Appel, there was no tomorrow, this being their last game on Maples court ever.

Ros opened the game hitting a three, then she made 2, 3, 4 and 5 in a row in the first 10 minutes. Gotta be some kinda record. Iowa started out making threes as well, but when we kept matching them they got deflated. It was 40-18 in ten minutes. Stanford made their first 9 three point attempts before JJ Hones missed with 3:21 left in the half. Speaking of end of the half, it was 61-34, Stanford.

Ros would go on to shoot 9 of 13, making 7 of 9 three pointers. She did set a personal record, scoring 26. C and R thought her previous high had been 21 points, but we read it had been 19. Nneka Ogwumike added 23 points, and 16 points from Jayne and we cruised to a 96-67 victory. We appreciate Tara VanDerveer left Ros in so long to get her points, finally taking her out with about 7 minutes in the second half. Our third tree,  Kayla Pedersen, "only" added 11 points and we still have not heard why she is wearing the sleeve on her shooting elbow.

We thought Ros would be high scorer of the game, but Kachine Alexander for Iowa looked impressive, slashing inside and scoring on lay ups, a few of them on the reverse. She would end up with 27 points, her career-high. Even though Iowa was down by as much as 38 points, we thought they would go to more threes, but they passed up some open looks. If they had Oregon’s philosophy of scoring within seven seconds, perhaps they could have dug themselves out a bit. C and R also noted they did not press us in any configuration. Haven’t they studied their game film? Perhaps they thought they were not quick or tall enough to press us, but they were plenty quick on offense.

The game was fun with all the Stanford scoring and over 5,000 in attendance, definitely not a sell out. So not every seat had been sold, and there were empty sections. When people moved out of the small general admission seats to the empty sections, right next door, not the ones way down below, one usher chased them out, even though no paying customers showed up for those seats the whole game. Really, Stanford? Also saw one man try to bring in his stainless steel water bottle and was asked to store it against the wall. He was mad. Must not have seen our post about the orphaned water bottles.

After the game we met with our friends (who snuck in behind the basket, their usher must have been asleep or at least kind) in a sports bar no less, and we saw women’s basketball on the big screen. Lo and behold, Gonzaga beat Texas A& M. Gonzaga! We lovzes ya! Texas was the only team that could have given us fits in this bracket. And we beat Gonzaga earlier this year by 30! What a great night of women’s basketball!
We caught the final minutes of the team that we will play in the Sacramento Regional semifinals. Georgia “upset” Oklahoma State. Although in C’s book, a number 5 seed beating a number 4 seed is not that much of an upset. Speaking of seeds, C’s women’s basketball bracket is all shot to heck, and guess who leads our mini bracket group? R. She is insufferable when she is right. Perhaps because it happens so infrequently!

So Stanford plays Georgia in Sacramento. C and R are up for the road trip!