Stanford Wins Away from Home, Too

So many other headlines to choose from:
Ogumikes Lead the Way
Kayla Pedersen Breaks Career Minutes Record
Oregon’s Shooting Percent Held to Zero First 10 Minutes
Most Expensive Basketball Court is Also the Ugliest

Sorry, Oregon, about that last one, but the tress and such painted on the court makes a light/dark nightmare that is as hideous as it is districting. And the half court line is transparent, apparently, made up of two very small white lines to form an outline of a half court line. Yuk. The line disappears from about 10 feet away.

Oregon came into the game averaging 83 points with a propensity to score every seven seconds by a fast break or pulling up and hitting a three. Stanford comes into the game always emulating their opponent, so guess which team put on a fast break clinic in the second half? Guess which team had two sisters combining for 34 points after 25 minutes of play and Oregon combining for 27? Whoops, guess we have that one away! Yes Stanford’s Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike had 34 points before being pulled for bench players, including the first 16 points to start the second half and put on a show scoring on fast breaks or just busting it inside and scoring or getting fouled. Chiney misses a shot, it’s okay, Nneka picked up the rebound and put it back in.

Stanford frustrated Oregon by getting two players back on D if they grabbed an offensive rebound, and with the rebounding margin 68-32 it wasn’t often. And Oregon did not score a basket from the floor for the first 10 minutes (now shooting zero precent). The lowly one point they did score was from a foul shot vs. Stanford’s 19. Stanford would have had even more rebounds and points but Nneka and Kayla were stuck on the bench with two fouls for much of the first half. Add in the fact Oregon was made only three three-point baskets out of 32 attempts and Oregon gets beat 91-56.

Chiney had 18 points to Nneka’s 16 and Jeanette Pohlen was sandwiched in there with 17. Jeanette scored by knocking down threes as well as posting up the smaller guard, Nia Jackson. Speaking of which, Jackson was the one bright spot for Oregon. She made some incredible drives to the basket and scored 21 points. Mel Murphy had a tough time guarding her (Why wasn’t defensive specialist Chiney on her?). At one point all five Stanford players tried to stop her drive and she scored anyway.

Kayla Pedersen chipped in 11 points and 14 rebounds and broke Virgina Sourlis’ 25-year old record of 4,148 minutes played. Kayla has played more minutes in a Stanford women’s basketball uniform than anyone, even third place Candice Wiggins. That means Tara VanDerveer must really trust her, having started her in every game she been healthy for since her first freshmen game (She only missed one game after 121 straight starts due to a head injury earlier this year, and Stanford lost to Depaul). Kayla is also trying to close in on Jayne Appel’s career rebounding record. Ahead of her are Appel, Val Whiting and Nicole Powell, and all three went on to play in the WNBA, according to our announcers. It was nice to have the game televised.

Toni Kokenis was still wearing the black sweat suit of injury. Toni had slight headaches after getting hit in the head in the UCLA game a week ago. She still has not been cleared to play. Get well soon.

Next up is last-in-the-PAC-10 Oregon State, which just got beat by Cal.