Stanford Beats USC, Nneka Ogwumike Sprains Ankle

So, okay, it’s not that C and R are cheap, per se, when it comes to shelling out the $14.95 a month for the CBS web package to watch their beloved Stanford Women’s Basketball Team, its just that it is so confusing to get the right screen to even figure out if the Stanford-USC game will be shown on the internet site and if it’s worth it to buy the package. (Okay, so maybe we are cheap). Was it on the website? Because we sure could not make heads or tails of the stupid Gametracker. Well, that also might be because we were trying to watch “Jeopardy” at the same time because now that the machine that beat all humans is gone it’s teen tournament time and with the questions scaled down we actually have a shot at getting a question or two right (Hmm, distracted much?).

Anyhoo, what we learned from chess pieces. Kayla Pedersen had a heck of a game (scored 17 points on 7-9 shooting) and Jeanette Pohlen (and everyone else) were told to make some threes after last games low three point shooting ratio. Jeanette was 5-9 from downtown and had 19 points for the game. It looked like Chiney Ogwumike missed some easy shots and had a lot of turnovers, especially in the second half, yet ended up with 13 points, but is hard to tell what is going on. Tinkle had four fouls in four seconds in the second half.

What we did not learn from Gametracker. Nneka Ogwumike’s sprained ankle. We guess Gametracker doesn’t have little red chess pieces to fall to the ground and clutch their ankle. Nneka sprained her right ankle early in the second half and left the game. That’s going to have repercussions against Sunday’s UCLA game. We also did not learn that Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer was whistled for a technical foul. (It’s okay, Jacki Gemelos missed the two free throws). Guess Gametracker doesn’t have a little red icon to yell at officials or throw a shoe or whatever happened. Anybody know what happened? Was it when Tinkle got four fouls in four seconds? R does not even remember a time Tara got a technical foul.

It appears Stanford have lost their intensity and lost their edge. It can be expected a little when we had focused and prepared for the UConn game in late December. The same thing happened last year after Stanford’s “mini” NCAA tournament run before the start of the PAC-10 season. They focused on that, and after surviving it, intensity and urgency dropped. A clear pattern has emerged against this second round of PAC-10 foes. The foes come out swinging, trying to slow things down, and we respond to plodding play with plodding play of our own and go into the locker room close (This time it Stanford was only up by two, 38-36). Then Tara VanDerveer yells/inspires/gives them good feedback/suggestions/points out their flaws and they respond and open the second half with a XX point run. (This time it was a 12-2 run). Then we hold them off and win by 12-18 or so points. This time the final score against USC was 78-64.

And….  and word is out we don’t like it when the other teams get physical. And why should Stanford like it, they play such pure basketball, using their smarts more than their brawn. Witness Washington, who knew they couldn’t rebound with Stanford, so just had every player hold the arm of a Stanford player. It worked for a half, the score was close, and when the refs finally woke up and threw out 4 players with 5 fouls each, Stanford finally got back to Stanford basketball.

Two quotes that support our rant:
“USC came out, and it looked like they wanted to slow the tempo a little bit," VanDerveer said. "They were more physical this time around."

We knew it was going to be tougher the second time around," Pedersen said. "Everybody scouts everybody, and everybody talks to everybody."

Okay, this last quote from Kayla actually helps to make more sense as to why the PAC-10 teams are having more success the second time around.

Sister Sister
Oh, C and R didn’t realize that USC has sisters, too, like our beloved Nneka and Chiney. They have a Briana Gilbreath and a Stefanie Gilbreath. And like our sisters, who often are high scorers for the team, or at least score nearly identical points. Briana Gilbreath scored 17 points, and Stefanie Gilbreath added 16 in this game. Briana Gilbreath scored 11 of them in the first half and was responsible for keeping the score close, or at least that’s what we gleaned from Gametracker. Stanford then shut her down for the second half with one jumper and four foul shots.

Well, the UCLA game is supposed to be televised on Fox Sports Network. It will be refreshing to see the team for real and not read the play-by-play.