Stanford, Bench, Crush Oregon State

Okay, in the car on the way to Maples, C and R had a prediction about the Stanford Women’s Basketball Team’s game vs. Oregon State. We predicted Stanford would start out slowly, let Oregon State hang around, have a small spurt before the half, then come out and go on a 12 to small something run. Well, that was easy to predict because that seems like how the last five PAC-10 games have gone. Also in the car, we had to negotiate RAIN! Or more specifically, the drivers driving in the RAIN! And in northern California if anything hits our windshield we think hurricane forces are at work and slow down to about 7 miles per hour, unlike back East where it rains so hard you can’t see more than 5 feet in front of your car so you slow down to 70.

So 3,344 of our closest, bravest friends came out for the game. One who was none other than fave of faves Candice Wiggins. Yours truly went up and talked to her at the half. Wanna know what Candice said? Well, you go get the courage to go and talk to her yourself!! But C and R will share she is vibrant, radiant, in great health, and just a wonderful athlete in her prime. We wish her a healthy and successful WNBA season. Even if her team gets Maya Moore.

Oh yeah, they were playing a game at Maples; we got a little distracted with Candice. Stanford, playing again without Nneka Ogwumike, takes an early lead, as predicted. Then there was a weird technical foul against Chiney Ogwumike, who was called for an intentional foul around the 15:58 mark, and the stoppage of play to review the monitor slowed down Stanford more than anything. So they watched Oregon State go up by 5, with the score 6-11 at the 13:39 mark. We didn’t predict that! C and R mention the time and score because Oregon State will stay stuck at 11 until the 2:33 mark. Almost 11 minutes without scoring a point! Halftime ends and it is 29-14, Stanford. Wow. Now that’s defense, and Stanford was flawless and seamless in their switches and Oregon State did not make the most of the mismatches. Plus, love the 1-3-1 with Chiney Ogwumike on point.

Stanford didn’t go on a huge run to start the second half as we predicted, but slowly chipped away at Oregon State to build a 17 point lead. But starting at the 11 minute mark, in the span of two minutes, Jeanette Pohlen made a steal and then hit a long three, Kayla Pedersen hit another three and Jeanette got another three after that and Toni Kokenis got a steal and fast break basket AFTER THAT, for a quick 28 point lead, and it was all over except for bench duty.

Speaking of Toni and steals, ya know how when you hear two words put together so often they lose their meaning, such as saying this hot chocolate is cold, or this iced tea is hot or my hot dog is awful? Well, take the words fast break. Freshmen Toni Kokenis doesn’t do a fast break, she does a fast fast break. Man her speed; has anyone timed her in the 40? She has great anticipation skills already to time the jump for the steal, but when she does get the ball, she sure can accelerate. Even when she was stumbling and trying to maintain her balance and keep control of her dribble, she still beat the person she stole the ball from to the basket. Stanford got 14 points off the fast break; the overwhelming majority from Toni.

And speaking of the bench, C and R were especially impressed with the bench this time. Sarah Boothe matched her career high with 16 points. Mikaela Ruef sure likes to pass to Boothe. Even their names rhythm. Perhaps they bonded over their summer league experience where Boothe was the “go to” option for that team, because Ruef sure gave the ball to Boothe whenever she could and Sarah was able to bank a lot of shots in. Stanford got 32 points from their bench. Impressive.

Records:
Stanford tied their school record for consecutive home wins. They also got the top seed in the PAC-10 tournament. They can set the consecutive home wins record at 60 and secure an outright conference title by beating Oregon on Saturday. Remember, game time is 2 PM.