Stanford Beats USC, Remains Undefeated in Pac-12 Play

So the Stanford Women’s Basketball Team was involved in ESPN’s “Big Monday” to showcase women’s college basketball. They played Pac-12 foe USC in the second half of a double header.  Finally some national coverage for Stanford and for their Player of the Year Candidate, Chiney Ogwumike.

Um, C and R are not really sure what happened in the first half. A Stanford PR person came around to our section to ask for volunteers to shoot the half court shot for prizes. Now, C will knock people down just to catch a hurled T-Shirt of victory ball. So who do you think instantly volunteered? C of course.

After a brief discussion with R on how I should shoot it (throw it baseball style, turn around backwards and fling it over my head?), I made my way down to the sidelines as instructed at the 12-minute mark with Stanford holding a brief lead 19-16 lead, and met the other guy who was shooting with me. The only problem was we weren’t shooting until the eight-minute mark. I couldn’t really see want was going on the court, plus I was concentrating on making sure my pants didn’t fall down. I lost four whole minutes where Stanford was slowly expanding their lead. Or something.

Then at the eight minute timeout, they called my name and I threw the basketball baseball style and was a little over zealous and hit the backboard and the ball actually went in the basket then scooped out to fall to the side, which was a good thing because I forgot to call bank. R told me they showed my incredulous reaction on the miss three times on the Jumbotron.

Meanwhile, back on the farm, Stanford used a 14-0 run to get to 37-20 lead with 4 and a half minutes left and to end up with a 46-28 lead at halftime. What happened, I don’t know, I was emotionally spent. After checking my texts and messages from all my friends who saw me act like a fool, I watched Chiney go to work in the second.

Chiney Ogwumike shoots against USC (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Well, that is easy to explain, it was all Chiney, all day. Heck, it looked like she kept scoring on the same play. Throw it to Chiney on the right hand side of the basket and let her bank it in (and she doesn’t call it, either). USC could not stop her and she scored 30 and grabbed 12 boards before Stanford Coach Tara VanDerveer was happy that the East Coast got to see Chiney and took her out. Final score 86-59, Stanford.

This time, though, five Stanford players scored in double figures to help her. Stanford Mikaela Ruef gave some perspective after the game.

"I think what happened last year was that we depended on Chiney too much," said Ruef, one of five Cardinal players to score in double figures. "If other people are scoring, they can't double off me or the guards and that means we can find Chiney even more." And more they did.

With Chiney’s 30 points and 12 rebounds, she got her 15th double-double for the season. She has scored at least 30 points for the 10th time this season, adding to her Stanford record.

Ruef added her own double-double, third of the season for her, with 11 points and 10 rebounds with a side of an unexpected 3-pointer. Guards Amber Orrrrange and Lili Thompson scored 12 points apiece, with Lili making two 3-pointers. Karlie Samuelson (KSam) had 10 points and shot 2-4 from three-point land, and got an assist from BSam, her sister Bonnie. Although Stanford as a team was 7-20 from behind the arc, a little off for them.

Shout out to Twitter Buddy Hoopfeed, and not just because we hope she will mention us on twitter, but because she writes about women’s basketball out of love and came all the way from Dallas to see Chiney in person, although we are concerned that she was staying with people from Cal.

Speaking of which, next game is Cal at home on Thursday, then Cal away on Superbowl Sunday.

Follow C and R for more half-court shots on Facebook and Twitter, too!

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