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| The bench celebrates yet another three scored against Arizona. |
Senior guard Brittany McPhee, junior forward
Alanna Smith and freshman guard Kiana Williams had three each. Junior guard
Marta Sniezek and sophomore guard Anna Wilson had two each, while freshman
forward Alyssa Jerome added one.
Kiana got the crowd of 3,136 going right away with
a trey for Stanford’s first score. Just 3.5 minutes into the game, the trey
total had risen to three. With slightly more than 4 minutes to go in the
quarter, the score was 16-4 thanks to five three’s and a free throw.
Marta was first to score from inside the arc with
less than a minute to go in the quarter.
As was true in the victory over Arizona State two
days earlier, all 14 players were available, and all got into the game.
Bench
finalizes win in fourth
By the time the fourth quarter rolled around, the
game was safely in hand at 66-29, leaving bench players to wrap things up.
Starters again were Britt, Alanna, Kiana, Marta
and senior forward Kaylee Johnson. Marta logged the most minutes with 24.
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| DiJonai and Nadia go after a loose ball. |
The home team dominated in nearly every other
statistical category, including rebounds, 48-34; blocks, 4-3; and steals, 9-2.
The only laggard area was free throws, five of nine, or 55.6 percent, while the
Wildcats made seven of 10, or 70 percent.
Scoring was relatively balanced with 15 each from
Britt and Alanna, 11 from Kiana and 10 from freshman forward Maya Dodson. By
about midway through the third quarter, Maya had scored six points in quick succession.
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| Joined by her fan club and others, Amy holds the plaque she got from Tara. |
Before tipoff and after singing of the national
anthem by Ragazzi Boys Chorus, members of the Amy Tucker Fan Club as well as
former SWBB players went to center court to join in honoring Amy for her 32
years with the team. She was associate head coach until retiring from that post
at the end of last season to become women’s basketball administrator.
Head coach Tara VanDerveer, whose mother was at
the game, gave Amy a framed collection of photo highlights from her career. The
team brought Amy into its pre-tipoff huddle, and several players hugged her as
she returned to her seat at the scorers table.
According to an interview in 2007, Amy said the
club “probably started as a lark a little bit, kind of a joke. They were giving
me a hard time about not having a window in my office and were saying, ‘Don’t
you rank at all? You’re the only assistant coach without a window. Can we do
something about that?’
“So they drafted this letter to (then Athletic
Director) Ted Leland. They actually sent it to Ted, I think, about how I needed
to have a window, etc. It evolved from there, and they got a little serious
about it. Actually, they’ve done some really nice fundraising for our program.
They sponsor at least four or five lockers.”
Her fan club is still “the only fan club for an
associate head coach in the nation before Amy’s retirement,” longtime member
Lily Wong said in an email. It still sponsors lockers.
Stanford
returns to rankings at 24
The weekend sweep over the Arizona teams returned
the Cardinal to AP’s top 25 teams, coming in at 24. It also left the team still
tied with UCLA for second in the Pac-12 Conference at 8-2 in league play.
Oregon is first at 9-1.
Britt’s 24 points in the ASU game led ESPN-W to
name her National Player of the Week.
Coming up, the Cardinal travel north to face
Oregon State at 6 p.m. Feb. 2 and Oregon at noon Feb. 4.
(Photos by Bob Drebin, isiphoto.com)
(Photos by Bob Drebin, isiphoto.com)
