It wasn’t pretty, but Stanford wins

Cardinal fans have become accustomed to winning games by comfortable margins of late. However, “we’re not going to beat everybody by 20 or 30 points,” associate head coach Amy Tucker reminded fans following the Stanford women’s basketball team’s 62-52 victory over Washington on Feb. 12 at Maples.

As expected, “it was a very physical game. It was a battle,” she said. “They played Jeanette (Pohlen) very tough,” she said, thereby limiting the standout senior guard to only 3 points.

On the other hand, “we got Nneka (Ogwumike) going in the second half,” so the junior forward finished with a team-leading 22 points plus nine rebounds. Her sister, freshman forward Chiney Ogwumike, contributed 21 points and 10 rebounds.

Add in senior forward Kayla Pedersen’s 13 points (plus five rebounds), and the three bigs accounted for all but 6 of the team’s points. Jeanette, as mentioned, had 3, while freshman guard Toni Kokenis tossed in the other 3 with the team’s only successful 3-pointer out of 21 attempts.

“It’s over. It’s good to get it out of our system,” Amy said. “I was happy to see that we stayed together.”

The Cardinal players also kept their composure in a game in which Washington was whistled for 27 fouls that resulted in four players fouling out. Stanford had 16 fouls. Washington also had 21 turnovers compared with Stanford’s 12. “We have a very good defensive team, one of the best,” Amy said.

Prior to hearing from Amy, fans had a chance to catch up with Sarah Dimson, ’01. She said she works for a social entrepreneurship organization based in Washington, D.C., but she travels a lot. She recently spent a year and a half in India and Pakistan.

Another traveler heard from was senior guard Hannah Donaghe. She expanded briefly on the recent Fast Break Club blog in which she talked about her summer in Mexico. She was there on an internship through the Stanford biology department and spent most of her time in a dry tropical forest near Oaxaca.

Prior to the game, fans had another chance to see the KerryCam video created by team manager Kerry Blake during the team’s trip to Arizona the previous week. The video caught the attention of the smiling and laughing Cardinal players, who were preparing to make their entrance onto the court.

Another treat was the singing of the National Anthem by the Peninsula Girls Chorus. It’s always gratifying to hear “The Star-Spangled Banner” sung properly.

The first half started out slowly for both teams. The score was tied 8-8 at 10:07 and had inched up to only 11-10 with 7:48 to go. It was 24-18 at the half.

During halftime, fans were treated to precision dancing by the girls of the McGrath Irish Dancers from Dublin in the East Bay.

They were followed by a brief video, “Lacrosse-quet Ball” featuring some women’s lacrosse and basketball players. Then the entire women’s lacrosse team came onto the court and used their sticks to lob T-shirts to the crowd.

Up next – the L.A. schools.