Utah tumbles against Stanford

Junior forward Chiney Ogwumike and senior forward Joslyn Tinkle led the Stanford women’s basketball team to a 65-44 victory on Jan. 25 in front of a home crowd of 3,303.

Chiney tallied 23 points and 13 rebounds plus two assists and two blocks in 31 minutes, one of her shorter stretches of playing time in recent games.

Joslyn added 16 points, eight rebounds, one block and one steal in 32 minutes, the most time of any Cardinal. Joslyn also got the game going by scoring the first 7 points, all unanswered, by the 17:40 mark. Her game total included two 3-pointers.

Joslyn also displayed sportsmanship about halfway through the first half when Utah’s Taryn Wicijowski crumpled to the floor under the Utah basket while everyone else ran the other way. When play was finally stopped, Joslyn ran back to her and began helping her off the court until others from Utah arrived. Taryn was sidelined for the rest of the game with an apparent knee injury.

When the buzzer sounded to end the first half, Stanford held a 35-19 lead, and nine players had seen action. By the time the game ended, all available players except redshirt freshman guard Jasmine Camp had logged playing time.

Even though Chiney and Joslyn were the only Stanford players in double figures, bench players contributed a total of 13 points, an improvement from some recent games when the only scoring came from the starters.

Stanford had a slight edge in rebounds, 44-42; blocks, 4-3; turnovers, 8-12; and fouls, 11-13. The advantage for assists was better, 12-6. Utah had seven steals to Stanford’s six.

Three-point output was meager with two from Joslyn and one from junior guard Sara James. Overall, the Cardinal shot 40.3 percent while holding the Utes to 25 percent.

The evening began on a somber note when the replacement announcer requested a moment of silence in honor of John Pohlen, father of Jeanette Pohlen, ’11, whose memorial service had taken place earlier in the day. John died Dec. 23 at the age of 54.

John and Cindy, Jeanette’s mother, attended nearly all of Jeanette’s games and endeared themselves to everyone. John was one of the good-sport dads who donned a pink tutu for the annual Breast Cancer Awareness game.

During that moment of silence, the video board showed a photo of Jeanette and her smiling parents as she was honored during the 2011 Senior Day – always a bittersweet time for everyone concerned.