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| Tara urges her team, but it still loses to Oregon by 40 points. |
The women’s basketball team suffered the worst point loss in head coach Tara VanDerveer’s 33 seasons at Stanford when Oregon
won 88-48 on Feb. 10 at Maples.
Playing before a crowd of 5,250, which included a
contingent of Ducks fans, the team had little to brag about as its streak of 22
home game victories ended.
Ranked No. 3 in the Associated Press poll at the
time, Oregon topped No. 11 Stanford in nearly every statistical category,
especially shooting.
Oregon
outshoots Stanford
While the Ducks were scoring at a 57.1 percent
rate, the Cardinal managed only 31.7 percent. The disparity was especially
glaring on threes, with Oregon making 12 of 16, or 75 percent, while Stanford
managed only five of 22, or 22.7 percent.
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| Lexie tries to power her way through a double team. |
Stanford’s threes came from freshman forward Lexie
Hull with two, while sophomore guard Kiana Williams, sophomore forward Alyssa
Jerome and freshman guard Jenna Brown each had one.
Oregon had four players in double figures, while
only junior guard DiJonai Carrington reached that range with 13.
Oregon had more rebounds and more assists and one
less turnover.
Stanford
has more blocks
The biggest bright spot for Stanford was blocks,
eight to Oregon’s one. Senior forward Alanna Smith had three, sophomore forward
Maya Dodson two, and DiJonai, Kiana and Alyssa one each.
In addition, Stanford
had eight fouls, Stanford 13.
Because it was Breast Cancer Awareness Day, fans
received pink T-shirts. Four cancer survivors were honored during a
first-quarter break.
Twins’
dad wears pink tutu
Following a tradition that began with the father
of Jayne Appel, ’10, and continued with a Stanford dad each year after that,
Jason Hull, the father of Lexie and her twin sister, Lacie, also a forward,
wore a pink tutu. He’s a fraternal twin, according to ESPNW.
The players’ white home uniforms were accented
with pink.
Another bright spot was the national anthem sung
by the Peninsula Girls Chorus. Several student choruses have sung the anthem
(as written) for appreciative fans.
Yet another bright spot came during the half when ESPNW
announcer Holly Rowe presented ESPNW Player of the Year Awards to Catarina
Macario from the women’s soccer team and Kathryn Plummer from the national
champion women’s volleyball team. Both will be back next year.
As for the game, the Ducks led 20-11 after the
first quarter, 44-20 at the half and 66-36 after the third quarter. At that
point, some people began leaving.
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| After the game gets out of hand, starters can only watch from the bench. |
With
game out of hand, starters go to bench
With about three minutes to go and Oregon up
83-48, the starters were on the bench and all available players had seen
action.
There’s no way to sugarcoat a 40-point loss, but
as one fan said afterward, at least “we kept them under 100.”
The loss dropped Stanford to No. 3 in the Pac 12
behind No. 1 Oregon and No. 2 Oregon State, but the win over OSU two days earlier
moved it up a notch to No. 10 in the Feb. 11 AP poll.
Stanford fans can hope for better game results the
following weekend when the team travels south to take on UCLA at 6 p.m. Feb. 15
and USC at noon Feb. 17. Both will be televised by Pac 12 Networks.
Photos by Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle
