Stanford beat PAC-10 opponent Washington 80-51. It was another game not televised, although C and R scoured that ESPN3 site so many Stanford fans had told us about but still could not find it. We finally resorted to Gametracker, the line by line play by play with moving chess pieces that is very unsatisfying. In fact, since we knew how unsatisfying it is, we didn’t turn it on until 8 minutes were left in the contest. Stanford was ONLY wining by 20 at that point. Noticed Washington was fouling a lot and the Stanford players were all tied with about 12 points each. All in all, as we have hammered home last year and this, Stanford seems to play to the level of intensity of their opponent and it looked like a slow and plodding Washington team, turning us slow and plodding.

Yes, yes, the final score had Stanford wining by 29, nothing to sneeze at and Tara VanDerveer should be proud that her starters had such a balanced attack and do not depend on one person to lead the team (Maya Moore). The starters all scored in double figures, and few teams can even claim that. It broke down to Chiney with 10, Kayla with 14, Jeanette 15, Nneka lead all with16 and Tinkle had 10 from the bench). Interesting to note, Kayla Pedersen, who has been down this year in scoring was 2-6 from the field, with 2 missed three pointers, yet got herself to the line and converted 10 of 12 free throws. With Kayla, her importance is not in total points, but all the little things the team needs that night to win, and last night it was to get Washington into foul trouble.

However…
Stanford made 18 turnovers, tying a season high, something they will need to trim against stronger teams, and let Washington battle back to within 6 after taking an 11-point lead. Stanford needs to develop a killer instinct, especially playing on the road.

Next up is Washington State, which just beat Cal, before Stanford travels back home to face U-C-L-A.

Nitpick and complain some more about Stanford winning by double digits with us at the original C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog