W. Basketball: Stanford cruises to two victories in Washington

Jan. 18, 2011, 1:40 a.m.

The No. 4 Stanford women’s basketball team (14-2, 5-0 Pac-10) wreaked havoc on its way through the Pacific Northwest this weekend, beating Washington, 80-51, and Washington State, 94-50.

The Cardinal was led by junior forward Nnemkadi Ogwumike, who had 16 points and 11 rebounds against the Huskies (7-8, 2-4) and 20 points against the Cougars (4-14, 2-4) en route to being named Pac-10 player of the week for the fourth time in her Stanford career.

Stanford hadn’t been out of the Bay Area in over a month, but any concerns about struggles on the road were snuffed out after the first 25 minutes of the Washington game.

The Cardinal took the lead a little more than a minute into the game and refused to relinquish it for the rest of the game. The Huskies hung around for a while during the first half, but were still down 36-21 at the halfway mark, mainly due to the 14-1 advantage that the Cardinal had in points off turnovers.

Nnemkadi Ogwumike and younger sister Chiney Ogwumike, a freshman forward, then pressed the advantage early in the second half, making the first four buckets of the half to help Stanford grab a 19-point lead with 16 minutes to play.

Even though the Cardinal closed the door on the Huskies early in the second half, there was still plenty to nitpick in the Card’s performance.

W. Basketball: Stanford cruises to two victories in Washington
Nnemkadi Ogwumike, above, was named Pac-10 player of the week for her strong performance in Stanford's wins over Washington and Washington State (Stanford Daily File Photo)

Stanford tied its season high with 18 turnovers, with senior guard Jeanette Pohlen and senior forward Kayla Pedersen combining for nine of those 18.

Additionally, the powerful Stanford defense wasn’t very sharp in the second half, letting the Huskies shoot 52 percent from the floor after they had only shot 7-for-27 in the first half.

Despite the sluggish second half, the Cardinal had five players finish with double-digit points on its way to its seventh straight victory by a double-digit margin.

After Nnemkadi Ogwumike’s 16 points, Pohlen and Pedersen had 15 apiece, and Chiney Ogwumike and sophomore forward Joslyn Tinkle both had 10.

The win over the Huskies was the seventh straight victory for Stanford, but the Cardinal headed to Pullman to improve its all-time record against Washington State to a flawless 51-0.

The Cardinal played another decent first half against the Cougars, racking up 18 points in the paint on its way to a 38-24 lead at halftime.

After junior guard Lindy La Rocque made a three to open scoring in the second half, the Cougars started to claw their way back, capitalizing on four Stanford turnovers to cut the lead to just 11 with 16:32 left.

However, Stanford squashed the rally by rolling out a 17-1 scoring run over the next four minutes. When the final buzzer sounded, Stanford had outpaced the Cougars by 30 points in the second half by shooting 67.7 percent from the floor.

Any concerns that had been left over from the Washington game were also put to rest. The Cardinal both cut its turnover total and locked down the Cougars, holding them to 24.3-percent shooting, and Washington State went without a basket for the last 5:16 of the game.

The Card once again had five players finish with double-digit scoring totals, with the Ogwumike sisters combining for 34 points and Pohlen adding 14.

Coming off the bench, Tinkle finished with 12 points, redshirt sophomore forward Sarah Boothe had 10 and sophomore forward Mikaela Ruef added eight.

The solid road trip was the one thing missing from Stanford’s resume so far this season, and head coach Tara VanDerveer said that she wasn’t too concerned that her team would let its recent success stand in the way on the Washington jaunt.

“Going on the road, even though we haven’t been on the road a lot, I had a lot of confidence in our team, and we played well at Cal and we played well at USF,” she said. “I know it’s still in the Bay Area, but Seattle isn’t that far away.”

The Cardinal now faces its toughest challenge so far in the Pac-10, with the southern California schools coming to town this weekend. No. 9 UCLA (15-1, 5-0) will visit Maples Pavilion Thursday night with supremacy in the Pac-10 on the line, as both teams are undefeated in conference play. USC (12-4, 4-1) also will be looking to crash the party, as it sits just one game back of the leaders.

Stanford will tip off against the Bruins on 7 p.m. on Thursday and will take on the Trojans at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

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