While students were away from The Farm, the Stanford women’s basketball team had a winter break that can best be described as a roller coaster ride. The Cardinal entered the December break a perfect 7-0, but the last three weeks included perhaps the most challenging slate of teams that Stanford will face until the NCAA tournament. In two weeks the Cardinal took on three teams ranked in the top 10, including No. 1 ranked Connecticut, which hadn’t lost a game in over two years, and overcame the historic challenge of grabbing Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer’s 800th career win.
The break started with a game against Fresno State at Maples Pavilion, which ended in a 77-40 victory for the Card. The stellar sisters — junior Nnemkadi and freshman Chiney Ogwumike — combined for 35 points and spearheaded the win. Ogwumike also contributed 13 rebounds for her first career double-double in a Cardinal uniform.
The victory was the 799th career victory for VanDerveer, and the Cardinal traveled to Chicago to take on DePaul in another game that was expected to be a sure win for Stanford.
Unfortunately, it couldn’t have gone worse for VanDerveer’s squad.
The Cardinal was without senior forward Kayla Pedersen, who was held out due to concussion-like symptoms from a fall in the win over Fresno State, and the Blue Demons were 7 for 12 from three-point range in the game. DePaul stormed out on a 17-2 run to start the second half in a surprising 91-71 upset victory.
The road wouldn’t get any easier for Stanford after DePaul, as the Cardinal had to travel to Knoxville to battle a perennial powerhouse in No. 6 Tennessee. The Lady Vols were hot off the blocks, hitting five of their first seven three-pointers to open up a 14 point lead with 7:21 to play in the first half.
The Cardinal cut the lead to eight points at the half, and Jeanette Pohlen and Nnemkadi Ogwumike took over the second period. Pohlen scored 24 points and Ogwumike recorded 20 of her own to rally the Cardinal before a Meighan Simmons three-pointer tied the game at 70 with 49 seconds to play. The Cardinal failed to put up a last-second shot, and the game headed to overtime.
Overtime proved to be a struggle when Pohlen fouled out less than a minute into the period. The Cardinal scored only two points, and dropped its second consecutive game, 82-72. The back-to-back losses were the first time Stanford had dropped consecutive games since 2008.
The Cardinal then returned to California, determined to avenge its losses, and went back to its winning ways at the University of San Francisco. The Dons were outmatched from the start — they went only 5-27 last season — and the Cardinal had the game all but wrapped up after a 25-0 run put the team up 27 points at halftime. When the final buzzer sounded, the Card had a 100-45 victory, and VanDerveer had her 800th career victory.
The 800-win club is an exclusive group. Only six coaches have ever reached that plateau in the women’s game: Tennessee’s Pat Summitt, former Texas coach Jody Conradt, Rutgers’ C. Vivian Stringer, North Carolina’s Sylvia Hatchell, Division II Bentley’s Barbara Stevens and VanDerveer.
Stanford returned home for the first time in over two weeks and welcomed dangerous company. The No. 4 Xavier Musketeers came to town first, a team that gave Stanford a scare last year. In the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament last season, the Musketeers took the Cardinal to the limit. Xavier botched three straight layups before Stanford came down with the ball with five seconds left, and Pohlen had a coast-to-coast layup as time expired to give Stanford the win.
This time wouldn’t be as much of a challenge. The Cardinal, led by Nnemkadi Ogwumike’s combined 23 points and 11 rebounds and Pohlen’s 19 points and nine rebounds, thumped Xavier 89-52. The star of the game, though, was the Stanford defense, which held the Musketeers to 30 percent shooting and a miserable 11 percent from behind the arc.
Stanford hit its stride at the right time — undefeated UConn was coming to town. Connecticut was riding an NCAA record 90-game winning streak that stretched back two years, including two national championships, led by Maya Moore, the nation’s defending player of the year.
Stanford, with a 51-game winning streak at home, welcomed the Huskies to a sold-out Maples Pavilion for a nationally televised game. The Cardinal played a tough, physical game, and grabbed an early lead on three-pointers from Pohlen and junior guard Lindy La Rocque.
Again, the Stanford defense stayed strong, and Chiney Ogwumike anchored a tough zone defense that held Moore in check. Stanford came out with a 34-30 lead at half, and maintained the lead until there was 10:52 left to play. After Moore made a three pointer to cut the Stanford lead back to four points, Pedersen and Pohlen hit consecutive threes. A steal and layup by Nnemkadi Ogwumike then put the lead at 11.
UConn fought from behind to close the gap back to six points with 2:19 left to play, but another layup from Nnemkadi Ogwumike and six Pohlen free throws, which added up to a career-high 31 points for the senior guard, put the game on ice. Stanford took down UConn, 71-59, in an upset victory for the ages.
UConn’s 90-game win streak started after the Huskies lost to Stanford in the 2008 Final Four, only to be broken by the Cardinal almost three years later. The streak is considered to be one of the most impressive win totals in NCAA sports history. Many sports pundits compared the Huskies to the 1971-1974 UCLA Bruins men’s basketball team, which won 88 games in a row.
In the new year, the Cardinal showed no signs of slowing down by opening its Pac-10 schedule with a win over the archrival California Golden Bears on Sunday in Berkeley. Pohlen again led the way for Stanford with 15 points as the Card captured a 78-45 win.
The Cardinal’s tough winter break began with struggles. But the team fought through adversity to respond in a fashion indicative of a championship-caliber team. The team now heads into the thick of the Pac-10 season, welcoming Arizona and Arizona State to Maples Pavilion this weekend.