Halfway through the Pac-10 season, the Cardinal women’s basketball team has left little room to doubt who is in control of the conference. No. 4 Stanford (18-2, 9-0 Pac-10) made short work of Oregon State in its most recent trouncing of a Pac-10 opponent last Saturday, earning a 74-44 victory and extending its winning streak to 12.
Senior forward Kayla Pedersen shot 6-for-7 from the field and posted a season-high 21 points in the win over the Beavers (7-13, 0-9), who lost their ninth straight game despite junior Earlysia Marchbank’s career-best 19 points. Stanford’s Jeannette Pohlen added 15 points of her own, all from beyond the arc. The senior point guard also dished out five assists, pulled down four rebounds and made one steal.
Stanford has now played every team in the conference, defeating all nine by an average of 35 points. The closest any opponent has come is a less-than-threatening 26 points, when then-No. 8 UCLA lost at Maples Pavilion, 64-38, on Jan. 20. The Cardinal, winner of nine straight regular season Pac-10 championships, has failed to break the 80-point mark only twice since December, and still won both of those games, a 78-45 win over Cal on Jan. 2 and Saturday’s 74-44 win over OSU, by 30 or more points.
“I think right now we’re playing pretty well together and for each other,” Pohlen said. “One thing about our team is we stick together no matter what. It’s a special team, and hopefully we’ll keep it going through the second half.”
The Cardinal opened the game with a 12-0 run, capped off by one of Pohlen’s five buckets from long range. After a brief Beavers rally that pulled them within five after a Marchbanks three-pointer, OSU couldn’t find an answer for Stanford’s balanced offensive attack. No Cardinal player scored consecutive baskets from the field in the first half, with Pohlen and junior guard Lindy LaRocque peppering in long-range shots and dishing the ball down to forwards Chiney and Nnemkadi Ogwumike. Stanford scored only 10 of its 39 first-half points in the paint, and at one point made four consecutive threes.
Stanford’s starting five kept up the pressure in the second frame, extending the Cardinal lead to 55-26 with 13:22 left to play. Head coach Tara VanDerveer started to insert her bench players at that point, beginning with redshirt junior Sarah Boothe and sophomore forward Joslyn Tinkle. Within a few minutes, the starting rotation had completely rolled over with the addition of sophomore forward Mikaela Ruef, redshirt senior guard Melanie Murphy and freshman guard Sara James.
Notably absent from the parade of substitutes was freshman guard Toni Kokenis, who suffered a head injury last week. It remains unclear when she will be able to return.
Stanford’s bench played a combined 65 minutes, accounting for nearly a third of the total game time. Despite pushing the Cardinal to a game-high lead of 36 with 6:45 to play, the reserves weren’t particularly impressive on offense, shooting just 5-for-20 and scoring 11. Boothe shot just 2-for-9 from the field, and Tinkle was 2-for-6. Stanford’s overall shooting percentage slipped from 59.1 in the first half to just 38.2 in the second.
“Moving on, we’re just going to have to figure out who can help us in tight games,” VanDerveer said.
Junior guard Grace Mashore provided one bright spot amidst the reserves’ score sheet, pulling down a team-high eight rebounds in just 12 minutes.
Despite her efforts, though, the Cardinal as a whole was less than stellar on the boards. Even with the lopsided score, the Beavers managed to garner 35 rebounds compared to Stanford’s 40, including a 19-to-16 advantage on the offensive side. Senior El Sara Greer led the Beavers with 10 boards.
Stanford will kick off the second half of Pac-10 play away from home, traveling to Arizona next weekend for its second consecutive road trip. Neither Arizona nor Arizona State posed much of a challenge when they visited Maples Pavilion earlier this month, with the Wildcats suffering an 87-54 loss and the Sun Devils falling by a score of 82-35.
The Cardinal’s desert tour will kick off against Arizona State on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. and then conclude on Saturday afternoon when Stanford faces Arizona at 1:00 p.m.