December 2007 Archives

Dec 31st-PAC-10 Again

Well, our winning streak is over and we are bummed. Of course I am talking about our ability to get a little white ball after a home win. Yes, Stanford won, destroying Washington 77-42. At the half, Washington only had 12 points. I kid you not.

However, Stanford looked ragged and there was a lot of sloppy play. The subs got a lot of minutes, but it was the usual starters who didn't look so good. Candice Wiggins, Jayne Appel and Kayla Pedersen, referred to as a "three-headed monster," by Washington head coach Tia Jackson,
only scored 12 points each. Jeanette Pohlen looked good popping some threes and scored a game-high 20 points.

Destroying teams and only holding them to 12 points at the half, I like. Sloppy play and starters not playing well against a lesser team, I don't like. And not getting a white ball, I really, really don't like! Long time until the next home game, Jan 10th. Let's hope their is some improvement on both fronts.

C: Hey, R, I am calling from Michigan. How was the game?

R: It was good. How is Michigan?

C: Cold, but without the joy of snow. We planned to go sledding, and I hauled a suitcase full of warm clothes just for that occasion. I am bummed.

R: Did you get to see a lot of family members?

C: Oh yeah, that was the best part, but my niece took this winter off of basketball and is into, shudder, cross country and track!

R: Those are good, healthy sports.

C: Yes, but they are not basketball. So, tell me about the game. Of course it is not in the Michigan papers.

R: Well, did you know that Stanford has never lost in 45 meetings against Washington State, including a 23-0 record on its home floor at Maples Pavilion?

C: So, was it more of the same..?

R: Yep, and your Wiggins led the way, as usual.  But, let me start at the very beginning..

C: Yeah, who went with you?

R: Well, I met up with S and S.

C: Hmm, we better call them S1 and S2. Kinda like thing 1 and thing 2 in the Cat in the Hat story…

R: Wha…?

C: Never mind, you met S1 and S2…

R: ….and piled in the biggest SUV ever -- I even drove that beast. 

C: -Laughing-

R: Hush, you. So, S1 and S2 brought their daughters -- L and O, respectively.  I won't jump ahead, but we got another one of those little balls that the Stanford players throw to the fans after the game --oops.

C: That makes 3 for 3 games -- are we gettin' greedy?

R: Well, someone handed the ball to O.  So, back to the beginning.  Tara started a tall team: Jillian, Kayla, Jayne, Candice, and Roz.

C: Was Candice a superstar?

R: Yes, and freshman Kayla Pedersen, who played killer defense on Tennessee star Candace Parker last week, had 18 points, eight rebounds and three assists.

C: I think she is the up and coming Stanford superstar!

R: Oh yeah, but you know, the game was rather uneventful -- we really dominated: 105-47 over the Washington State Cougars.

C: Wow, that is dominating.

R: But the cool thing was after the win we celebrated Tara's 700th win.  Tara VanDerveer became just the seventh member of the "700 Club"; on Friday night. Of the seven members, VanDerveer is the second-fastest to have reached 700 wins, needing just 885 games to accomplish the feat. Tennessee head coach Pat Summitt was the fastest, reaching 700 wins in 847 total games. 

C: Seems this year is extra special for Tara having also defeated rival Pat Summitt on her way to the "700 Club"!

R: You know, beating Tennessee seemed more exciting to the fans than win #700 -- the fans expect that Tara and Pat will have incredible winning seasons -- but to see these two coaches face-off, now that is a spectator's event!

With the victory over number 1 Tennessee, Stanford jumped to the number 2 spot in the polls and Candice Wiggins was named the PAC-10 Player of the Week for the second week in a row, and oh, Merry Christmas to you, too!

*Ring Ring*

C: Hey R, I just dropped you off at the airport and I am fighting the traffic back home, did you forget something?

R: No but I was just sitting here, in the airport, thinking about the game last night…

C: I know, wasn’t that great? Hey did you see the news last night? All three major local stations lead off with Stanford Women beating Tennessee in their sports broadcast.

R: Cool. My Mercury this morning had a story with Tara saying, last night, Candice is spelled with a “I”.

C: Hee, hee, I love it! What did you do with the white ball we got from the game last night?

R: I wrote the date and score in Sharpie and placed in a prominent position in my house. But that is not the reason I called.

C: Oh yeah, you didn’t just call to chat about how great the game was, how the Cardinal had it sewn up, and Candice blew it by missing her free throws and they let Tenn. get us into overtime, and then an unlikely hero in Rosalyn Gold-Onwude saved our bacon….

R: Well, yes, I mean no, I love recapping that game, but that is not why I called. I called because I am sitting 5 seats away from Stanford guard JJ Hones.

C: NO! You are kidding me.

R: I kid you not.

C: Really, ask her…ask her what they did to celebrate last night after the game. Ask her what adjustments they made at half time….

R: C, I already said hi and good game. She is with her family and I don’t want to embarrass myself with her.

C: I would, I would totally be asking her a million questions.

R: I don’t want her to think I am some dorky fan or anything…

C: You are a dorky fan. We both are. Now ask her….

R: I am not asking her and she can probably hear me talking to you.

C: Tell her you are with the media and want to interview her, or would that freak her out…?

R: I am sure it will freak her out. I am going to let her have her holiday with her family. She deserves it.

C: You are right of course, so it is a good thing I am not there, I would be the obnoxious one.

R: You said it, not me!

C: Well, speaking of holidays, enjoy yours and you will have to go to the Washington State game without me as I will be out of town then.

R: Too bad, first PAC-10 game.

C: Catch a ball for me!

R: I know, we are 2 for 2.

R is the believer. C is the doubter. R thought they had a chance being down only 5 at the half. C commented that Tennessee was just faster and stronger and better conditioned then us. R started the countdown to victory with 5 minutes left in regulation. C maintained that Candace Parker would take over in the last 2 minutes and score the last 2 baskets to put Tennessee ahead for good. R screamed in C’s ear when our Candice went to the line with 16 seconds left and the Cardinal up by 2. C watched as her girl Candice unbelievably clanked both of them, and then their Candace took over as predicted and was unstoppable to the basket and she scored a basket to tie the score and Ros Gold-Onwude dribbled out regulation. R still believed we could win in overtime, and C said Tara should pull Gold-Onwude, which is why Tara is the coach and C sits in the stands, as C and R watched Gold-Onwude have the game of her life. 

In case you just joined us, number 5 Stanford was playing number 1 Tennessee, and Stanford has not won in 11 years. To make things worse, each lose had the non-believers saying Stanford cannot compete with the elite teams and would never get out of the second round of the play-offs. 

So where were we? Oh, yes, the game of her young life. R still believing and C noticing that the Cardinal looked scared in overtime and had no offense. Candice shot one from downtown Palo Alto with no luck. Then Ros hit a three, a long three. Then she hit another and R pounded C’s back. Then Candice was fouled and missed again, which caused C to roll her eyes, but then she made one. With that one point, Candice was the only other Cardinal to score. Yes, that’s right, Ros scored 9 of the 10 overtime points. So much for C’s idea to pull her. Tennessee’s guard had the ball in her hands in the final seconds but, I think it was Gold-Onwude who took it away, too. 

When the horn sounded, R was ecstatic, and Gold Onwude tossed the ball and met Jayne and the bench near the scorer’s table. But C’s eye was on our Candice. She did not run to the group, and instead took off for…heights unknown. She gave in to her energy and ran from under the basket to over center court and then leaped high, higher than I have ever seen, her adrenaline taking over, than she leaped again and slashed her fist sideways 4 straight times as she jumped. A photographer and camera man followed her every leap and swing.  After letting lose her exuberance, she came back down to earth and turned to find her teammates. It was Jayne Appel who first realized Candice was not in the group hug and broke away to find her. As she ran towards Candice, Candice leaped high again into Jayne’s waiting arms. She jumped so high that as Jayne caught her, more of Candice was higher than Jayne’s head and that weight was starting to pull Candice backward. Okay, now C watched as she though Candice and her big, smart head, was going to swing over and smash into the ground. But Jayne is strong, and she set her legs and kept Candice from falling over. Jayne literally had Candice’s back. And she did in the game, too, as she scored 19 points, had 14 rebounds, four blocks and three steals to go with Candice’s 22 points. 

The box scores won’t record that tough Kayla Pederson was able to keep their Candace in check. That made a huge impact on the game. But the biggest scoreing line is Onwude finishing with 13 points. 

As the players throw out white Stanford balls to the crowd, C makes a vow to get one to remind her of this incredible game, even if it means she has to jump on old people. R moves to the floor as some players like to look the fan in the eye as they hand out the balls. C scans the skies, and out of the corner of her eye, she sees a white ball bouncing down the steps past her knees, from the behind her! The opposite direction they are throwing. It bounces away in slow motion and no one sees it but C, so she runs after it and scoops it up, getting the idea to write the date and score on this ball, as she knows she has just witnessed something special.

At the half. the University of New Mexico women's basketball team trailed Stanford 41-29. It started out close, though, in the noisy Pit with over 8,00 rotting for New Mexico. The game was tied at 24 and then Stanford closed out the half on a 17-5 run. Candice lead the way with 18 first half points on 5-of-9 shooting.   All of her baskets were three pointers. She closed out the night with 21. She also had six rebounds, six assists and three steals with just two turnovers in 33 minutes.  Jayne Appel added 18 points and that tough freshman, Kayla Pederson, had 13 as the Cardinal went on to beat New Mexico 73-54.

Candice is named the Pac-10 player of the week. What did she do to deserve this honor? She scored 35 points against #10 Baylor, and brought her career total to 2,000 points, making Wiggins the fifth player in Stanford history to reach the 2,000-point mark. Let’s not forget her defense. She had four steals in addition to blocking a pair of shots (and she is only 5-11-and-1-half).

Oh, hey, we get special mention in Sports Illustrated Rankings. And the little paragraph summarizing Stanford’s impressive performance specifically  mentions Wiggins.

R tells me to get a move on or we will be late for the Baylor game. I hurry up because, one, I don’t want to miss seeing Stanford after no action for 2 weeks and because, two,  R has the tickets and I don’t’ want her to leave without me.  R is worried because Baylor is ranked 10th and could give us trouble.

We arrive in time and watch as Baylor indeed does give us trouble, but not by scoring. Instead it is by holding, slapping, hitting, and knocking us down. It is a very physical contest, with Baylor doing all the contesting. At one point number 14 of Baylor knocks Candice in the head and I stand up and want to run down there and slap her upside the head. No one hits Candice. Now, I know I am protective of Candice, but the Maples Crowd agrees with me and yells out whenever Baylor restrains the Cardinal on the floor. Boos reign down on the ref after a hard foul on Cissy that sends the ball out of bounds. He gives the ball to Baylor. The crowd gets ugly. What, the ball magically flew out of her hands, not touched or tomahawked out by anyone? Stanford could have lost it’s composure, but then they have Candice Wiggins. Knock her around and she responds with threes. And she calmly kept scoring, hitting 21 in the first half. She went on to score 35, two off her personal best. At one point, Baylor's Angela Tisdale slammed Wiggins into the padded base of the basket. Unbelievably, the refs did not call a flagrant foul. The crowd screamed, while Wiggins sunk both free throws. Stanford went on to win 87-63, and Baylor kept trying to hurt someone. Candice even made a half court shot at the half time buzzer but the refs said it was too late.

With Baylor really getting physical in the second half, R and I wondered why Tara wasn’t taking Candice out. Why risk her getting hurt with Tennessee coming up? The nest day we found out why. Candice was gunning for 2,000 points for her career and got it by sinking a 10-foot jumper with 5:54 remaining. She finally got pulled around 3 minutes.

When the final buzzer sounded, R and I move out of our row and get in position to catch the little white balls the players throw after every home victory. I am about 5 rows up, in the aisle, while R gets on the court floor. Some player are throwing them and some are handing them out. R thinks she might be in line to get handed one. We are scanning our heads left and right but not having any luck. In one of the last balls launched, I judge the ball is will land about 5 feet to my left. I probably can make a play on it. I take my eye off it to look at the crowd it would be landing in, and it is a knot of old people. Me diving in would not be good, so I stand by. The old people (sorry, but they were), okay, the elderly group does not possess the reflexes to even make a play for the ball and it hits the back of a chair and bounces around. No one makes a move for it. I am still watching and sigh. Then the ball ends up on the floor and still no one moves for it. I move down the stairs to join R and the elderly persons’ white ball rolls out slowly to R’s feet. She picks it up and offers it to the group of oldsters 5 rows up. No one offers to take it, knowing in their hearts they missed their chance. R now has sole possession, but since we don’t know who threw it, and we didn’t “catch’ it ourselves, it is a hollow and bitter trophy. But then again, a ball is a ball. And we are able play catch with it as we exit Maples.

Candice was so good, read what The Chronicle said about her:

“Fifth-ranked Stanford didn't beat No. 10 Baylor 87-63 on Sunday afternoon at Maples Pavilion because it is more tested (which it is), or because the Cardinal had the support of an enthusiastic home crowd (which they did). 

No, Stanford won because it has Candice Wiggins.” 

Hee hee. Tara doesn’t want her to ever leave Stanford, either. Read this from the AP wires. I quote, “Candice Wiggins was simply brilliant on both ends. So good, in fact, that coach Tara VanDerveer can't envision her star player ever leaving Stanford. 

Bring on Tennessee.

So Hannah didn’t hear her name as she was called to start her first Stanford game on Nov 28th. That’s okay, neither did I, and I was on the bench, too! (Gotta milk that bench story for all its worth. Speaking of which, Hannah said something really cute at half time, but of course I can't tell you! -see Nov 28th Blog-)

Before the UC Davis game, Hannah Donaghe hoped she will get another chance to play. Not for the obvious reasons. No, this would be the first time she will play against her older sister, Haylee. Haylee Donaghe is also excited to play against No. 6 Stanford for many reasons. After a four-year transition, UC Davis was finally a fully-fledged member of Division I and the Cardinal were the first top-10 team for the Aggies. They wanted to test themselves against the best. 

Unfortunately, UC Davis lost 62-41, with Candice scoring 19, and Jayne adding 17 points and 8 rebounds.