February 2008 Archives

Feb 24th-Cal at Cal

C:  Hey R, I am calling from the road.

R: Is it raining? 

C: Yes, big time. My daughter and I sure picked a bad time to go down south to visit colleges. It's wet and cold. But tell me, who won?!

R: Who won what?

C: R! Don’t tease me! You know I mean the Stanford-Cal game.

R: That boring thing?

C: Oh come one, was it exciting?

R: It was the greatest ever!! It was so exciting. And emotional – so much riding on the outcome for these longtime rivals. And over 10,00 people made it to the game.

C: Wow, ten thousand!

R: In fact, they announced after the game that there was 10,525 people there, the biggest crowd ever to see a Pac-10 conference game.

C: Cut to the chase, who won?!

R: We won by a basket. It was that good.

C: Wow, tell me what happened.

R: First thing in the morning I read in teh Merc “Biggest Cal-Stanford women's game ever”. Then I make my way to the Bay Area Women’s Sports Initiative (BAWSI) volunteer meeting. Thanks for clueing me into that.

C: You’re welcome. I am sorry I couldn’t go. But I love volunteering for at-risk girls and helping them be healthy and exercise.

R: You know what was neat, and also underscores the fact that this game was so important? The CEO of BAWSI, Marlene, opened the meeting talking about this Game. Ya know, I didn’t realize how much was at stake. Marlene described how close they were in the AP rankings, Stanford being 7^th and Cal being 8^th, and the fact that Cal was one game ahead in the PAC-10 standings, and the winner takes all, so to speak, in the PAC-10. And that BAWSI wants to encourage girls at a young age to enjoy sports and possibly take it to such a high level as these young women.

C: So tell me how we won. 

R: It was so close. We had a horrid shooting performance by your all-star Candice Wiggins, who missed two uncontested layups in the first half, thank you very much.  And she was in foul trouble, which is rare for her. In fact, neither Appel nor Wiggins showed up for the first half, if you ask me.  But then, "At halftime Jayne came out of hibernation and went to work," coach Tara VanDerveer said.  And, “She delivered.”

C: I bet Tara gave them an earful at halftime (ya know, speaking from first-hand experience of joining them in the locker room. Even though they were wining by a lot she was still intense and a little angry. I would hate to see here when they are playing badly). So, were other Stanford players scoring?

R: Yes, JJ Hones  scored 16, hitting two 3-pointers and Kayla scored 10, and contributed in other ways for a strong first-half performance. Morgan Clyborn had a rough game. Cal knew to swarm her whenever she touched the ball.

C: Did Candice have a good second half? You know she needs about 50 points to break Lisa Leslie's record.

R: She made the play of the game after missing 14 of her first 16 shots.  She stole the ball from Devanei Hampton (remember the ’ Battle of the Bay’ poster?) and (finally) made an uncontested layup that gave us the lead with about 2 minutes left.  We never lost the lead after that, although, both sides had lots of opportunities to win. Twice Cal got shots off in the final seconds, but Jayne blocked Alexis Gray-Lawson' with 8 seconds left.

C: Wow!

R: And then Gray-Lawson got another shot off , a three pointer to win, but it hit the front rim at the buzzer.

C: Oh my gosh, you are right, that was exciting! So the Cardinal moves into a tie for first place in the conference, but since they beat Cal both times, they will get seated as #1 in the Pac-10 Tourney.

R: Yes, the final score was 60-58, whew.

C: And Candice?

R: She finished with 13 points and moved within 37 points of breaking Lisa Leslie's Pac-10 career record of 2,414 points.

C: Good. That's totally doable. So we beat Cal twice in the regular season. Cal is going to be out for blood at the PAC-10 tournament. Something tells me the third time will not be the charm....

Okay, I just became aware of something called The Lowe's Senior CLASS Award, and Candice is a finalist. Make that one of 10 finalists for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award, which honors the player that excel in the areas of classroom, community, character, and competition.

Wiggins will be placed on the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award ballot for a nationwide vote beginning February 6 and concluding March 21. Fan balloting will be combined with votes from coaches, media, and sponsors to determine the recipient of the award. The winner will be announced during the NCAA Women's Final Four, scheduled for April 6-8 in Tampa, Fla. The Lowe's All-Senior All-America Team will also be recognized.

Vote Candice Wiggins For The Lowe's Senior CLASS Award (Click here to vote, Bay Area!)

Let's stuff that ballot box!

Jayne Appel was named Pac-10 Player of the Week Monday, Feb 18th, after helping lead Stanford to victories over Arizona and Arizona State last weekend. The honor is the second of the season for Appel, the third of her career, and the sixth for the Cardinal in 2007-08. Jayne's award is the 62nd all-time weekly honor earned by a Stanford student-athlete. Appel averaged a double-double of 14.5 points and 10.0 rebounds in the weekend sweep.

Feb 16^th is not only Stanford’s last regular home season game for the seniors, but it is also a “Think Pink “ game. If case you don’t know what that is, it is the Women’s Basketball’ Coaches Association (WBCA) “Think Pink” initiative to raise money for the Kay Yow breast Cancer Fund. The "Think Pink" initiative, began in 2007, is a unified effort for the Women's Basketball nation of coaches to assist in raising breast cancer awareness on the court, across campuses, in communities and beyond.

All sorts of fun, out of the ordinary stuff, happens that designated week. Teams are encouraged to wear pink accessories, and some teams even created special pink uniforms. UCLA is one team that I know of that will auction off the special uniforms, with the proceeds going towards breast cancer awareness and research.

Even the refs are getting into the act. They will wear pink whistles. R wanted to steal the pink whistle off the refs last game, but I tackled her in time. We tried to see if they had any for sale, but they didn't. Are you listening, marketing department?

So anyway, R and I have invited the center for our team, who we shall call S, to go with us. She is big in supporting women’s sports in general and likes the idea of raising awareness for women’s breast cancer in specific. We tell her to wear something pink.

I am driving this time as I have a big ol SUV, and we are going to pick up S. We drive to the wrong condo. Let’s pick up the argument, I mean “action”, from my car.

C: Is this the street?

R: No, she said the driveway on the second right.

C: But the first right is the correct name of what we are looking for.

R: Just pull in to the second right.

C: Okay, but I don’t see her street sign, we are lost. Call her and tell her we are close.

R: Okay, I have her number. And why aren’t you wearing pink for this game?

C: Oh, you know I hate the color pink. Plus, I don’t think I own anything pink. Growing up with 3 brothers, they looked down on pink, and wearing it certainly meant you were a sissy, and since I didn’t want to be left out, I hated pink, too.

R: But now you have the opportunity to take back the color, and wear it as the strong female role model that you are.

C: I am a bad role model. I passed my hatred of pink onto my daughter. Once, when my daughter and I were in line at an amusement park for some kids doodle-bug ride, a pink car came up, and my daughter refused to ride in it. And we had been waiting a long time.

R: Ha ha, what did you do? Did you get out of line?

C: We were with friends, so we let them go ahead of us and take the pink car and we got the red one.

R: I notice you bought some pink bandanas, though.

C: Yes, I got some for you and S and me. Some are pink and some are light red.

R: Looks like dark pink to me. Hello, S? We are here but a little lost.

C: Okay, I will wear the dark pink around my neck. Look, there she is, waving to us in the side window.

R: Okay, we see you, sorry we are a little off.

C: I am going to pull around to the front.

R: Now S is going to where your car was.

C: Geez, we’re over here!

R: Hey, S, you look ready to go, all decked out in pink

S: Yes, I actually don’t own much pink…

C: See?

S: So I had to see what of my daughter’s fit me.

C: Did I ever tell you about the time my daughter and I were in line at an amusement park….

Anyway, off we go to Maples. S still needs a ticket (as I hog R’s other season ticket), so I drop R and S off in front of Maples and park. Much drama ensues in the ticket booth about buying one ticket. You’d think Stanford would be able to get good help.

First, a stop to eat. (well, I didn’t have lunch, and it is a rare 1:00 PM game because it is being televised.)

Okay, more drama. We have 2 tickets down low with assigned seat numbers. S has a ticket that is general admission. We all want to sit together. What to do? R goes and checks out the situation. She sees armed guards checking for tickets. Okay, not armed guards, but the little old lady volunteers are actually on the floor making sure everyone is where they are supposed to be.

R: I have a plan.

S: What is it? You know, I can sit up in general admission ….

R: We will sneak down

C: I hate the plan.

R: No, it will be easy.

C: And then where will everyone sit?

R: That section never fills up. We can find an extra seat.

S: Really, guys, I can sit up high by myself.

C: What if it does fill up?

R: What are so nervous about?

C: I am from Ohio. We are taught to follow rules. It makes me nervous when we don’t follow the rules.

R: Rules were meant to be broken.

C: Unless you live in Ohio.

R: Look, it will be easy, 2 of us will go down and then one comes back to get the other with the ticket.

C: What? I don’t get it. I am so bad at this. If anyone asks me a question, I will give us all up.

S: C starts sweating…..

R: This is my forte. You and S go to the seats with the 2 tickets, then C comes back for me with the tickets and we are in.

C: Okay, where will you be waiting?

R: It’s a secret. You have to find me.

C: What?! (panicking already)

R: Just kidding, at the entrance where we come in. We will be fine!

S and I go down to their seats. Little old lady volunteer (LOLV) doesn’t even check our tickets. I come back for R with the ticket. We walk by LOLV again and I feel like saying remember me? R, sensing my willingness to stick my foot in my mouth, pushes me forward before I speak. We make it to our seats and no one is sitting in the 2 in front of us. The 2 seats in front of us stay vacate all night and we are fine. All that worrying for nothing.

Both teams, Arizona as well as Stanford, are decked out in pink stuff. Pink shooting shirts, pink laces, pink socks, pink armbands and all of them are wearing matching pink headbands, the thin kind R likes to wear. They give out pink T-shirts. I yell trying to get one, even though I hate pink. A free T-shirt is a free T-shirt.

Usually Stanford honors the seniors before the game, but as the minutes count down to tip off, it doesn’t look like that is the case. A lady in the same row as R, in her illegal seat, leans over and tells us that because of the game being televised, Tara decided to do the ceremony later.

The game starts, and the pink head bands fly off in the first 30 seconds. Two are laying on the court. Two of the refs pick them up. JJ Hones puts hers back on after it has been on the floor. My kinda gal. The refs are all male, so that means Candice will be working them hard with her smile.

It is senior night, and ever since R has been coming to these senior games (for about 20 years), Tara has always started the seniors, even if they are not very good. Tonight, Candice starts but senior Cissy Pierce sits. And Cissy is a good sixth man off the bench. We know Tara wants to win this game, but starting Cissy would not hurt them. It seems like a cheap trick.

It is a good game with Arizona out rebounding us. We can’t get anything inside but Ros Gold-Onwude is hitting her threes, and she ends up being 5-6 for threes. Our defense keeps us in the game as that three guard offense I hate is not able to get the ball inside.

Half time, and Stanford is only up 38-32, but they are not looking that strong offensively. S and R go and get more food while I guard the seats and see if they are going to do anything for senior night at half time. They don’t.

Early in the second half, Candice is (pink) whistled for a foul and she smiles at the ref and continues talking to him down the court. Stanford then gets a lot of home court calls and no-calls. Stanford forced 22 turnovers, and Candice had at least three steals where she ripped the ball out of Arizona’s arms. I thought at least 2 of them should have been Candice’s fouls, but she's got that million-dollar smile!

ASU gets an easy lay up to start the second half. Then Stanford’s defense gets tough and hold Arizona without a point for more than six minutes. Wiggins and Gold-Onwude combined for 10 of 12 Stanford points. Stanford starts pulling away, building a 50-34 lead, and never look back.

Subs start coming in, and R wonders why Cissy hasn’t played. Finally, with four minutes left, Cissy goes in to a warm reception from the crowd. It’s too bad, Cissy is a good player that might have benefited from a more open style of play somewhere else, instead of Stanford’s rigid offense. R says she felt like Cissy never had a good connection with Van DerVeer. The crowd cheers whenever Cissy touches the ball. She scores one basket, and the crowd is happy for her. Candice, meanwhile, comes out to a standing ovation and ends the game with 23 points. About 50 points shy of the regular season PAC-10 record she is chasing.

After the game, Stanford throws the little white balls. We put S in the middle of the aisle as she is tall. I give her instructions to knock over little old ladies and grandfathers to get a ball. I see a ball heading for a row or two down from us. I push S to get it and then see it is going right to R. She fields it cleanly and makes the catch without having to fight off obnoxious people, mainly me, to get it! She gives the ball to me as she knows I am the one who cares deeply about the balls! I tell S the time when Candice Wiggins threw one right to me… Then senior tributes.

They start with Cissy, give her a big bouquet of flowers, and have her family there. They walk to center court for pictures. Then Candice and her mother and grandmother make the walk. More pictures, Candice beams her smile. A video tribute to the girls. It ends with the win over Tennessee this year! Candice makes sure to hug every Cardinal player afterward.

For once, R stays dried-eyed. And I would have to agree; it was a little sterile, especially for Tara’s favorite player. Maybe everyone involved doesn’t quite feel it is over, what with 3 more games left in the regular season, and the first 2 rounds of play-offs at Maples. That reminds me, we need to get tickets. Only a few more opportunities to see Candice play live.

With Candice being a senior, the SF Chronicle has a great article with the top ten games in Candice Wiggins' college career. Cool.

So it is Valentine’s Day, and R and I fight the traffic to Maples. Another small Thursday crowd. I am disappointed no Valentine’s give-aways.

Early in the game we hear the Stanford band play Happy Birthday. R and I wonder who they are playing it for. You never know with the Stanford band, it could be some dead president they are remembering. Then I hear someone say Candice’s name. Yes, indeed, folks, Candice is a Valentine’s Baby! And this Thursday, she turned 21. Candice was later quoted as saying that it was great to share her birthday with the fans in the stands. How sweet! Do you remember how you celebrated your 21st birthday?

Oh yeah, the game. Stanford started their 3 guard offense again, because Jill Harmon is out with a stress fracture. (She looked so forlorn watching the Cardinal warm up). Candice, Hones and Gold-Onwude were the guards, with Jayne and Kayla the big girls. They also went back to that predictable perimeter passing, give it to the high post at the top of the 3 point line, and the guard runs around for the hand off. Ho Hum. Don’t get me wrong, Stanford won easily, 69-46, but they could not score much from this offensive set, and this will not be enough to beat Cal.

At one point in the game, Jayne got called for a ticky-tacky foul. One of those fouls where she barely touched the other player as she was shooting. Now, when Jayne makes a foul, there is a lot at stake for her. Van DerVeer usually pulls her out of the game to sit, I guess to help teach her not to make stupid fouls. So Jayne gets whistled for this foul and she turns to the male ref who made this call. Now, whenever R or I get called for a minor foul, human nature takes over and we look at the ref and say something such as, “Aw, man! You called THAT?!” Exasperation written all over our face. Sometimes, dare we say it, anger crosses our expression, too.

So Jayne turns to this ref and gives him the biggest smile. She doesn’t even say anything. Just this warm smile. And the other four Cardinals gather around Jayne. It is their custom to gather as a team after a foul and circle up and then Candice gives them some words of wisdom and they break apart. But instead, the five surround the ref and instead of huddling up, they all smile at him now. This ref is in the middle of 5 young, athletic, good-lookin’ womens SMILING at him. And then Jayne starts talking to him, still with that smile, everyone listening, and he is smiling back and talkin' to them and having a good ol’ time. Then he lines them up for the opposing free throw. It lasted about 30 seconds, but you can bet your bottom dollar most calls went Stanford’s way after that! And if you think that is shameless, she learned this from 21-year-old-adult-I-can-drink-now Candice Wiggins. She works those refs shamelessly night after night, but she has a secret weapon in that she has that million dollar smile.

Speaking of Candice, R and I keep watching her score creep up, knowing she needs to average about 20 points a game to beat Lisa Leslie’s PAC-10 all time scoring record. We saw she got 19. Then in the papers the next day she was credited with 16. Now the stats have it back at 19, but that was a little disconcerting.

At half time, while R and I were out stuffing our faces, well, okay, I was stuffing my face, someone must have distributed the red foamy sticks that have the Stanford logo on them. The kind that are about 2 and a half feet long by 2 inches wide, that you wave when the opposing team is shooting their foul shots. One boy doesn’t want his and gives it to us. Score! I love it. I am going to sleep with it next to me in bed! I bang R with it the whole second half.

When Stanford finally pulled ahead in the second half, the subs came in. Oh, Morgan got to play a lot, and she had some killer blocks, then so did Jayne. It turns out Jayne matched her own school record with her 61st blocked shot of the season for the game. She also had 12 points, 11 rebounds, a team-high five assists and a career-high four steals. Good game for Jayne.

First up was Oregon on Thursday in Oregon. Stanford, wearing black, took a big lead in the first half and never looked back. They scored 23 unanswered points to take a 46-12 half-time lead. They went on to win 72-43. Candice got 25, keeping up the “Lisa Leslie” average. In fact, Candice and Kayla, with 15 and 13 points respectively, each outscored Oregon in the fist half. The only negative news in Jill Harmon went down with a stress fracture in her right foot. She is out indefinitely.

Then came Oregon State in the state of Oregon. I’ll end the suspense and tell you Stanford won 69-59, but there were lots of fireworks for the Cardinal. Mostly from head coach Tara VanderVeer yelling at them in the locker room. She let them know she did not like the low energy and missed shots, and that they couldn’t sustain their 21 point lead. You think having a 21 point lead would make most coaches happy, but not Tara. Her team let Oregon State come back within ten points in the closing minutes.

Quoting the coach: "We missed too many easy baskets. We had good shots and we need to make them. We did not execute the offense well enough."

Pedersen is on fire lately, and it is hard to remember she is just a freshmen. She scored 21 points and had 11 rebounds, but was also unhappy with her team’s play.

Quoting the freshmen: "We can't be doing this, it's the end of the season. We know we are a lot better than this."

Stanford played its first game without junior forward Jillian Harmon, out for two to four weeks with an injury to her right foot. "I think it was an adjustment (without Harmon)," Pedersen said. "She brings so much hustle and she's a great defender, and I think we did miss that."

Candice got another 25 points. This was her fourth straight game in which she has scored at least 20 points and it leaves her 91 points shy of Lisa Leslie's Pac-10 scoring record. It was interesting to see that Stanford started a three-guard lineup against the Beavers, mostly to make up for the loss of Harmon.

Stress fractures will heal, but they need lots of rest. Jill is probably out for the rest of the season. She might “feel well enough” for the Pac-10 tournament, but playing on it might then lengthen her recovery and make her doubtful for the play-offs. It will be interesting to see if Tara can resist the temptation to play her in the tourney and keep her out until the NCAA tournament.

R tells me that Stanford is playing an “away” game at Santa Clara University, about a mile from her house. The game is Tuesday at 7 PM. I inform her that we have our own basketball game that Tuesday. She points out that our game is at 9 PM and that we could go to the Santa Clara game and leave early and go to ours. We can do both! Revolutionary. We both agree to invite teammates to share in this rare double-basketball evening. 

R is correct in that the Leavy Center is about a mile for our house. We car pool and caravan as some people have to leave at different times (long story). We watch Stanford build a huge lead with their starters, and then the subs come in. Well, the subs plus Kayla and she seemed to excel without having Jayne on the court with her. Maybe it was more freedom to move, to post up. She looked unstoppable. She also hit 2 three pointers! 

Then more subs for the subs, and Kalya comes out. We watch Santa Clara slowly chip away at the huge lead. There are 5 minutes left in the game and we hope Stanford can outlast them as we pack up to leave. We make it in time for our game, but we lose (another long story).

We open the paper the next day and we see that Santa Clara came within 14 before Tara had to put some starters back in and held on to win 96-74. Man, Stanford has talent in the starting 5 or 6, but we have a huge drop off after that. Our subs can’t beat the starters of other teams. That seems a weird fact. 

More records for Candice. Let’s see, she earned her career ninth PAC-10 player of the week award, in the week the team beat USC and UCLA. That sets the conference record at nine. This most recent selection is the fourth this season, and second consecutive week that Wiggins has won this award. Oh, she also hit 7 free throws on the Thursday game against USC, becoming Stanford's all-time career free throws leader with 482. She passed Val Whiting's previous mark of 481.

Okay, those of you whole read that last insanely long blog entry know Candice set the Stanford scoring record. Anything she scores for the rest of the year is padding. But, did you know at the start of the UCLA game, she only needs 192 points to tie Lisa Leslie’s PAC-10 scoring record of 2,414? R and I made a precise mathematical computation and discovered that’s about 20 points per game, give or take a few. And do they count the PAC-10 tournament points? And what about post season points? Anyone know? 

So, where were we? Oh yeah, the start of the UCLA game. Stanford suffered one of its two PAC-10 losses to UCLA down south, so they were out for revenge. UCLA, to their credit, came out fast, aggressive and physical. They almost got away with it, as the refs “let them play”, much to the anger of the Stanford fans, R and myself included. We yelled and booed the refs until they starting calling the rough stuff. 

UCLA went ahead 9-2 within the first three minutes and I was worried. Stanford didn’t give us any freebies to wave this time, so I brought my own. With the Superbowl being the next day, I brought a football shaped “clapper” and drove R crazy. It isn’t that noisy, but you can hit things with it, like you hand or leg, or R’s hand or leg, to keep the rhythm. 

Then Stanford came alive. They fought back to a 10-10 tie with 13 to go, much on the aggressive driving by Wiggins, and Kayla battling for rebounds. The two teams traded  the lead for awhile, and then something happened 2/3 s of the way through the first half. I am not sure what it was, but Stanford pulled ahead. First Candice hit a three to put Stanford up 22-20 with about 6 minutes left and then Stanford scored 10 straight unanswered points, to go ahead 30-20. I think that’s when the refs started calling UCLA for their aggressiveness and Kayla started to show her toughness. The half ended 33-24, Stanford. 

Said Kayla about the game, "I just wanted to come out there and be the aggressor, not let them push me around." Pedersen continued, "They're a physical team and I don't like people pushing me around." Hee hee, I love hearing that. 

After the half, UCLA pulled to 33-28 with 19:02 to play, and then Wiggins took over yet again. She scored 11 straight - including two free throws after a technical foul on UCLA coach Kathy Olivier at around the 16 minute mark. She then dished out an assist to Pedersen during a 23-3 run. Twenty-three –practically-unanswered points. And it was the Candice and Kayla show. Kayla would finish with 28 points and 10 rebounds. 

C: Okay, 12 is Candice’s number tonight.

R; No, Candice is 11. Did she switch?

C: No, 11 is what she needs to tie the record for Stanford all-time leading scorer.

R: And she still wears number 11…..

C: ….And I wear 12 for basketball and 12 is my lucky number….

R: ….And 12 is what Candice needs to break the Stanford scoring record, I get it.

C: And to be fifth all time in the PAC-10.

R: Man, it is hard to drive in this rain. For these Thursday games, which are never heavily attended, I bet the parking lot across the street from Maples will not be crowded.

C: Wow, this is more cars then usual. They must be here to witness history.

R: And to witness us avenging that loss to USC down south.

C: I wonder what the souvenir will be for Candice? The last 2 big games we had a towel and pom-poms.

R: Maybe Candice bobble heads?

C: Hee hee, I love it!

R: I am going to park in the far away lot and we can hurry through the rain.

C: Look, they have the Stanford towels again on the paid seats.

R: And an 8 ½ by 11 piece of paper with the words printed “2216 and counting”.

C: Someone went through a lot if red ink!

R: Ugh, don’t say that. It is the end of the quarter this week.

C: Sorry. Look, warm ups, there’s Candice on the free throw line, ah, she missed!

R: That’s not a good sign.

C: Tip off and Jayne is out jumped.

R: Kayla almost got it back., though.

C: I like her. I am glad I will have someone to watch when Candice is gone. Now if only the team would throw it to Kayla when she is posting inside.

R: This is my favorite starting line up, Candice, Jayne, Jill, JJ, Kayla.

C: Candice is calling for the ball, she wants it.

R: She drives, and is fouled.

C: Candice made 14 free throws in a row last week. How long can she keep that streak up?

R: She misses, well, that’s the end of that streak, ha ha!

C: That’s not good.

R: No, not good at all.

C: She made this one. She has one point. One down, 11 to go. Let’s do a count down of her points.

R: Okay.

C: (holds one finger up, shouts) Candice has one!

R: (grabbing arm) Okay, I think everybody gets the idea.

C: A high screen on Candice, she doesn’t see it, wow, she hit the USC player hard.

R: And her player makes it to the key, no one switched with her.

C; Candice wants the ball again, she drives again…makes it. Three! (three fingers in the air)

R: I like how aggressive she is being.

C: Hey, another high screen by USC on Candice and no switching. Why aren’t her teammates calling it out to her and then switching?

C: Candice for a lay-up…

R: She misses, that’s not looking good for the record.

R: Ros comes in for Candice.

C: I bet Tara wants to talk about that screen.

R: Tara doesn’t talk, she briefly tells Kate what to say and then watches the game while Kate takes the time to make the point.

C: Usually you are right, but look at Candice on the bench. Kate doesn’t talk, she lets Candice talk and talk until she gets a word in edgewise, hee hee.

R: Candice is still talkin’

C: Now it’s Kate’s turn. After they talk, they will probably stick Candice back in.

R: Time out, good, they can put Candice in now.

C: Look, she is still on the bench after the time out.

R: Yeah, that’s strange.

C: Oh my gosh, I just had a thought. What if Tara is saving the record for Saturday, when more people can see it?
R: No, Tara wouldn’t do that. The flow of the game is more important to her then any personal or team record.

C: But why is Candice still on the bench after so many  minutes? I am telling ya, I think she is purposefully holding her out. She has a soft spot for Candice and maybe she thinks more people should see this great accomplishment on  Saturday.

R: I don’t think so, C, and look Candice is up off the bench and going back in.

C: There goes that conspiracy theory…(laughing), never mind.

R: Candice she launches a three, it’s good. Wait, she was called for traveling. Think she is nervous?

C: Maybe, now she misses her jumper, rebounded by Kayla, she misses, but Candice gets the rebound, and is fouled

R: She makes both!

C: Five! See my hand? Five.

R: Jayne is having a good game, they don’t have anyone tall enough to stop her.

C: Candice is fouled again, whoo-hoo (waving towel)

R: Ack, C, you hit me in the mouth with that towel!

C: Oh, sorry!

R: Last game it was a face smack with a pom-pom, now a towel in the mouth! Your dangerous to sit by!

C: I am sorry…look Candice makes both free throws. Seven! Come on, help my, hold up 2 fingers next to my five.

R: Okay.

Seven! (shouted in unison)

R: I hate to say this, but I have to go to the bathroom.

C: You can’t! Candice might set the record!

R: It’s a time out, I won’t hardly miss a thing.

C: Okay hurry back! The towel will miss you.

R: Oh-kaaaaay.

C: Okay, towel, R is gone, and look at Kayla, she makes a great steal, quickly out to Candice who is streaking, she stops dribbling at approximately the half court line, takes about 4 hundred steps and lays it in. Incredible, let’s wave you around, towel. Too bad R missed that! Oh wait, there’s R on the floor, walking back.

R: I saw, I saw.

C: Did you see it,

R: Yes, YES!

C: Candice took about 4 hundred steps.

R: Here’s the replay, she catches the ball, one, two. Only two steps.

C: Wow! You are right, only 2, but she stopped dribbling at the foul line and covered that distance in just 2 long strides.

R: Amazing!

C: Two more free throws by Wiggins, She has tied it, come on towel.

R: Wave it over there, please.

C: She has nine. (Shouting) Candice, you have 9, two more to tie!

R: Candice is fouled, she makes one, two, she has tied it!

C: Wow, that makes it 25-9. They are killing USC. (Shouting) One away, Candice.

R: They have practically tripled their score.

C: Candice wants the record, she drives, takes an off balance shot.

R: She misses.

C: Aw, she was fouled, Pohlen rebounds it, puts it back, is hacked…

R: Candice, jumps in the air, puts it back without landing. She did it! She has the record!

C: Oh my Gosh! (Standing, waving towel, cheering). That was incredible!

R: Everyone one is on their feet, the whole crowd is cheering the breaking of the record.

C: That was such a dramatic way to break the record. First she shoots, fouled, Pohlan grabs the rebound, shoots, she is fouled and Candice runs to the weak side, no one there, gets the ball in the air and puts it back, without landing! How cool was that?

R: That was fantastic. She did a Shelby. You know how Shelby, who used to be on our team, would jump in the air and shoot without landing?
C: I once did a Shelby, made it, too. But I didn’t look as cool as Candice!

R: Jayne has the ball a the top of the key, no one is open….

C: Here comes the guard to run around for that darn hand-off, but look, Jayne can’t hand off because USC and the whole gym knows that play….Just shoot it Jayne, (Shouting) Shoot it!!

R: She shoots, she makes it.

(Fan sitting behind us): I think she heard you.

C: Well, she was unguarded for so long, might as well shoot.

R: Another lay up by Candice, she’s not one to rest on her laurels.

C: Stanford is fighting for the defensive rebound, refs call it out on us…

R: Look at Candice, she is all alone under our basket, even though the other 9 players are at USC’s basket.

C: Ha ha, cherry picking! She wants another lay up. Ya gotta love it!

R: Candice is out, now the subs are starting to come in.

C: It’s always good to see Cissy Pierce. Ya know, she is so quick, and that allows her to be creative in the air, she might have done better in another system that would let her be more free to take more shots.

R: Plus, her and Tara have clashed over the years. You’re right, she might have flourished more with a different coach and a more open offense.

C: Twenty-Four seconds on the clock, Stanford has the ball, time for one last shot.

R: JJ Hones with the ball, clock winding down…

C: Four three, two…

R: She looks to pass off, no she keeps it and makes the basket.

C: She was fouled, but what a great fake.

R: One second left, and JJ on the line.

C: She misses. Tara must be pulling her hair out.

R: Half time, 44-21. Wanna get some popcorn?

C: And a Sprite. Oh, and a garden burger. I didn’t have dinner. 

(Halftime) 

R: One garden burger.

(Clerk, looking around as if she has never seed food before)

Clerk: Um, I will have to check in the back.

Clerk comes bask about 2 minutes later.

Clerk: Sorry, we are out of garden burgers.

C: Okay, I’ll just have  hot dog.

(Clerk, again looking around as if she doen’t know what she is doing there says)

Clerk: Um, I’ll have to check in the back.

R: We will have to go to the other counter to get our popcorn.

C: R, they have to have hot dogs, the guy in line next to me has, no lie, 10 hot dogs.

Clerk: I’m sorry we don’t have any hot dogs.

C: But that guy there has 10 hot dogs. Did he get the last ones?

R: Well, what do you have?

(Clerk, disappearing one more times, says)

Clerk: We only have cheeseburgers.

C: Ah, I will take one of those, please.

R: Wow, that was difficult. Let’s go get in line for popcorn….I think the game is going to start soon.

R: Game is back on, I am surprised to see Candice still in.

C: She wants more points. Another 3, ah, traveling again. She has happy feet. That’s six points taken away from her total!

R: They are forcing it inside to Jayne. That is the second Stanford turnover inside a few minutes.

C: They are not really hitting from the outside (later, we find out The Cardinal shot only 2-for-12 from 3-point range). They must have decided at half time to feed it in to Jayne come heck or high-water.

R: Candice shoots for three and makes it this time!

C: The subs are starting to come in.

R: Here comes Morgan!

C: We love Morgan. She hustles and tries so hard.

R: Look at Jayne, making a steal and hustling up the court.

C: She has a lot of points, too, eighteen, same as Candice.

R: The score is 59-29. Thirty points. How did we lose to this team?

C: Look, we are still hustling, even the subs, the intensity is up for this game. They are not slacking off. I think they did not take care of business down south.

R: Hey look, Ashley Cimino is going in.

C: Cinnamon!

R: The only one left on the bench is Hannah Donaghe.

C: Here comes Hannah Montana with 8 minutes left….

R: Okay, this game is officially over.

C: Well it is 73-40.

R: Now it is our subs against their subs. Ow, my hand hurts for clapping so much. I am going to have to resort to towel waving.

C: As long as you do it over there. Final score 77-51. Let’s move into little white ball mode.

R: Wait, they are giving the game ball to Candice at center court, in honor of her breaking the record.

C: Cool. Look, Candice doesn’t want to go out there, her teammates push her.

R: How cute, she really doesn’t’ crave the spot light.

C: They are finally throwing the balls (Shouting) Jayne, over here! You heard me before!

R: Here comes one, I think I can get it, ahh I dropped it.

C: At least you got a piece of it!

R: Darn it! I even went down on the floor for it.

C: I saw, you get an A for effort.

R: Thank you. Should we go brave the rain?

C: Yes. Hmmm, Candice now has, let’s see, 2,222 points. Did I ever tell you 22 is my other lucky number?