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Thursday, Feb. 3 10:30pm ET
Stanford ousts another ranked foe | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
STANFORD, Calif. (AP) -- Tara VanDerveer had one request after Stanford's latest upset of a top-25 team. "Don't rank us!" the Stanford coach quipped after the Cardinal beat UCLA 83-68 Thursday night. The Bruins are ranked No. 17 by the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll, No. 15 by the AP. It was Stanford's fourth victory in five games against ranked teams this season, with the only loss coming to then-No. 5 Tennessee on Nov. 26. What's puzzling is that Stanford is 12-2 as an unranked team and 1-3 when a member of the top 25. "Of course, I'd like us to play with this kind of intensity every night. Any coach would," VanDerveer said. "But if I had to choose, I'd rather have a team that could step up and play the best teams at a high level. A game like this against a ranked team tells me what we're capable of doing." Against UCLA, Bethany Donaphin and Lauren St. Clair led the way for Stanford (13-5, 6-2 Pac-10), which pulled into a first-place tie with UCLA (12-6, 6-2) in the Pac-10 race. Donaphin had 17 of her 21 points in the second half and Lauren St. Clair went 5-for-5 from 3-point range as Stanford pulled away for its sixth victory in seven games. St. Clair finished with 17 points and Jamie Carey added 16. Carey made four 3-pointers. "Being ranked is not a mental block or anything for us," said Stanford's Milena Flores, who fueled an effective transition game with nine assists. "We just feel that if we win the Pac-10, we'll get a good seed for the tournament. If a ranking could help us, of course we'll take it, but right now we're focused on winning the conference." Michelle Greco had 26 points to lead the Bruins, who lost their second straight after winning seven in a row. Marie Philman and Nicole Kaczmarski added 14 points apiece. UCLA's leading scorer, Maylana Martin, was in foul trouble much of the night and with Donaphin defending last season's Pac-10 player of the year, had just one point in 28 minutes. Martin came in averaging 16.8 points but was limited to just two shots, missing both. Martin wasn't the only UCLA post player having a rough night. Janae Hubbard, who averages 11.7 points, was held to one basket by Stanford's Carolyn Moos. "You've got to give Stanford a lot of credit for a great defensive game," UCLA coach Kathy Olivier said. "We have not been stopped like this all year. If you look at Maylana's line, 0-2 says a lot about the game right there. "Stanford has great post defense because they collapsed on every play. We got a lot of looks from the outside. We just didn't make them." Up by seven at the break, the Cardinal took control with a 12-5 run to start the second half. Moos, who had 11 points, began the flurry with a layup and Carey and St. Clair each hit 3-pointers. Greco made two baskets and LaCresha Flannigan drove for a layup as UCLA fought to keep it close but Donaphin and Flores got Stanford going again. With Stanford leading 52-40, Flores launched a halfcourt pass to Donaphin underneath the basket for a layup as part of a 10-2 burst that carried the Cardinal to a 20-point lead with 9:24 left. St. Clair punctuated the flurry with another 3-pointer and Donaphin added a putback as Stanford maintained a double-digit lead the rest of the way. The Cardinal led 36-29 at halftime, scoring the last six points of the period after a putback by Hubbard pulled the Bruins to within a point. The closing burst included two free throws by Carey after the UCLA bench complained about a walking call and was hit with a technical foul. Half of Stanford's points in the opening period came on its six 3-pointers with Carey and St. Clair each hitting three. | ALSO SEE Womens College Basketball Scoreboard
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