Arizona women no match for Stanford
Box score
By BOB BAUM
AP Sports Writer
TUCSON (AP) -- Pac-10 wins are so routine for Stanford that star guard Jeanette Pohlen and coach Tara Vanderveer had no idea that Saturday's 91-61 rout of Arizona carried any special significance.
It was Stanford's 48th Pac-10 victory in a row, tying a conference record.
"I didn't know that," VanDerveer said. "Forty-eight is the record? Well, then we want to break it. We've been a part of some records. We want to keep it going."
Pohlen made five 3-pointers and scored 17 points to lead five Stanford starters in double figures as the Cardinal (20-2, 11-0) tied the Pac-10 mark they set from Feb. 9, 1995, to Jan. 12, 1998. Stanford's last Pac-10 loss was 57-54 at California on Jan. 18, 2009.
"It's definitely an accomplishment but it kind of says something about our team that we didn't even know," Pohlen said. "We're focused just on each game, not the background of what's going on. That's obviously a great deal of games to win in a row, but coming into this game we were just focused on the scouting report, what we wanted to do on defense and what we wanted to do on offense."
Pohlen was 5 of 9 from 3-point range and scored 17 points with eight assists. Lindy La Rocque and Kayla Pedersen added 14 points apiece. Nnemkadi Ogwumiki had 13 points and 14 rebounds. Younger sister Chiney Ogwumiki added 11 points.
Ify Ibekwe scored 19 for the Wildcats (13-9, 4-7), who loss their fourth in a row overall and 19th straight to Stanford. Davellyn White added 16 points but made just 4 of 16 shots.
Stanford was coming off its "closest" Pac-10 game of the season, a 72-54 win at Arizona State on Thursday night. The Cardinal didn't put that one away until well into the second half.
There was no such struggle on Saturday at the mostly-empty McKale Center.
The Cardinal scored the first 11 points of the game and the smaller Wildcats never mustered a serious challenge. Consecutive 3-pointers by La Rocque made it 25-8, and Stanford led 55-32 at the half. The Cardinal led by as many as 32 in the second half.
Pohlen made five of her first six 3-point tries and finished 5 of 9. La Rocque was 4 of 8.
The smooth-operating Cardinal had 20 assists on 30 field goals. Eight players had at least one assist. Stanford shot 50 percent overall to Arizona's 30 percent and was 12 of 30 on 3s to the Wildcats' 7 of 23.
"Stanford is probably the best team in the country," Arizona coach Niya Butts said. "They are super efficient and beat you inside and outside. Half of their shots were 3s, half of their shots were twos, and they were about 50 percent on both of them.
"They are in synch at every position."
Since consecutive losses at DePaul and Tennessee in mid-December, Stanford has won 14 in a row, including a 71-59 victory over then-No. 1 Connecticut on Dec. 30 that ended the Huskies' 90-game winning streak.
"Coming into each game we do know that if we play the best basketball we can play, we should win," Pohlen said. "We should play well together. That's kind of our mentality going into each game. If we do what we need to do, if we play well together, we can do whatever."
Stanford will be an overwhelming favorite to break its consecutive Pac-10 win mark when the Cardinal play at home against Washington State next Thursday night.