February 27, 1999
TUCSON, Ariz. - The University of Arizona women's basketball team (16-9 overall, 11-5 Pac-10) pulled out an 81-67 win over the Stanford Cardinal (16-11 overall, 12-4 Pac-10) at home on Saturday, in front of a crowd of 2,810. Arizona freshman center Elizabeth Pickney led the Cats with 18 points, including 14 in the second half, six rebounds and was 12-of-13 (92 percent) from the free throw line. Pickney's 12 free throws tied the school's single-game record.
The lead changed six times in the first half, and Arizona went into the lockerroom at halftime with a one-point advantage (36-35). The Cats went 8-of-8 from the charity stripe in the last 12 minutes of the first half. In the second half, Arizona led by five points (40-35) in the first two minutes of the half, but Stanford built up a five-point lead (53-48) at the 13:45 mark. The Cats, however, took the lead by two (62-60) with 7:27 left in the game, and they sealed the win with a 13-3 run over the last 3:51, giving them a 14-point victory. In the last 5:56, Arizona shot 15-of-18 (83 percent) from the line.
"This is a great win for our program. Stanford made a great run at us in the second half, and Lindsey Yamasaki--oh, my--she was very good," said Arizona head coach Joan Bonvicini. "We made some changes on defense in the second half. We went into a defense that we had not practiced at all-a diamond-in-one. We put four people in a zone defense in a diamond and had one person on Yamasaki. Reshea (Bristol) and Julie (Brase) did a good job. We rebounded well and got to the free throw line."
Arizona, which is 13-0 when leading at the half, had four players in double figures in scoring. Behind Pickney, junior forward Angela Lackey had 16 points, sophomore guard Reshea Bristol dumped in 13, and junior guard Felecity Willis had 12. Junior guard Lisa Griffith had seven points, five assists and six steals.
"Getting them in foul trouble was huge. They are very quick in the post, but we have a lot more quickness," Bonvicini said. "We were really able to get them in the post in transition. We also pulled our posts away from the basket, and that gave them a lot of problems, too."
The Cats had 12 steals and forced 26 Stanford turnovers, while only committing a season-low nine, the lowest turnover total in three years.
"The difference today was that we forced them into more turnovers than we committed. We knew we couldn't let them back in to the game after we built the five-point lead. At the end, we focused on taking time off the clock and making all of our shots," Lackey said.
Freshman guard Lindsey Yamasaki led Stanford with 28 points, and she was 8-of-9 from three- point range. Yamasaki's eight three-pointers was the second-highest single-game total in Stanford history. Before fouling out of the game, freshman forward Bethany Donaphin had 11 points, and sophomore center Carolyn Moos pulled down nine rebounds.
Arizona closes out the regular season next weekend when it travels to Los Angeles to take on Pac-10 foes USC on Thursday, March 4, at 7 p.m. (PST), and UCLA on Saturday, March 6, at 1 p.m. (PST).