Nov 16, 2001
STANFORD, Calif. (AP) - While Lindsey Yamasaki was busy taking care of most of the offense, Nicole Powell was quietly putting together another all-around game.
Yamasaki scored 27 points and grabbed 13 rebounds as No. 9 Stanford beat Indiana 87-72 in the first round of the Stanford Invitational on Friday night.
Powell, last season's Pac-10 Freshman of the Year, had 11 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists for her second career triple-double, and fourth in Cardinal history. Bethany Donaphin added 15 points for Stanford.
Yamasaki took the spotlight, making nine of her first 12 shots and finishing 11-of-19 from the field.
"I was just taking shots I've been talking in practice," said Yamasaki, who helped the U.S. Women's University Games team to a gold medal in Beijing over the summer. "I'm just more confident and comfortable in my game, and I'm not holding back."
Meanwhile, Powell recorded as many assists as Indiana did as a team.
Powell, who also played internationally over the summer with the U.S. Junior Olympic team, became the first player at Stanford to record more than one triple-double. She also accomplished the feat at Washington State last Feb. 22.
"She's a great player and real steady," Yamasaki said. "When someone told me about the triple-double, I couldn't believe it. I didn't have any clue she had done it. She's just very unselfish and versatile. She's a great passer and rebounder and she showed that tonight."
Erin McGinnis led Indiana with 20 points, Jill Chapman added 18, Heather Cassady 15 and Kristen Bodine 14.
Indiana made it 52-50 with 12:40 remaining, but a 3-pointer by Lauren St. Clair sparked a Stanford run and the Cardinal never trailed by fewer than 11 in the final five minutes.
"We had it to two and Jill missed a shot and didn't get back," said Indiana coach Kathi Bennett, the daughter of former longtime Wisconsin coach Dick Bennett. "I thought that took us out of it. We defended well, but they got a ton of offensive boards and that was the difference. Too many second-chance shots."
Stanford's 27 offensive rebounds matched Indiana's total. The Cardinal outrebounded the Hoosiers 50-27.
The Cardinal will play UC Santa Barbara, which beat Western Kentucky 90-78, in the championship game.
Stanford's Tara VanDerveer, a 1971 graduate of Indiana, was coaching against her alma mater for the first time since leaving Ohio State in 1985.
"We got a couple of great individual efforts from Lindsey and Nicole," VanDerveer said. "I thought we also rebounded very well, and that's a key for us."
Indiana and Stanford met one previous time, when the Hoosiers won 73-63 on Dec. 21, 1979, in the second round of the North Carolina Invitational.
Indiana, which enjoyed a renaissance under Bennett last year, opens the season with four games on the West Coast.
The Cardinal led 43-35 at halftime.