Nov. 23, 2001
HONOLULU - Lindsey Yamasaki (Oregon City, OR/Oregon City HS) became just the 22nd player in Stanford University women's basketball history to score 1,000 career points as the seventh-ranked Cardinal (3-0) rolled to a 96-65 victory over the University of Minnesota (2-1) on Friday evening in the first round of the Panda Travel Rainbow Wahine Classic at the University of Hawaii. Yamasaki finished with 17 points, while sophomore Nicole Powell (Phoenix, AZ/Mountain Pointe HS) led Stanford with 19 points and eight rebounds.
The Cardinal, which is off to its first 3-0 start since 1996-97, next plays the winner of Friday night's Hawaii-Wyoming game in Saturday's semifinals. The contest will be played at 11:10 a.m. (HT) on Saturday if Wyoming wins, and 1:20 p.m. (HT) if Hawaii is victorious.
Stanford took the lead for good at 12-11 on a Yamasaki baseline jumper with 13:44 remaining in the first half. Just 1:14 later, Yamasaki made a pair of free throws to become the first Cardinal to reach the 1,000-point barrier since Vanessa Nygaard in the 1997-98 campaign.
Stanford broke the game open with an 11-4 run at the end of the first half that gave it a 46-32 lead at the intermission. Freshman T'Nae Thiel (Weatherford, TX/Weatherford HS), who finished with 14 points on 7-of-9 shooting, had four points in the run while Powell had three.
Minnesota scored the first five points of the second half to cut it to 46-37, but Stanford quickly broke the game open with a 9-1 run on three 3-pointers in a 45-second span. Powell hit back-to-back treys and freshman Kelley Suminski (Chester, NJ/Mendham HS) followed with a 3-pointer of her own for a 55-38 advantage with 17:34 to play.
After a Minnesota basket cut the lead to 15, Stanford put the game out of reach with an 11-0 run. Freshmen Sebnem Kimyacioglu (Mountain View, CA/Pinewood School) and T'Nae Thiel (Weatherford TX/Weatherford HS) combined for all but two of those points to put Stanford ahead 66-40 with 12:52 remaining. The Golden Gophers, who were held scoreless for 4:42 in that stretch, didn't threaten again and the Cardinal was able to clear its bench and play no one more than 27 minutes.
"Everyone contributed tonight, and this was a nice win for us," Yamasaki said. "We got by on our size and athleticism."
The margin of victory was Stanford's largest since an 85-50 home win over Massachusetts on December 3, 2000.
Stanford, which shot 54.2 (39-of-72) percent from the field and held the Golden Gophers to 35.7 (20-of-56) percent), also received 10 points from senior Enjoli Izidor (Seattle, WA/Roosevelt HS) and nine assists and eight points from Kimyacioglu.