Feb 24, 2002
LOS ANGELES, Calif. (AP) - The farther out the women of No. 2 Stanford shot Sunday, the better they did.
The Cardinal made 16 of 27 from three-point range in their 98-80 victory over UCLA to finish conference play undefeated for only the fourth time in school history. The 16 3-pointers also tied a school record set last season at Washington.
"We wanted to get the ball inside and some people just didn't shoot well for us inside, but our perimeter game was really strong," Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said.
Lindsey Yamasaki made seven of 10 from the 3-point line and scored 33 points. Kelley Suminski made four of five 3-point shots, scoring 18 as the Cardinal (27-1, 18-0 Pac-10) earned their 20th straight win.
"We have really good shooters on our team," VanDerveer said. "They're open, they're knocking down shots."
Gennifer Arranaga came off the bench to score a career-high 21 points in 23 minutes for UCLA (8-19, 4-14), which has now lost 25 of its last 28 games against Stanford. Jalina Bradley and Whitney Jones each added 12.
The Bruins held the lead only once - in the first minute. The Cardinal responded with two separate runs that would put them up 50-32 at halftime.
Yamasaki's back-to-back 3-point baskets during a second-half surge gave the Cardinal their biggest lead, 66-40 with 16:06 to play. Stanford led by at least 15 for the remainder of the game.
"They are the No. 2 team in the country," Bruins coach Kathy Olivier said. "Once we got over that, we played very hard, looked to do the things that we like to do defensively, but they were hitting everything."
The 80 points were a season-high for UCLA and were the most allowed by the Cardinal this year.
Heading into this week's inaugural Pac-10 Tournament, VanDerveer said the team has to work on its defense, especially rebounding.
"Defensively, we didn't play with the intensity we had been or want to," VanDerveer said.
The Bruins outrebounded Stanford 45-40.
As conference champion, Stanford has earned a first-round bye for the tournament, which begins Friday in Eugene, Ore. UCLA is seeded eighth and will face ninth-seeded California Friday, with the winner facing Stanford on Saturday.