Jan. 27, 2005
By TIM BOOTH
Associated Press Writer
SEATTLE (AP) - Brooke Smith and the Stanford Cardinal took it right at the young Washington Huskies.
Smith scored 20 points, and No. 4 Stanford used an early second-half run to pull away from Washington for an 82-60 victory Thursday night.
"She's tough to stop inside," Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. "They were physical against her, put bodies on her, and I thought she did a good job."
Freshman standout Candice Wiggins scored 10 of her 12 points in the second half to help Stanford (18-2, 9-1 Pac-10) win its ninth straight game. Stanford's last loss was Dec. 29 at Oregon.
Smith is in her first season at Stanford after transferring from Duke. A former California state player of the year, Smith has given Stanford an impact presence inside, averaging 13 points. She was 9-of-13 from the field and also had seven rebounds.
Stanford has won four straight against Washington and seven of the last eight in the series.
"They're huge and they're good," Washington's Jill Bell said. "We had some breakdowns defensively ... and they did a good job of taking it inside on us."
Trailing by five at halftime, Washington scored the first six points of the second half, taking its only lead of the game at 37-36 on a 3-pointer from Cameo Hicks with 18:55 left.
From there, Stanford scored 23 of the next 30 points to take a 15 point lead. The Huskies went more than 4 minutes without scoring.
"We turned it over too much in the first half," VanDerveer said. "At half we talked about executing on offense better and going inside."
Wiggins played just 7 minutes and scored two points in the first half after picking up two early fouls. She scored 10 points in the first 8:30 of the second half, but still finished below her average of 17.4. Wiggins has twice been selected the Pac-10 player of the week.
"She was pressing a little bit and this was not one of her better games," VanDerveer said. "But she's persistent and still made some big shots for us."
Bell led Washington with 14 points, but fouled out with 5:36 left. Breanne Watson added 10, but the Huskies shot just 36 percent. Washington (8-12, 4-6) had won its last two games, both on the road, after a four-game losing streak.
"We just didn't really recover from their run," Bell said. "They did a good job hitting their shots."
The game played out in a similar fashion to the first meeting on Jan. 4 between the two teams. In that game, Stanford led by four at halftime and used a run early in the second half to pull away.
"They've gotten better since the last time we played them," Washington coach June Daugherty said. "They are a legitimate top two or three team in the country."
Kelley Suminski made four 3-pointers for the Cardinal and finished with 14 points. Suminski made three 3-pointers in the first 5 minutes of the game as the Cardinal jumped out to a 16-8 lead.
Washington chipped away and tied it at 26 on a 3-pointer from leading scorer Kristen O'Neill, her first points of the game. She finished with eight points.
Washington missed two opportunities to take the lead, and Stanford closed the first half with a 10-5 spurt for a 36-31 lead.
The Huskies fell to 2-5 this season against Top 25 teams.
"With a team like this, if you make a mistake they seem to make you pay and it really stings when you do," Daugherty said.