Feb. 10, 2006
STANFORD, Calif. (AP) - Jillian Harmon had 17 points and a season-high 11 rebounds to help No. 14 Stanford beat UC Santa Barbara 81-47 Thursday night.
Eziamaka Okafor matched her career highs with 14 points and eight rebounds as the Cardinal (17-5) won its fourth straight and 11th of 12 overall. Candice Wiggins, who averages 21.1 points a game, had 14 points in 24 minutes, and Brooke Smith added 10 points.
Kat Suderman scored 15 points and had nine rebounds to lead Santa Barbara (11-9), which had its three-game winning streak stopped. The Gauchos have lost all six of their road games against non-conference opponents.
The Gauchos suffered through one of their worst shooting nights of the season and Stanford dominated the boards, 56-30. The Cardinal grabbed 22 of the first 27 rebounds in the second half and put the game away with a scoring flurry ending the first half.
Santa Barbara coach Mark French, who turns 56 on Saturday, was called for a pair of technical fouls and ejected from the game with 17:22 remaining. He came onto the court during a dead ball and began screaming at official Clarke Stevens regarding a non-call.
Receiving the first technical seemed to infuriate French and he became even more demonstrative, drawing the second technical. It was his first ejection in 27 years as a head coach, the last 19 at Santa Barbara.
Wiggins made three of the four free throws to put the Cardinal ahead 45-21. She missed the final attempt to end her consecutive streak at 22.
The game never got any better for the Gauchos, who were outscored 25-7 in the next 5 minutes.
Stanford opened a 12-point in the first 10 minutes but then hit a cold spell, going nearly 6 minutes without a field goal.
The Gauchos cooperated by missing 15 of their first 20 shots, with leading scorer Jenna Green missing all five of her attempts and then spending most of the first half on the bench with foul trouble.
Santa Barbara was within 21-13 with 6:28 left in the half before the Cardinal went on a 17-8 run to open a 38-21 halftime lead.