Dec. 20, 1996
No. 1 Stanford Crushes Ohio, 95-59
by Kian-Tat Lim
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- After an up-and-down trip to the East Coast, the not-yet-unseated#1 Stanford Cardinal (9-1) boarded charter buses instead ofairplanes to get to their next games at the Santa Clara Diet CokeShootout. Their first opponents would be the Ohio UniversityBobcats (2-3). The winner would take on Santa Clara, who hadbeaten Jackson State in the early game, 79-48, the next day.
The Bobcats' coach, Marsha Reall, was a graduate assistant withTara VanDerveer at Ohio State and was looking forward to thereunion. The 1994 Mid-American Conference champions, who had ledNotre Dame at the half earlier this year, faced a highlypro-Stanford crowd at Toso Pavilion.
Barb Grbac is the sister of Elvis Grbac, the San Francisco 49ers'backup quarterback. Elvis was in the building for the game.Marlene Stollings, a 5-11 shooting guard and three-pointspecialist who transferred from Ohio State, was out with what wasvariously described as a stress fracture or a leg inflammation.It was later revealed that Starbird had had a 102-degree feverthe day before the game.
The tip between Scott and Blackstone went to Starbird, whoquickly made an uncontested layup. Blackstone got open for abucket herself, though. A Starbird shot was short, and Nygaard'soffensive rebound was stolen by Ballard. Mulitauaopele poked itoff Robare, and the Cardinal had possession again. Scott made themost of it, kissing one off the glass. After misses by bothteams, Wideman fouled Blackstone, but neither free throw wouldfall. The Bobcats got it back when Scott knocked the rebound outof bounds, and Britt drove by Starbird for a 10-foot pull-up totie the score at 4.
Scott had an inside shot go in and out, but she was fouled byGrbac. Olympia made one of two. After a Ballard miss,Mulitauaopele took a Wideman pass to the hole through a doubleteam. Ohio was stopped, but Starbird threw a pass directly toBritt. Robare missed a three, and after Grbac's second quickfoul, Nygaard missed a three. Scott stole the ball and took it infor a fast-break layup; Mulitauaopele tried to go for the stealbut missed, allowing Ballard to get an easy basket. Starbird gota bit out of control in transition and missed, while Robare madea runner in the lane the other way. Scott tossed one too high forMulitauaopele, and, for some reason, Ohio took a :20 timeout. 9-8Stanford, as Ohio was hanging in in the early going.
Tara took the opportunity to talk things over with her team, andthey tightened up, to say the least. 16 straight points forStanford left no doubt as to who was going to win this one, withdefense, transition offense, and especially offensive reboundsplaying a role. To start, Scott made another steal-and-bucketplay. Mulitauaopele stuffed a shot. Scott got an offensiverebound and made two free throws after Djara Barnes (6-1, F, Jr)fouled her. Mulitauaopele put back an offensive rebound. CharminSmith (5-10, G, Sr) did the same.
Heather Owen (6-4, F, Jr) came in at 15:28 as Ohio called atimeout. She was immediately poked in the neck by Amy Turner(6-4, C, Sr transfer from Ohio State) and had to go back to thebench. She was kept out for the rest of the game as a precaution,with ice applied to the injury. The foul was ruled intentional(but not flagrant), so free throws were awarded despite Stanfordnot being in the bonus. With Owen out, her replacement, ChandraBenton (6-7, C, RSo) took the shots, making one of two. Withpossession retained on the intentional foul, Starbird rattled ina trey. The run continued with a Mulitauaopele basket after anOhio turnover and a Mulitauaopele put-back after Milena Flores(5-6, G, Fr), in for Wideman, forced Robare to travel.
Britt finally broke things up with a 16-footer. Notable plays forthe rest of the half: another in the series of great pinpointlong-distance Flores passes for a basket at 10:15. Benton gettingon the offensive glass to put back a missed Nygaard trey.Christina Batastini (5-10, G, Fr) poking the ball away fromRobare to Flores, who no-looked it back to Batastini, who thenwent up strong and drew a foul from the much taller Turner.
Robare threaded the needle to Barnes for two, and, on the nextpossession, she banked in a three-pointer as the shot clock wasexpiring. Batastini made a floating scoop shot -- count it, andthe foul from Turner made it a three-point play. Melody Peterson(5-9, G, Fr) drained a three as the half ended to make it 51-26.
The second half saw no extended runs for either team, juststrings of a few baskets at a time as Stanford extended its lead.Scott was just too quick for Grbac, who picked up her third andfourth fouls in the first 2:10 of the half trying to defend her.Almost everything was working for the Cardinal offense, unlikethe Old Dominion game, with Starbird and Scott scoring intransition and Mulitauaopele hitting inside the paint. The onemissing ingredient? Three-pointers by Nygaard (or anyone else).For the most part, they were unneeded, but Nygaard, Batastini,and Smith all missed attempts.
Batastini drove and dished to Benton for a 5-footer to make it72-34, the biggest lead Stanford would have, at about the 12:00mark. Nygaard finally got her first points of the game at 9:17when she made both ends of a one-and-one after being shoved byRobare.
Benton equaled her career high of 10 points on a high-low passfrom Mulitauaopele; she then proceeded to eclipse the mark on thenext possession with two free throws and eventually made threemore free throws and a basket (on the dribble!) to finish with17.
VanDerveer had a chance to do some more lineup experimentation.At one point, the positions from 1 to 5 were Flores, Peterson,Smith, Tara Harrington (6-0, F, Sr), and Benton. (Harrington wasapparently out of the doghouse after whatever kept her frommaking the Tenn/ODU trip.)
Britt scored last for the Bobcats. Grbac fouled Harrington forher fifth at 0:50; Tara made both to close out the scoring.Benton had a couple of monster rejections of Britt and Robare toprevent Ohio from getting any more points in the closing seconds.The final was 95-59.
As expected, Stanford dominated the statistics. Theyout-rebounded Ohio, 50-29, out-shot them 49.2% to 38.1%, made 29of 38 free throws (76.3%) to Ohio's 7 of 14 (50%), and had 8blocks to none. Areas of concern were three-point shooting (apoor 2 of 13 for 15.4%), turnovers (20, to 25 for the Bobcats),and Vanessa Nygaard's line (0-7 from the floor, 0-3 behind thearc, 2-2 from the line, for 2 points and 6 boards).
Ballard led the Bobcats with 23 points and 8 rebounds. Brittcontributed 10 points. For the Cardinal, four players were indouble figures. Scott led all scorers with a double-double of 21points and 10 boards in only 17 minutes of action. Mulitauaopelewas close with 19 points and 9 rebounds. Benton had her firstcareer double-double, and career highs in points and boards, with17 and 10, respectively. Starbird, likely not at 100%, managed 11points.
The Stanford bench got lots of playing time, with no startergoing more than 26 minutes. Flores was on the court more thanWideman, and Batastini had only two fewer minutes than Starbird.Christina finished with 7 on just 1 of 5 shooting from the field,but 5 of 7 from the line.
Would the Cardinal let up for Santa Clara? Stay tuned...
OHIO (59) fg ft rb min m- a m- a o- t a pf tpBlackstone 26 1- 4 0- 2 0- 0 0 2 2Grbac 15 1- 4 0- 0 1- 3 0 5 2Ballard 29 9-14 5- 6 3- 8 1 4 23Robare 31 2-10 0- 2 0- 2 6 4 6Britt 32 4- 8 1- 2 0- 2 4 3 10Deering 16 2- 6 1- 2 2- 2 3 0 6Barnes 18 4- 5 0- 0 1- 3 0 3 8Tatman 6 0- 4 0- 0 0- 1 2 1 0Turner 12 1- 6 0- 0 1- 3 0 4 2Mitrovic 15 0- 2 0- 0 0- 3 0 1 0TOTALS 200 24-63 7-14 8-27 16 27 59 Percentages: FG-.381, FT-.500.3-Point Goals: 4-11, .364 (Blackstone 0-1, Robare 2-4, Britt 1-2, Deering 1-1, Tatman 0-3).Team rebounds: 2.Blocked shots: None.Turnovers: 25 (Robare 8, Deering 5, Blackstone 4, Ballard 3, Turner 3, Mitrovic, Tatman).Steals: 12 (Robare 3, Ballard 2, Britt 2, Deering 2, Mitrovic 2, Barnes).STANFORD (95) fg ft rb min m- a m- a o- t a pf tpScott 17 7-11 7- 8 4-10 0 3 21Nygaard 24 0- 7 2- 2 3- 6 1 2 2Mulitauaopele26 8-13 3- 4 3- 9 2 1 19Wideman 17 2- 2 0- 0 0- 1 4 2 4Starbird 18 5-10 0- 0 0- 2 1 0 11Gbalazeh 2 0- 0 0- 0 0- 1 0 0 0Flores 21 1- 1 0- 0 0- 1 0 1 2Smith 19 1- 5 3- 5 2- 3 2 0 5Peterson 9 2- 2 0- 0 1- 2 0 1 5Benton 25 5- 8 7-10 3-10 0 3 17Harrington 5 0- 1 2- 2 0- 0 0 0 2Batastini 16 1- 5 5- 7 0- 2 3 1 7Owen 1 0- 0 0- 0 0- 1 0 0 0TOTALS 200 32-65 29-38 16-48 13 14 95Percentages: FG-.492, FT-.763.3-Point Goals: 2-13, .154 (Nygaard 0-3, Starbird 1-3, Smith 0-3, Peterson 1-1, Harrington 0-1, Batastini 0-2).Team rebounds: 2.Blocked shots: 8 (Benton 3, Scott 2, Nygaard, Mulitauaopele, Harrington).Turnovers: 20 (Benton 4, Nygaard 4, Batastini 2, Peterson 2, Scott 2, Flores, Mulitauaopele, Smith, Starbird, Wideman).Steals: 11 (Starbird 3, Scott 2, Wideman 2, Batastini, Flores, Mulitauaopele, Nygaard).