STANFORD, Calif. – Lili Thompson led a balanced Cardinal attack with 12 points, Erica McCall set a career high with 12 rebounds and the No. 16 Stanford women's basketball team closed out its non-conference schedule with a 90-34 romp over UC Santa Barbara at Maples Pavilion on Sunday afternoon.
All 15 players on the roster saw at least five minutes of action and 12 scored. Thompson was joined in double figures by Briana Roberson and Karlie Samuelson, each with 11, and freshman Brittany McPhee, who scored 10 to go along with five rebounds and career highs in both blocks (3) and steals (3).
The win, which moved Stanford's record to 8-4 on the season, was also the Cardinal's largest margin of victory since it clobbered Washington by 77, 112-35, on Jan. 8, 2009. Stanford's defensive effort surrendered just 34 points, the lowest total for an opponent since the Cardinal beat South Carolina, 70-32, on Nov. 26, 2010.
Santa Barbara shot 20 percent in the first half, falling behind 39-13 at the break, and 26 percent for the game. The Gauchos (0-11) were outrebounded 50-21 and McCall, who hit all four of her shots for eight points, led the way for Stanford with 12, the first double-digit rebounding game of her career.
The Gauchos scored the game's first points on a Jasmine Ware jumper, but the Cardinal raced back with an 11-2 run to take an eight-point lead at the first media timeout (14:59). UCSB pulled to within five minutes later on a Melissa Maragnes layup (13:02), before Stanford reeled off 15 points in a row over the next five minutes to grab its first 20-point lead of the day, 28-8.
Following that Maragnes layup with 13:02 on the clock, Stanford closed the half on a 26-5 run, which was capped by an Amber Orrange baseline jumper as the buzzer sounded.
It was much of the same coming out of the locker room, as Stanford made five of its first six in the second half and 10 of its first 12 from the field. The sharpshooting Sameulsons led the attack during that spurt and were responsible for 15 of the Cardinal's first 23 second-half points.
Each of the sisters, Bonnie and Karlie, made a trio of 3-pointers and Stanford, which entered the game fourth in the nation in 3-point field goal percentage (.400), hit 10-of-24 (.417) against the Gauchos.
Stanford's reserves kept things rolling with another nearly six-minute run late in the second half, this one 17-0, that started at the 9:27 mark and lasted until there was 3:34 on the clock. It featured six points from the freshman McPhee, four from McCall, a layup from Erica Payne, a jumper from Roberson and a 3-pointer from Jasmine Camp, her first basket of the year. Camp dialed up another from distance with 1:17 remaining for Stanford's final bucket, one which helped her team reach the 90-point plateau for the second time this season.
The Cardinal opens up its Pac-12 schedule in search of its 15th consecutive conference title when its hosts Colorado on Saturday, Jan. 3 at 7 p.m. Each of Stanford's games the rest of the season will be televised, beginning with the game against the Buffaloes on the Pac-12 Networks.