STANFORD, Calif. (AP) – Maya Dodson took advantage of extended playing time to record one of her better games at Stanford.
Dodson scored a career-high 16 points and blocked three shots to lift the No. 6 Cardinal over CSUN 69-43 on Saturday.
"She's playing with a lot of confidence," Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. "She wants to be a great player and she worked hard during the offseason. She's going up against some big players and making good moves."
Alanna Smith added 14 points for the Cardinal (10-1), which won its fourth straight since losing at Gonzaga. Lacie Hull scored 10 points.
"We've come a long way since playing Gonzaga," VanDerveer said. "People have been getting more gritty. When we lost, we looked at Baylor, Tennessee, Buffalo and told ourselves, 'We can't be doing this. We better shape up.'"
DiJonai Carrington had 12 rebounds, her third straight double-digit game after recording no more than nine in her first eight games.
"There's always something we can work on," Dodson said. "We have been focused on rebounding and DiJonai showed that today."
Meghann Henderson scored seven points to lead the Matadors, which won two of their previous three games.
"Stanford has been the flag bearer on the West Coast for the past 20-25 years and they're still one of the measuring sticks," CSUN coach Jason Flowers said. "When you play good teams, your margin of error gets even smaller. We can talk about a reality check."
The game was over early as the Matadors (6-8) were 8.3 percent from the floor in the first quarter while Stanford went on an early 13-0 run.
The Cardinal outscored CSUN 10-0 on turnovers and 11-0 in second-chance points in the first half.
CSUN scored the final eight points of the third quarter, including 3-pointers from Claudia Ramos and Henderson in the final minute, to pull within 54-23 of the Cardinal.
Ramos opened the fourth quarter with another 3-pointer, giving the Matadors a nine-point run.
BIG PICTURE
CSUN senior center Channon Fluker, on the Lisa Leslie Award watch list, matched a Big West Conference record with her 13th career Player of the Week honor. She's the school's career leader in points and rebounds, and she's the Division I active rebounding leader. "She can go back and see what she needs to work on," Flowers said. "Most teaching opportunities don't come with winning." ... After missing 14 of their first 15 shots, the Matadors were 4 of 12 to finish with a 15.4 shooting percentage in the first half. They shot 36.3 percent in the second half.
Dodson, who entered the game early when Alanna Smith hobbled off with an apparent foot injury, scored 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting in the first half. Smith returned to action a couple minutes later. ... Lexie Hull missed her seventh game with a foot injury.
