Monday, February 10, 1997
W.HOOPS:
Stanford’s consistently strong lead leaves UCLA in the dustBy A.
CinQue Carter
Daily Bruin Contributor
PALO ALTO, Calif. — So how do you get ready to face the No. 3
team in the nation  on the road?
First you build confidence by beating up on the lesser team from
the area, as UCLA did with UC Berkeley on Thursday. Then you make
sure that you’ve made the proper adjustments after that opponent
struggled to beat you by 12 at your house this year. And finally,
you forget that no one has beaten them at home in 43 tries, and you
haven’t beaten them there in nine years.
Make that 10 years. In front of a hostile Maples Pavilion crowd
of 7,391 on Saturday, Stanford (23-1 overall, 11-0 in the Pacific
10 conference) jumped on UCLA early and often en route to a 98-68
pounding.
The Cardinal never even gave the Bruins (10-10, 4-7) a chance to
breathe before the score was 8-0 in favor of the hosts. By the
12:53 mark of the first half, the Cardinal had stretched the lead
to 21-9.
The Bruins would never get closer than nine points for the
remainder of the contest.
Stanford closed out the first half on a 15-6 run, and held a
45-27 halftime lead.
Five minutes into the second half, Stanford went on a 15-1 run,
extending the lead to 68-39, and effectively ending any chances of
a comeback for the Bruins. UCLA went on a 22-9 run, cutting the
deficit to 78-60 with six minutes to play. But Stanford went on a
20-8 run over the final six minutes, culminating in the 98-68
victory.
With 30 seconds remaining, a 32-point lead and four Bruins
already having fouled out, Stanford started chasing UCLA around
trying to intentionally foul in order to get a chance to reach the
100-point mark.
However, their efforts were for naught, as a desperate
three-point attempt at the buzzer went long.
Despite the 30-point pounding, coach Kathy Olivier remained
optimistic.
"Stanford’s just very experienced," she said. "We’re so young,
but we’ll be back. We won’t lose our confidence (because of) a game
like this because we have so much potential."
Kate Starbird led Stanford with a game-high 29 points. Meanwhile
Melanie Pearson paced the Bruins with 16.
"Pearson had a good weekend," Olivier said. "She’s really coming
on strong. She’s starting to show her full potential."
Freshman Maylana Martin led the Bruins with 10 first-half
points, and would finish the game with 14.
"(Martin) did some real good things for us early," Olivier said.
"And that made Stanford make some changes defensively. That just
shows how good a player she is."
Though UCLA shot 64.3 percent from the field in the first half
and was even with Stanford in rebounding, the Cardinal had eight
more offensive rebounds and 13 less turnovers than their
opponent.
As for the entire game, the Bruins shot a season-high 53.3
percent from the field and out-rebounded Stanford 34-32, but had
nine fewer offensive boards and made 20 more turnovers.
Before fouling out with 4:45 to play, junior Tawana Grimes had
five points, five assists, six rebounds and two steals. Fellow
junior Aisha Veasley also played well, with six points, five
rebounds, two assists and two steals in 35 minutes of play.
However, the Bruins’ starters as a whole were outdone in two
major categories: The Cardinal’s starters outscored them 80-47 and
had eight turnovers to the Bruins’ 25.