No. 2 Stanford holds off UCLA STANFORD 65

LOS ANGELES — Foul trouble and UCLA’s aggressive defense
couldn’t shut down Nnemkadi Ogwumike.

Ogwumike scored 10 of her 21 points in the final seven minutes
to help No. 2 Stanford beat UCLA 65-61 on Sunday. She made 11 of
12 free throws, including all six attempts during that stretch
to give Stanford (13-1, 3-0 Pac-10) its sixth straight win
against UCLA.

“She’s been big time for us all year,” Stanford coach Tara
VanDerveer said. “She’s really making a statement; she’s coming
out saying – you’ve got to deal with me.”

Rosalyn Gold-Onwude scored a career-high 18 points, including
two free throws with four seconds left and a season-high four
3-pointers, to help preserve the win.

Jasmine Dixon led the Bruins with 16 points and 10 rebounds and
Doreena Campbell added 17 points. Markel Walker scored all of
her 10 points in the second half to help the Bruins charge back
from a double-digit deficit.

Walker’s layup pulled the Bruins (10-5, 3-1) as close as 63-61
with 1:06 remaining.

“Actually I think it’s really good to play in a close game,
especially within the Pac-10 season,” Gold-Onwude said. “I’m
really proud of how poised we stayed. Nobody was panicked or
yelling.”

Using an aggressive zone defense, the Bruins were able to harass
the Cardinal into taking rushed shots and turning the ball over.
Stanford shot 37.3 percent and had 16 turnovers.

The Cardinal made up for it at the free throw line by converting
21 of 24.

“We were out of sync offensively,” VanDerveer said. “We didn’t
move the ball the way we needed to. We had a lot of really good
shooters get good looks and not knock down shots.”

Stanford stars Jayne Appel and Ogwumike played limited minutes
after getting into foul trouble in the second half. Ogwumike,
who leads the team in scoring and rebounding, picked up her
fourth foul with 12:18 remaining and returned about four minutes
later.

Appel left the game after being charged with her fourth foul
with 9:21 left and finished with 10 points and seven rebounds
after fouling out with 2:45 left.

Trailing 49-38, Walker scored four points during UCLA’s 9-2 run
making it 51-47. Down by 16 at the half, the Bruins scored the
first seven points of the second half capped by Daxia Morris’
layup to cut Stanford’s lead to 34-25.

UCLA committed a season-low nine turnovers and over came a poor
start by shooting 58.6 percent from the field in the second
half.

“Stanford did what they needed to do to win,” UCLA coach Nikki
Caldwell said. "We really didn’t play for 40 minutes.

“We didn’t really carry that same type of intensity and energy
that we had in the second half that we should’ve at the tip of
the game.”

UCLA didn’t score in double figures until Nina Earl made a
catch-and-shoot jumper making it 21-11 with 7:42 left in the
first half.

Despite committing nine turnovers, Stanford led 34-18 at
halftime.