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Battle of the Bay goes to the Cardinal
By Jeremy Kahn February 23, 2008 |
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BERKELEY-It was billed as the “Battle of the Bay,” and it most definitely lived up to the hype between the California Golden Bears and the Stanford Cardinal. Jayne Appel and JJ Hones each scored 16 points, as the Cardinal were to make it 15 straight wins at Haas Pavilion with a 60-58 victory over the host Golden Bears before 10,525 screaming fans on the campus of the University of California. “Its obviously disappointing, and it hurts and sad,” said Joanne Boyle. The 10,525 that nearly packed Haas Pavilion broke the Pac-10 Women’s Basketball attendance record that was originally set when the UCLA Bruins traveled across the city of Los Angeles to play the USC Trojans at the brand new Galen Center. When the Bruins and the Women of Troy faced off at Galen, the attendance was 9,749. The all-time record for a non-conference game is 16,782 when the Tennessee Lady Vols faced off against the Arizona State Sun Devils at Bank One Ballpark (now Chase Field), the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks on December 27, 2000. Devanei Hampton led the Golden Bears with 19 points, while Ashley Walker added 17 for the Golden Bears, who have not beaten the Cardinal at Haas Pavilion since February 12, 1993, when the Golden Bears upset the reigning National Champion Cardinal 64-59. Candice Wiggins scored just 13 points, but no two points were bigger than the two that the senior out of San Diego scored in the waning moments of this battle between the seventh ranked Cardinal and the eighth ranked Golden Bears. Wiggins stole the ball from Devanei Hampton and drove to the hoop to give the Cardinal the lead for good at 58-56 with 2:48 remaining in the game. A 1:42 later, Wiggins hit a jumper that gave the Cardinal a four-point lead with 1:06 remaining. “I was trying to stay in the flow of the game,” said Wiggins, who picked up her fourth foul with 11:16 remaining in the game. Walker cut the Cardinal lead down to just two points when the junior out of Modesto calmly hit a jumper. This is when the game began to get very interesting to say the least. Both Natasha Vital and Alexis Gray-Lawson picked up back-to-back fouls that pushed the Golden Bears over the limit, and sent the Cardinal to free throw line. With a chance to possibly put the game away, Hones missed the front end of the one and one, giving the Golden Bears a chance to tie up the game and send it into overtime and/or possibly win the game with a three-pointer. Walker missed a jump shot, and after grabbing the rebound, Walker’s shot was blocked by Kayla Pedersen. The Golden Bears got another chance, but Lauren Greif missed a three-pointer and Pedersen came down with a huge rebound for the visiting Cardinal. Hampton immediately fouled Pederson, but the freshman was unable to hit the front end of the one-and-one, giving hope back to the Golden Bears. Gray-Lawson then missed a layup that would have tied up the game with eight seconds remaining, when it was blocked by Appel. Roslyn Gold-Onwude grabbed the rebound, and was fouled by Walker. Unfortunately, for the Cardinal, Gold-Onwude missed the free throw, the fourth consecutive miss for the Cardinal. Walker grabbed and the Golden Bears called their last 30-second timeout. After the Golden Bears used their final timeout, the Cardinal in turn called their final timeout. Gray-Lawson missed a game-winning three-point attempt when her last-second shot grazed off the rim at the buzzer, allowing the Cardinal to escape with a two-point victory. “Coach told us to get the ball to the rim,” said Gray-Lawson. With the victory, the Cardinal moved into a tie for first place with the Golden Bears, but the Cardinal hold the tiebreaker, due to the fact that the Cardinal swept the Golden Bears. Which means if the Cardinal defeat both the Washington Huskies and the Washington State Cougars next weekend on the road, the Cardinal will win their eighth consecutive conference championship and will be the number one seed at the Pac-10 tournament, held at HP Pavilion from March 7-10. |
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