Jan. 9, 1998

Stanford Rolls over California

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - There's no place like home for 14th-ranked Stanford, but this comes mighty close.

"There were as many people in the stands dressed in red as there were in blue," coach Tara VanDerveer said after Stanford coasted past San Francisco Bay area rival California 72-52 in the Bears' temporary home court at the Kaiser Arena.

The crowd of 3,125 more than tripled Cal's average home attendance. It hardly made a difference to Stanford (6-4 overall, 3-0 Pac-10).

VanDerveer said her team's undefeated conference record is nothing to wite home about just yet.

"We really haven't played a road game yet," she said.

Nevertheless, the Cardinal seems to have rebounded nicely from a 2-4 start.

"The issues we've had on this particular team seem to be working themselves out," she said.

Stanford had five players in double figures, with Kristin Folkl coming of the bench for 16 points and 13 rebounds.

California (5-8, 1-2) lost for the ninth straight time to Stanford and the 19th time in the last 21 games.

"We were competitive for most of the game," Cal coach Marianne Stanley said.

Stanford held Cal without a field goal over the first five minutes of the second half, pushing the lead over 20 points when Melody Peterson's layup off a fast break made it 49-28. The lead was 69-39 following two free throws by Milena Flores with 5:11 to play.

Olympia Scott (12 points), Vanessa Nygaard (11), Heather Owen (11) and Peterson (10) also scored in doubled figures for Stanford.

Masa Radovic scored 11 points to lead Cal, which was 19-of-51 (37.3 percent) from the field and was outrebounded 41-31.

The Bears trailed 23-18 after Jennie Leander made two free throws with 6:37 left in the half. But Stanford went on an 18-5 run over the next 5 1/2 minutes, going up 41-23 on Owen's put-back with 1:11 left in the half. It was 41-27 at halftime.

"We couldn't control the boards," Stanley said. "They had all of those offensive rebounds in the first half, and that was our undoing."

Stanford University Women's Basketball