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Ogwumike's 25 lead No. 2 Stanford past ODU, 89-56

Nov 14, 2009 - 3:14 AM By HANK KURZ Jr. AP Sports Writer

NORFOLK, Va.(AP) -- Nnemkadi Ogwumike had just dominated for 34 minutes, scoring 25 points and grabbing 12 rebounds as No. 2 Stanford beat Old Dominion 89-56 on Friday night.

Then her coach, Tara VanDerveer, said something almost frightening.

"She's even much better than you saw," VanDerveer said.

Ogwumike made 10 of 14 shots, had two steals and nearly outscored the Lady Monarchs for 17 minutes. Her basket 3:49 before halftime gave her 15 points and the Cardinal a 43-17 lead.

"I just tried to do what I need to do for my team," she said, grousing about her three turnovers. "Whatever they need me to do - rebound, pass, anything - I just do it."

Coming off back-to-back trips to the national semifinals and hoping to go further this year behind preseason All-American Jayne Appel, Ogwumike's emergence won't hurt at all.

But Lady Monarchs coach Wendy Larry said Stanford is more than just two stars.

"I can't say enough about how well they play together and how unselfish they are," she said, calling Ogwumike "one of the finest athletes I've seen on the floor in some time."

Old Dominion (0-1) lost for just the 16th time in 108 games at the Ted Constant Convocation Center since it opened in 2002. Ten of those losses have been to ranked teams.

Appel added 19 points and 11 rebounds. Jeannette Pohlen scored 15 with 10 assists, and Kayla Pedersen scored 14 for the Cardinal, who will play at 25th-ranked Rutgers on Sunday.

"I've really challenged our team with our schedule," VanDerveer said of a non-conference slate that also includes games with perennial powers Duke, Tennessee and Connecticut.

"We have really high expectations," she said.

Jasmine Parker led Old Dominion with 16 points and Tia Lewis had 13. The Lady Monarchs were outrebounded 52-38, shot 30 percent from the field and let Stanford shoot 49 percent.

"We kind of showed a lot of our weaknesses and what we need to work on in practice," Parker said. "It's a learning experience when you get beat like that."

The Lady Monarchs will be more challenged going forward after forward Jessica Canady left the game with seven minutes left, aggravating a right knee injury. She had arthroscopic surgery about a month ago, and Larry said she might have to work back into it more slowly.

Both coaches emptied their benches early after Stanford took a 53-23 lead into halftime, allowing VanDerveer to use 11 players and Parker to learn something about her teammates.

"It just shows who has heart and who doesn't" when you fall so far behind, she said. "It shows who has the fire and the drive to keep going and going no matter what the score is."

Stanford opened the game on a 29-4 run, scoring the last 22 in a row. Appel had seven in the 22-0 burst, which lasted 6 1/2 minutes, and J.J. Hones hit a pair of 3-pointers.

The Lady Monarchs made a brief flurry, scoring the next eight points to close within 29-12, but the Cardinal immediately scored 11 points in a row in a 19-5 run to lead 48-17. Ogwumike scored seven in that run and Pedersen had six, including her second 3-pointer.

Old Dominion never got closer than 26 after halftime.