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No. 2 Stanford rolls past Arizona 83-62

Jan 31, 2010 - 12:46 AM By JOSH DUBOW AP Sports Writer

STANFORD, Calif.(AP) -- One half of Stanford basketball once again was enough for the Cardinal to stay unbeaten in the Pac-10.

Nnemkadi Ogwumike scored eight of her 27 points during a 10-0 run to open the second half and No. 2 Stanford overcame a second straight halftime deficit to beat Arizona 83-62 on Saturday.

"We didn't necessarily start as aggressively as we wanted to or aggressive at all," Ogwumike said. "We needed to come out and let everybody know and let ourselves know that no one can pound on us. We're supposed to be pounding on other people. We just really needed to play Stanford basketball."

Kayla Pedersen added 27 points and 13 rebounds for the Cardinal (19-1, 9-0 Pac-10), who won their 40th straight home game and finished the first half of the conference season with a perfect record for the second time in the past eight years.

But for the second straight game it took the Cardinal some time to get going. After struggling on the offensive end early in Thursday's win over Arizona State, Stanford's problems in the first half against Arizona (9-10, 3-6) were defensive.

With freshman Davellyn Whyte leading the way, the Wildcats made eight 3-pointers in the first half - one shy of their season high for a game - and stayed right with the more talented Cardinal. White's pullup jumper from the baseline with 26 seconds left in the half gave Arizona a 42-40 lead heading into the break.

"The story in the first half is we made shots," Arizona coach Niya Butts said. "We didn't do a great job on the boards but we kind of balanced that out by shooting 57 percent. In the second half, it was the same kryptonite that has been plaguing us all year long, which is our lack of rebounding. We didn't score points in the second half so there wasn't anything to balance it out."

Stanford quickly seized control in the second half when Ogwumike scored on a putback on the Cardinal's first possession. Arizona missed its first eight shots of the half and didn't score a single point until Ify Ibekwe's layup with 14:23 to go. But Ogwumike, coming off a season-low eight points against Arizona State, had scored two more baskets and two more free throws by that point and Stanford led for good.

Stanford dominated inside against the undersized Wildcats, outrebounding Arizona 52-22. The Cardinal had 26 offensive rebounds and scored 25 second-chance points.

That overshadowed a poor outside shooting day for the Cardinal, who missed 27 of their 35 3-point attempts. With Arizona packing in its zone and daring the Stanford guards to shoot, Jeanette Pohlen and Rosalyn Gold-Onwude couldn't deliver.

Pohlen shot 1-for-10 from 3-point range, while Gold-Onwude missed all eight of her shots, including seven from long range. The starting front court of Ogwumike, Pedersen and Jayne Appel made 22 of 38 shots from the field.

"I just think I'd be looking for Nneka, who's shooting about 65 percent, or maybe for Kayla," coach Tara VanDerveer said. "Look for other people first. If you want that shot, we have to shoot a better percentage or we're not going to win. ... The onus is on our perimeter people to get in the gym and put a lot of time into their shot and knock them down."

Stanford closes a four-game homestand next weekend against its two closest competitors in the conference, UCLA and Southern California, who are both two games back in the standings.

The Bruins are the only team other than No. 1 Connecticut to stay closer than 15 points to the Cardinal. The Huskies beat Stanford 80-68 last month. Stanford has won 10 straight since then.

Whyte scored 24 points, Soana Lucet added 15 and Ibekwe had 12 for the Wildcats, who have lost 15 straight games against Stanford.

The long-range shot deserted the Wildcats in the second half, as they didn't make a 3-pointer until Whyte's jumper with 1:26 to go cut the lead to 81-61.

"We didn't have any flow in the second half offensively, I think in part because we were getting whipped on the boards on the defensive end that it was deflating to us," Butts said. "Offense comes and goes, but we can never have our defense and our rebounding go. The entire thing went in the second half."

Stanford wore its cardinal-colored road uniforms for the game to raise awareness for earthquake victims in Haiti.