McPhee drops 24 to lead blowout
Maybe it was just coincidental, but Stanford’s Brittany McPhee had just scored four straight baskets when the electronic scoreboard malfunctioned at Maples Pavilion.
Maybe the beleaguered system couldn’t keep up with her.
With her parents visiting from Seattle, the senior guard scored 15 of her 24 points in the fourth quarter to turn a convincing win into a 74-50 rout of No. 25 Arizona State on Friday night.
The win avenged a 73-66 loss in Tempe, Ariz., three weeks ago. The Cardinal were embarrassed by being overwhelmed on the boards 47-24. This time they won the boards 33-27.
“We were very hungry,” guard Marta Sniezek said after scoring a career-high 13 points and dealing six assists. “It was a tough loss down there.”
Head coach Tara VanDerveer has pleaded with her team to be more aggressive, and it came through on both ends of the court.
“Our team was aggressive, focused. We rebounded well. We took care of the ball (just nine turnovers),” she said. “Our team just switched it on and said, ‘No, not in our house.’ ”
McPhee surpassed the 1,000point mark for her career and did it by making 9-of-11 shots without a turnover.
“I thought she passed up some shots,” VanDerveer said. “I kept telling her every time to catch it and look at the basket.”
It was McPhee’s third-highest total of the season, although she missed nine games with an ankle injury. “Marta found me for open looks,” she said. “It made it easy to make baskets.”
When Sniezek is on top of her game, McPhee said, “Not only does it help us run our
offense, but I think it also picks up our pace on defense.”
No other team in the country has played as many games against ranked teams as Stanford, but Friday’s win was just its second against the top-25.
The Sun Devils had won five of the previous eight games in the series but never led in this one. Stanford’s defense limited them to 20 points in the paint and just 37 percent shooting from the field.
Robbi Ryan led them with 11 points. Since beating Stanford, they have lost four of the last five games and fell to 14-7 overall and 5-4 in the Pac-12.
Head coach Charli Turner Thorne, clearly exasperated with how the game was going, drew a technical foul early in the fourth quarter.
DiJonai Carrington made all five of her field goal attempts in the first half, scoring 12 of her 13 points as Stanford built a 41-26 lead at the break. She finished with eight rebounds. Alanna Smith had eight points and nine boards.
Stanford maintained its second-place tie in the conference with UCLA, which routed Washington 86-69.
Despite the overwhelming victory, VanDerveer said, “We’re capable of playing even better.”
“Our team just switched it on and said, ‘No, not in our house.’ ”
Tara VanDerveer, head coach