McPhee returns, but Volunteers are still too much

She scores 27 points to lead Stanford as No. 7 Tennessee prevails in understated renewal of rivalry

Brittany McPhee returned to the Stanford women’s lineup for the first time in more than a month, and that was the best news to come out of Thursday’s meeting with No. 7 Tennessee at Maples Pavilion.

McPhee scored a season-high 27 points, one off her career best, but the Cardinal fell to the Volunteers 79- 67 in the final nonconference game of the season for Stan- ford.

Jaime Nared scored a careerhigh 28 points, Evina Westbrook added 17 for Tennessee (12- 0).

Mercedes Russell was held to three second-half points but still managed to keep her streak of scoring in double figures in every game alive with 11. She also had 10 rebounds. AnastasiaHayes added 12 points for Tennessee.

“It was great having Brit back,” Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. “She made a statement. She set the tone.”

McPhee was limited to 25minutes (she played 28) and made sure to use her minutes wisely. She was 11 of 23 from the field (.478) while the rest of the team was 18 of 50 (.360). “It was hard to be on the bench when they were playing,” McPhee said. “We have to have other people forced to make the big shots.”

“This was a great test for us,” Vols coach HollyWarlick said. “In the third quarter they jumped on us, but we settled down.”

Stanford (6- 6) trailed by as many as 17 points early in the third quarter before closing within six with 3:17 remaining on Marta Sniezek’s steal and layup.

A key steal by Nared with two minutes left proved toomuch for the Cardinal to overcome. Nared’s 13- of-14 performance from the foul line also proved critical.

“That’s a Jamie- type play,” Westbrook said. “We depend on her tomake those plays down the stretch.”

“I like the way we compete and how resilient we are,” Nared said. “At the end of the day, it’s still December. It’s a great start, but there’s so much basketball to go. We’re not relaxed with how we’re playing.”

Tennessee won despite being outrebounded for the first time all season. The Vols entered play as the national leader in rebounding.

“Stanford is a great rebound-

ing team,” Nared said. “We would go on some big runs, but they always came back.”

There was none of the regular ambience associated with the nonconference rivalry between the two traditional powers. No band, no students, no cheerleaders, no dollies, and no tree left the building rela- tively quiet.

Stanford’s Alyssa Jerome drew the loudest applause after hitting a tough layup to bring Stanford to 66-55 with 6:30 left to play and causing a Vols timeout.

Cheridene Green recorded a steal and converted a layup at the buzzer to give the Vols a 15-point advantage entering the fourth quarter.

“I thought that was a big play to give us some momentum,” Warlick said.

McPhee hit a layup with 3:34 remaining to play in the second quarter, bringing the Cardinal within 3630 of the Vols.

Stanford missed its next six shots, and Tennessee went on a 10- 0 run, with Hayes scoring six, to take a 46-30 lead into halftime.

The Vols took care of several streaks with their victory Thursday night. In addition to ending their five-game losing streak at Stanford, they extended their best start to a season in 12 years. Tennessee has done so with the same starting five in all 12 games and has led at halftime in every game, including nine by double figures.

The Cardinal is off to its worst 12-game start since opening the 1998-99 season 4-8. Stanford finished 18-12 and was knocked out in the first round of the NCAA tournament that season. Stanford opens Pac-12 play Dec. 29 against UCLA.