VanDerveer wins 899th as Stanford top Purdue
Notre Dame women beat De Paul
PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico, Nov 27, (Agencies): Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer is focused only on the next game, not her impending milestone.
VanDerveer earned her 899th career victory as No. 6 Stanford beat 16thranked Purdue 86-69 on Tuesday. With her next win, the Hall of Famer will become the fifth women’s basketball coach to reach 900, joining Pat Summitt, Sylvia Hatchell, C. Vivian Stringer and Jody Conradt.
VanDerveer will get her first opportunity on Wednesday when the Cardinal (51) face Florida Gulf Coast.
“I’m just glad that we got this win under our belt,” VanDerveer said. “I know that everyone keeps reminding me of it but I look at it as Florida Gulf Coast is our next opponent and we are going to watch video on them tonight and prepare for tomorrow like any other game.”
While VanDerveer downplayed 900 wins, her team was ready to help her reach it.
“We are excited,” said Chiney Ogwumike, who led the Cardinal with 22 points. “It’s a great milestone for Coach Tara, I mean 900 wins is a lot of wins.”
Ogwumike got in early foul trouble, playing only nine minutes in the first half. Stanford led just 40-35 at the break before the senior All-American got going. She made nine of her 11 shots from the field as the Cardinal shot 62 percent for the game. She led five Cardinal players in double figures.
Stanford led 66-54 midway through the second half before Purdue scored the next five points, capped by Courtney Moses’ 3-pointer with 7:22 left. The Cardinal responded by scoring 13 of the next 18 points to put the game away.
Purdue wasn’t able to get closer than 13 the rest of the way.
“This was a big momentum game because a lot of people made big contributions, like Sara James, The Bird (Erica McCall),” Ogwumike said. “So I think that we can build off the things we had today and get better from it. Our aggressiveness, especially in the second half, overcoming the foul trouble helped us separate and win.”
Notre Dame 92, De Paul 76 In South Bend, Ind, as Natalie Achonwa put it, Tuesday was a good knee day.
In her second game back after knee surgery in late October, Achonwa had 17 points and eight rebounds to help No. 5 Notre Dame beat No. 25 DePaul 92-76 for its second victory over a ranked opponent this season.
After scoring only four points in 14 minutes against Penn on Saturday, Achonwa felt much more comfortable this time out.
“I think I was over-thinking it, I wanted to be back so bad,” Achonwa said. “I just let it flow a little bit more today.
“Today was just a good knee day, as we call them.”
..View gallery.”Notre Dame guard Jewell Loyd drives the lane as DePaul forward Brandi Harvey-Carr defends during the ...For Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw, the difference from Achonwa’s first game of the season to her second was clear.
“It was kind of like night and day, really,” McGraw said. “I feel like she’s probably 80, 85 percent back.”
Kayla McBride added 16 points and Taya Reimer had 15 points and 14 rebounds off the bench for the Fighting Irish (5-0), who won their 28th consecutive regular-season game and 15th straight at home.
DePaul (3-1) was led by 18 points from reserve Megan Rogowski in the Blue Demons’ first game in eight days.
Notre Dame outrebounded DePaul 5833 and held the Blue Demons to 30 percent shooting in a dominant second half.
DePaul opened the second half with turnovers on its first two possessions and Notre Dame capitalized with seven straight points to push a four-point halftime lead up to 11 in the first 1:11.
The Irish run grew to 19-5 at the 15:22 mark, with Achonwa scoring seven of those points as Notre Dame’s lead got to 18.
“I think we started to actually guard them,” McBride said. “We were able to get out in transition and get some easy buckets. From then on, we just guarded them.”
While McGraw wasn’t happy with her team’s overall defensive effort, she did like the adjustment the Irish made on Rogowski, who scored only three points in the second half.
“She played really well,” McGraw said. “Held her to three in the second half, I thought that was really important. We looked like we just wanted to outscore them, which is not what I want our philosophy to be.”
Foul trouble began to hamper DePaul’s comeback effort as two starters, Brittany Hrynko and Brandi Harvey-Carr, each had to sit with four fouls and still nearly 14 minutes to play.
Michigan St 74, Temple 70 In Philadelphia, Tori Jankoska scored 19 points and pulled down 11 rebounds as No. 21 Michigan State survived to beat Temple 74-70 Tuesday night.
Temple’s Feyonda Fitzgerald scored 13 first-half points as the Owls (3-1) powered to a 32-28 lead at the break. The lead would get as high as seven before MSU (5-1) would reel them.
The teams traded buckets most of the second half, but MSU was able to take a three-point lead with 3:17 left. Temple’s Tyonna Williams cut the lead to 67-66 after a pair of free throws. Jankoska answered with a jumper, pushing the lead back to three. his only jumper.
‘’Today was about responding and we needed to respond — we were obviously very disappointed after last night and the way we played some aspects of the game,’’ Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. ‘’This was about kind of looking inside yourself and stepping up against a team that can kind of frustrate you.’’
Gonzaga shot nearly 70 percent from the field - 74.2 percent in the first half. The Bulldogs made 13 of 23 3-pointers (56.5 percent).
‘’Seventy percent. I don’t know what our school record is, but that’s gotta be pretty close,’’ Few said. ‘’It is not easy to shoot the basketball like we did today.’’
The Bulldogs (5-1) took control midway through the first half with an 11point run that included two layups by Coleman and another by Karnowski.
Wichita St 75, BYU 62 In Kansas City, bodies were flying all over the floor. Bumps and bruises gave way to cuts and blood.
It was exactly the kind of game Wichita State loves to play.
Ron Baker took the biggest blow when he was walloped in the jaw by a flying elbow from a BYU player late in the second half, but the Shockers’star guard calmly made the free throws, spurring his team on to a 75-62 victory Tuesday night in the championship game of the CBE Classic.
‘’I think it’s a lot like our practices,’’ Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall said. ‘’We don’t make a lot of excuses. There’s not a lot of chatter and making excuses. You just have to play.’’
The Shockers (7-0) did that best when it mattered most.
Pittsburgh 88, Stanford 67 In Brooklyn, N.Y, Lamar Patterson’s 24 points led five players in double-figure scoring as Pittsburgh routed Stanford 88-67 in the championship game of the Progressive Legends Classic on Tuesday night.
Durand Johnson and Talib Zanna had 14 each. Cameron Wright chipped in with 13 and James Robinson added 10.
Pittsburgh improved to 6-0, and has a 31.3 point average margin of victory. Stanford fell to 5-2.
Dwight Powell led the Cardinal with 20 points. Anthony Brown and Chasson Randle had 16 and 10, respectively.
While Powell led all players with nine rebounds, Pittsburgh out-rebounded Stanford 31-29 and had a 10-6 advantage in offensive boards. The Panthers used the additional possessions to score 11 second-chance points. in training over the months to stay on top, we’re not stopping until we lift the trophy, come the day of the finals”, he surmised.
Meanwhile, Jaime drew first blood for Banta in the opening seconds as the furniture specialists hit the hard court running. But it was Cheesecake’s Alvin who wreaked havoc on the opposition defenses in the opening quarter with some dazzling runs, sending the food specialists coasting to a 7point lead, 21-14 at the turn of the first round. Alvin garnered 6 in the opening round with Captain Alisbo and Manalo taking care of the rest to close the round in style.
The game’s outcome was predictable from that point as Cheesecake dictated the pace to bombard the Banta hoop at will from quarter to quarter to eventually finish at 92-82. It was generally a team effort on the Cheesecake side, but the ferocious fight backs on the Banta side mostly came from Dennis who finished the game at 20 points, almost a quarter of the furniture giants’ total point haul. He was supported by Jomel with 13 markers in their losing effort.
Kuwait Energy on the other hand defeated Kalexco 73-63 in the next semi final match of the day. Khaled Toledo, Ryan and Mishary were the spears in the Kuwait Energy fight which appeared headed for a deadlock given the feistiness with which Kalexco conducted their campaign in the early going.
Kalexco’s Ramil led the side’s first quarter fight in direct challenge to Khaled and Ryan on the other side to finish at 18-19, Energy slightly edging ahead. But a Kuwait Energy second round rally scripted by Mishary and Ryan ended with the Energy giants still a point ahead, 36-35.
A counter rally by Kalexco in the third saw the veteran side take the drivers’ seat, ahead by two points at the close of halftime. The nail biting last quarter saw both sides strategize for the finish. Khaled was unstoppable in the final stretch, stringing the ball across to his players to deliver into the hoop. Two and three pointers filled both baskets but it was Anis’ final 3-pointer that put the final nail to the Kalexco coffin at 73-63 at the buzzer, Kuwait Energy booking their ticket into the finals come next Friday.