Cardinal wrap up impressive weekend
HONOLULU — No. 4 Stanford is leaving a weekend in Hawaii with plenty of aloha and what it hopes is a good omen for the rest of the season.
Three games, three wins. Good for a national contender, great when one comes against the country’s top team and the NCAA’s best player.
And right on track with the team’s plans, said Chiney Ogwumike, who had a double-double Sunday in a 92-67 win over UT Martin.
“Our goals were to leave Oahu happy with where our team is going,” Ogwumike said after celebrating her team’s win in the Rainbow Wahine tournament.
The Cardinal opened the tournament with a thrilling 2-point victory against No. 1 Baylor, winning after player of the year Brittney Griner missed a last-second shot that would have taken the game into overtime.
“It was a journey for us,” said Ogwumike, the tournament MVP. “We’re happy with the outcome — but we have a lot of work left, too.”
Joslyn Tinkle scored a career-high 25 points and Ogwumike had a seasonhigh 25 points and 10 rebounds, one night after putting up 15 points and 17 rebounds against host team Hawaii.
“This will help people’s confidence,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said. “We had a lot of different contributions from different people.”
Amber Orrange also had a double-double with 12 points and 10 assists. She also had seven rebounds.
Stanford (5-0) took longer than expected to take control from UT Martin, but finished the first half on a 14-5 run to take a 10-point lead at 41-31.
Heather Butler scored 27 points for the Skyhawks (1-4). UT Martin shot 40 percent and under 31 percent from three-point range as it hoped to try to hang with the tournament’s toughest team.