Cardinal extinguish threat to remain perfect in series

It’s one of the most one-sided series in the sports world, but for a half it looked as if the Washington State women’s basketball team was poised to beat its longtime tormentor — Stanford.

The Cougars, who had come tantalizingly close in an overtime loss three weeks ago in Pullman, led the Cardinal by two points at the half Saturday.

Then, as frequently happens for visiting teams at Maples Pavilion, things fell apart in the second half. The No. 12 Cardinal were too big and too good, and extended their domination of the Cougars to 59 games without a loss with a 75-56 win.

“We missed our first five shots in the second half, and it seemed like all the wheels fell off offensively at that point,” said WSU head coach June Daugherty, denied the 400th win of her 26-year career.

In the first half, the Cardinal (16-5, 8-1 Pac-12) handled the ball at times like a chunk of hot coal. They committed 13 turnovers, which offset their 54 percent shooting and 22-9 rebounding advantage.

At the break, head coach Tara VanDerveer said, she emphasized “taking better care of the ball and playing screens more aggressively. We wanted to trap more, get more hands on the ball.”

They forced nine second-half turnovers and broke the WSU press repeatedly. The Cougars (13-7, 4-5) made just two of their final 18 shots.

Amber Orrange shook off her five turnovers in the first half to key the Stanford surge. Besides scoring 15 points, she handed out six assists and became the seventh player in Stanford history to reach 500 career assists. She has 503.

“We were just taking better care of the ball,” she said. “We pushed the ball a little more, and the defense really helped us.”

WSU guard Lia Galdeira, the second-leading scorer in the conference, scored 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds before fouling out with two minutes left. But backcourt partner Tia Presley scored just four points, 15 below her aver- age, mainly because of the tight guarding of Lili Thompson. The Cougars shot just 31 percent for the game.

Stanford sophomore Erica McCall came off the bench to post a fine allaround performance, with 14 points, seven rebounds and two blocks. “I think it’s just the tip of the iceberg of what she’ll be doing for us the rest of the year,” VanDerveer said.

Briana Roberson added 11 points and Thompson and Karlie Samuelson 10 points each for Stanford. Freshman Kaylee Johnson had 11 rebounds.

The Cardinal worked the pick-and-roll repeatedly, and it paid off in layups for McCall and Johnson.

“It was one of the big focuses against USC (last week), and we continued it over to this game,” McCall said.