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Punchless Cougars Fall To 3rd-Ranked Stanford

Area women

Kate Starbird scored 19 points and Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer emptied her bench early as the No.3-ranked Cardinal rolled to an 82-45 women’s basketball win over Washington State Thursday night.

Host Stanford (26-1, 14-0 Pac-10 Conference) recorded its 17th straight victory and 41st consecutive win at home, the longest current streak in the nation.

The Cougars (8-14, 2-11) did not have a double-figure scorer for the first time this season and were shut out for one 10-minute span in the first half as Stanford increased its early 9-6 lead to 24-6.

Jade Hyett had three assists for WSU and broke the single-season school record by raising her total to 167.

“Stanford’s size and quickness gave us a lot of trouble,” Cougar coach Harold Rhodes admitted. “They have the quickest defense in the conference and when they have players like (Olympia) Scott (6-foot-2) and Chandra Benton (6-7) in the game we have to alter our shots.”

WSU, which started the season with 13 players, had only eight available Thursday night.

(3) Stanford 82, WSU 45

Washington St. (8-14, 2-11) - Evans 3-8 0-0 7, Saneholtz 1-5 2-2 4, Kunze 3-9 2-2 8, Hyett 1-8 4-4 7, J.Smith 3-11 0-0 8, Ross 0-2 3-4 3, McNeely 0-3 1-2 1, Rubio 3-8 1-4 7. Totals 14-54 13-18 45.

Stanford (26-1, 14-0) - Nygaard 4-5 0-0 11, C.Smith 1-5 0-0 2, Scott 6-11 2-2 14, Wideman 4-8 2-3 10, Starbird 8-15 1-2 19, Benton 1-5 2-2 4, Flores 1-6 0-0 2, McNamee 1-3 1-2 3, Folkl 1-4 0-0 2, Batastini 4-4 4-4 13, Harrington 1-1 0-0 2, Peterson 0-2 0-0 0, Gbalazeh 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 32-69 12-15 82.

Halftime-Stanford 32, Washington St. 16. 3-Point goals- Washington St. 4-14 (J.Smith 2-9, Hyett 1-2, Evans 1-2, Ross 0-1), Stanford 6-13 (Nygaard 3-4, Starbird 2-4, Batastini 1-1, C.Smith 0-1, Flores 0-3). Fouled out-None. Rebounds- Washington St. 33 (Evans 9), Stanford 46 (Scott 11). Assists- Washington St. 11 (Evans, Hyett 3), Stanford 19 (Wideman, Flores 5). Total fouls-WSU 15, Stanford 13. A-5,719.

Montana State 72, EWU 47

Julie Brown scored 22 points and Blythe Hommes and Tennyson Ballek each added 12 at the visiting Bobcats (15-9, 10-4 in the Big Sky Conference) blistered Eastern Washington (5-19, 2-12) at Reese Court.

Hommes and Natalie Smith each pulled down 13 rebounds for MSU, which outrebounded Eastern 58-37.

The cold-shooting Eagles, who shot only 19.2 percent (5 of 26) in the first half and 24.6 percent for the game, were paced offensively by Shana Ray’s 14 points.

Montana State (10-4, 15-9) - Hommes 6-13 0-0 12, Ballek 3-7 6-7 12, Smith 3-13 4-7 11, Spring 0-6 0-2 0, Brown 9-16 0-0 22, Weedin 1-3 0-0 2, Zikmund 3-7 2-2 9, Trask 2-6 0-2 4. Totals 27-71 12-20 72.

Eastern Washington (2-12, 5-19) - Bartleson 0-2 0-0 0, Schmick 0-4 4-4 4, Sutter 2-4 3-4 8, Ford 2-7 0-0 6, Carlson 1-5 0-1 2, Ray 5-16 3-5 14, Olson 0-3 0-0 0, Moore 1-5 0-1 2, Kirk 2-10 0-0 5, Ferguson 1-5 4-4 6, Sloan 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 14-57 14-18 47.

Halftime - MS 41, EWU 20. 3-point goals - MS 6-13 (Smith 1-4, Spring 0-3, Brown 4-4, Zikmund 1-2), EWU 5-18 (Kirk 1-3, Sutter 1-2, Ray 1-5, Schmick 0-2, Ford 2-6). Total fouls - MS 19, EWU 16. Rebounds - MS 58 (Hommes, Smith 13), EWU 37 (Olson 6). Fouled out - none. Assists - MS 15 (Weedin 5), EWU 9. Technical fouls - none. Attendance - 728.

Saint Mary’s 70, Gonzaga 51

Melissa McCullough scored 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds - both career highs - but couldn’t rescue the Bulldogs (4-21, 2-11 in the West Coast Conference) from a major second-half swoon against the Gaels (15-10, 9-5).

Saint Mary’s, behind the 18-point scoring effort of reserve Erin Abraham and a 46-32 rebounding advantage, stormed back from a 29-27 halftime deficit to outscore GU 43-22 over the final 20 minutes of the game.

Saint Mary’s (9-5, 15-10) - Quintal 0-5 1-2 1, Flint 0-6 2-2 2, Wilkinson 4-8 0-0 8, Parkinen 3-12 2-2 9, Morris 6-12 4-5 17, Berg 2-3 1-1 5, Chung 0-1 0-0 0, Hall 0-0 0-0 0, Abraham 9-13 0-0 18, Payne 0-2 0-0 0, Shine 2-4 3-3 7, Lum 1-1 0-2 3. Totals 27-67 13-17 70.

Gonzaga (2-12, 4-22) - McCullough 9-16 2-2 20, Ledgerwood 1-4 2-3 4, Osberg 0-2 2-2 2, Herman 5-11 0-0 11, Jeffries 0-2 0-0 0, Waltz 1-3 0-0 2, Andrews 0-3 0-0 0, Clark 0-0 0-0 0, Gere 1-5 0-0 2, Deal 1-1 2-2 4, Steward 3-5 0-0 6, Perno 0-4 0-0 0. Totals 21-56 8-9 51.

Halftime - SM 27, GU 29. 3-point goals - SM 3-8 (Quintal 0-2, Flint 0-1, Parkinen 1-3, Morris 1-1, Lum 1-1), GU 1-4 (Herman 1-2, Gere 0-2). Total fouls - SM 14, GU 16. Rebounds - SM 46 (Morris 9), GU 32 (McCullough 8). Fouled out - none. Assists - SM 16, GU 10. Technical fouls - none. Attendance - 254.

, DataTimes