No. 5 Stanford 67, Pacific 56
Saturday December 14, 2002By JANIE McCAULEY
AP Sports Writer
STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) In all her years coaching Stanford, Tara VanDerveer has never seen a 5-0 start quite like this one.
Her players have made it awfully difficult on themselves, coming from behind four times.
Kelley Suminski led the latest comeback, scoring 17 of her 22 points after halftime to lead the No. 5 Cardinal to a 67-56 win over Pacific on Saturday.
Stanford (5-0), playing its first game in two weeks following final exams, used a 15-0 run late in the game to take control. The Cardinal outscored the Tigers 26-7 over the final 7:32.
Stanford knows it will have to play well for a full 40 minutes to preserve its perfect record. The Cardinal play at No. 4 Tennessee on Wednesday night.
``Things may not go on like this,'' Suminski said. ``We need to start from the beginning instead of in the second half.''
Chelsea Trotter added 10 points and a career-high 15 rebounds for Stanford, which struggled to score early. The Cardinal missed eight of their first 10 shots to fall behind against the aggressive and inspired Tigers.
VanDerveer, in her 17th season, has been impressed with how this team responds when trailing though she'd prefer the Cardinal not get into the position of having to play catch up.
``When things looked dismal, they were not hanging their heads and you could see people digging in and being tenacious,'' she said. ``We hit some big shots down the stretch.''
Stanford was sloppy much of the game and had a difficult time penetrating against Pacific's pressure man-to-man defense. That forced the Cardinal to put up many of their shots as the 30-second clock was winding down.
But they did enough things right at the end, scoring eight straight points to tie the game at 49 with 6:34 left, then taking the lead for good on a baseline jumper by Susan King at 6:07.
King also made a 3-pointer during the late run, making up for her slow start. She finished with nine points, seven in the second half.
The guard missed her first five shots before scoring a lay-in at 8:15 in the first half. King and Suminski started the game a combined 2-for-12 as the Cardinal shot 28.6 percent (10-for-35) in the first half to fall behind 28-25 at halftime.
``This team does not give up,'' Trotter said. ``We got in a hole, but we stuck with it.''
Pacific (2-6) missed its own opportunities because of turnovers, but played its best game of the season. The Tigers committed 11 turnovers in the first half and finished with 17, five below its average.
Gillian d'Hondt led Pacific with 16 points and 16 rebounds, but she was the only Tiger to score in double figures.
``Stanford is Stanford,'' Tigers coach Craig Jackson said. ``They've been in that spot and we haven't.''
Pacific built its biggest lead of nine points with 13:30 left on two free throws by Darlene Gibbard after Suminski was called for an intentional foul.
Then Stanford made its charge.
``The poise this group shows, the togetherness, the determination ...'' VanDerveer said. ``I've coached a lot of teams with more talent, but not with heart like this.''
The Cardinal are still playing without their best player. Nicole Powell has not practiced or played, and it will be until at least after Christmas before she will be in uniform, VanDerveer said.
Powell, a preseason All-America candidate, has a bulging disc in her back, which she hurt during the summer. She sat anxiously on the end of the bench, tapping her foot.
The Tigers have not beaten the Cardinal since an 84-75 win on Jan. 29, 1983, a streak of four straight wins by Stanford.
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