The Daily Campus

April 6th, 2008

Liveblog! UConn v. Stanford — 2008 Final Four

7:41 p.m.

UConn is being thoroughly outplayed in the first half, trailing 34-28 with 3:37 to go. The Cards look much hungrier, but more importantly, they’re hitting open shots.

Maya Moore’s finally getting some touches, and she has six quick points to show for it. But Stanford seems to be knocking down a lot of tough, long shots. And they’re hustling, after a Moore layup, Jayne Appel beat every UConn player down the floor and got an easy lay-in of her own.

The Cardinal look mighty impressive on offense, and Wiggins hasn’t even made a whole bunch of impact yet, even though she has nine points.

Back with more.

7:32 p.m.

At the under-8:00 timeout, Stanford leads it 25-20.

In the very brief time since the last TV timeout, Candice Wiggins hit a long 3 for Stanford, Tina Charles hit a nifty post hook and Lorin Dixon had a high-arcing 7-footer for UConn.

Strange to see Maya Moore actually out of a game, but she subbed out for the last 2:00 or so. She’s back in as of now. Moore has not scored yet and has only taken one or two shots.

From the fan side of things, there’s gotta be some kind of war between UConn’s blue-and-white guy and Stanford’s ‘I’m gonna yell really loud while you take a free-throw guy.’ I know, you’re thinking, everyone has a guy that yells during free throws at basketball games. So I’ll tell you what - you sit in front of him.

Back with more. 

 

7:25 p.m. 

Stanford has come out brilliantly in the first half, and they lead the Huskies 22-16 with 9:54 to play. I had a whole thing up about how Stanford was getting contributions from everywhere on the court, and the Huskies were running very predictable sets resulting in long jump shots. Then the internet took it away from me. Oh well. I’m paying $16.50 for this?

I can still say that, though. All five players in the game for Stanford have scored already, and but for hitting the defensive glass a bunch in the last few minutes, the Huskies could be further behind.

Every break and bounce is going to the Cardinal, it seems, as the Huskies just can’t get quality open looks for their shooters. Instead they’ve had to rely on 12-footers from Tina Charles and Charde Houston, most of which haven’t fallen. Still, it’s just a six-point game and if UConn can get the ball in the post, it appears as though they have an advantage with Charles against Appel or Pedersen.

Ketia Swanier has two fouls, which is a huge blow for the Huskies’ shallow backcourt.

Back with more.

 

7:02 p.m. 

 

Lots of seats out here. And except for a bunch in the middle section, a lot of filled seats too. The side I’m sitting up has a fair number of orange, purple and cardinal shirts. UConn fans, as usual, going with the traditional “wear whatever the hell you want” team colors.

If you don’t mind the lack of objectivity for just a moment, there’s something just unbelievably cool aobut how your school’s fight song in a Final Four. There’s no other feeling like it, unless of course you hear that fight song as they cut down the nets on Tuesday night.

With that out of the way, let me dutifully report that the ceiling leak is falling down onto press row, not onto the court. Shouldn’t be any problems, though you never know.

So sorry, Mechelle Voepel of ESPN, whose seat is covered in a puddle - you’ll just have to pack up and move somewhere else.

Also, props to the Stanford cheerleaders, who knew every word of Alien Ant Farm’s (or Michael Jackson’s, if you’re 30) “Smooth Criminal.” Impressive.

It is just about gametime and I’m pumped. I hope you are, wherever you are. I’ll be around at the media timeouts.

 

Starting lineups:

UConn (Greensboro No. 1 seed - 36-1, coach Geno Auriemma): PG Ketia Swanier (5-foot-7 senior, 6.9 ppg, 3.1 rpg); SG Renee Montgomery (5-foot-7 junior, 14.1 ppg, 2.5 rpg); SF Maya Moore (6-foot-0 freshman, 17.8 ppg, 7.6 ppg); PF Kaili McLaren (6-foot-2 sophomore, 5.0 ppg, 4.1 rpg); C Brittany Hunter (6-foot-4 senior, 5.7 ppg, 3.3 rpg)

 

Stanford (Spokane No. 2 seed - 34-3, coach Tara VanDerveer): PG Rosalyn Gold-Onwude (5-foot-10 sophomore, 5.1 ppg, 2.5 rpg); SG J.J. Hones (5-foot-10 sophomore, 6.5 ppg, 1.8 rpg); SF Candice Wiggins (5-foot-11 senior, 20.2 ppg, 4.6 rpg); PF Kayla Pedersen (6-foot-4 freshman, 12.6 ppg, 8.4 rpg); C Jayne Appel (6-foot-4 sophomore, 12.6 ppg, 8.4 rpg)

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