Month: February 2014

Stanford Completes the Comeback to Defeat USC

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By: Joe Lami

The Stanford Cardinal (24-2,13-1) traveled to USC (16-10,9-5) Friday night to start their final road trip of the season.  Stanford had one of the worst starts of the season, but was able to overcome it and complete the huge comeback to defeat the Trojans 64-59.

Stanford struggled tremendously in the first half as they fell behind early.  USC was pouring it on, as the Cardinal couldn’t buy a bucket.  Stanford was trailing as much as 18 in the first half.  USC had the 32-13 lead with six minutes to go in the half.  Stanford would be able to cut the deficit before the half to seven, as they finished out the half on a 17-5 run.

Stanford would come out of the half hot as well, as they would cut the lead to just two only three minutes into the second half.  USC would be able to hold their lead until the 11-minute mark, when a made Chiney Ogwumike layup would give the Cardinal a 45-43 lead.

Stanford would be able to stretch their lead to nine with just over a minute to go before USC would start to make their comeback.  USC would make a comeback once again shrinking the Stanford lead to just four with 42 seconds remaining.

Bonnie Samuelson would knock both of her foul shots down giving the Cardinal a 62-56 lead.  The next possession for the Trojans would see a missed shot, but an offensive rebound would give Ariya Cook a chance for a three pointer.  She wouldn’t miss, cutting the lead to just three with 14 seconds to go.  Samuelson would get fouled once again, sending her to the foul line, she would knock down both once again.  Samuelson finished the game perfect from the charity strike, going eight for eight.

The game wouldn’t see another basket, and Stanford would be able to hold on for the win.

Chiney Ogwumike led all scorers with 27 points, however the Academic All-American would shot only 50% from the field.  Ogwumike finished the game with seven rebounds, three blocks and a steal.  On top of Samuelson’s eight free throws, she also knocked down two three-pointers to finish the game with 14 points.

Cook led the way for the Trojans with 24 points, nine of them coming from beyond the arc.

With the victory Stanford has now clinched at least a shared title of the Pac-12 regular season.  They can become the sole champions with either a California loss, or a win on Sunday over the UCLA Bruins.

Lee led Warriors earn ugly win, outlast Rockets in OT, 102-99

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By Gabe Schapiro

The Golden State Warriors (33-22) didn’t always make it look pretty, but as the saying goes, a win is a win. On Thursday night, at Oracle Arena, they beat the Houston Rockets (37-18) for the first time this season, 102-99, in overtime. Both offenses struggled for much of the game, in what often came down to isolation plays for James Harden against isolation plays for David Lee. When the dust settled, Golden State had grinded out a tough win.

The Warriors had their customary slow start to the game. Through 12 minutes of play they only trailed by four, but had only gotten eight points from their starters, compared to 12 points from their bench. Both teams were plagued by bad turnovers, miscues, and missed open looks.

The Dubs rebounded a bit in the second, turning the four point deficit into a four-point lead at halftime. Surprisingly the two foes star guards, Stephen Curry and Harden, had extremely quiet starts. Heading into the locker rooms they had only accounted for five points apiece. They would both come alive in the stretch run.

The sloppy but close play continued. Heading into the fourth quarter Golden State held on to their four-point lead, but it wasn’t a lead they held with confidence. Sure enough, in the fourth the Rockets clawed their way back, tying the game back up halfway through the quarter. In the waning minutes the two sides traded blows. Harden made one of his many big shots, a 23-foot jumper with 6 seconds left, to give Houston an 89-87 lead. Curry responded with a beauty of his own, a left-handed floater in traffic that arced over the skyscraper that is Dwight Howard, and sent the game into overtime.

In extra time, Curry again came up big and gave Golden State the quick lead with a three-pointer, a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

Jermaine O’Neal, starting in the place of the still injured Andrew Bogut, had the play of the game. With 23 seconds left in OT, the Rockets’ Chandler Parsons drove hard to the basket, and O’Neal elevated to meet him at the basket and ferociously blocked the shot.

Curry made four of four free throws, and Draymond Green made two more, to ice the victory in the waning seconds.

Curry made the big shots late, but it was Lee who was practically the entire Warriors offense for long stretches of the game. He finished with a team-high 28 points, to go along with 14 rebounds. Curry’s strong second half gave him 25 points and six assists.

Iguodala had a relatively quiet night outside of some big points in OT, but still filled up the stat sheet. He compiled 11 points, eight boards, and seven assists. Guard Steve Blake made his debut in a Golden State uniform after the trade that sent him over from the Los Angeles Lakers, and he finished with three points, two rebounds, and one assist in 18 minutes off the bench.

For Houston, Harden led the way with a game-high 39 points, 34 of which came in the second half and overtime. Chandler Parsons had a strong game, adding 21 points, eight rebounds, and five assists. Dwight Howard had a dismal shooting night, hitting just 4-13 shots, but made his impact felt with 21 rebounds and four blocks.

The Warriors are back in action this Saturday, when the Brooklyn Nets come to town. The game begins at 7:30 PM.

Huestis King of the Block on the Farm as Stanford Rolls Past USC 80-59

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By Matthew Harrington

At the time of the year when teams are piecing together the final bullet points of their March Madness resumes, the Stanford Cardinal did exactly what it needed to do Thursday night; It won. The 80-59 victory over visiting University of Southern California at Maples Pavilion didn’t captivate audiences like North Carolina’s stunner over Duke earlier in the evening, but Stanford still managed to finish just good enough to come out ahead against the Trojans (10-16, 1-12), firmly entrenched in the Pac-12 standings cellar, to continue to roll towards an at-large bid in the big dance.

The Cardinal shooting touch appeared to be more or a flail Thursday, as Stanford (17-8, 8-5 Pac-12) finished 28 of 69 from the floor, including a lackluster 2 of 19 from beyond the three-point line. Stanford turned that negative into a positive however, besting USC in the rebound battle 45-40. Stanford’s tenacious forward Josh Huestis led the boards barrage, picking up almost half (7) of the Cardinal’s 18 offensive rebounds. USC finished with 10 off their own glass. The Cardinal owned the turnover battle, forcing 18 Trojan errors to 7 of its own.

For Huestis, the night proved a memorable one as the senior stalwart notched a double-double with 11 points and while setting a new career-best in rebounds with 18. With his denial of a Strahinja Gavrilovic lay up two minutes into play the Great Falls, Mont. native moved past Tim Young as the Cardinal all-time blocks leader. Huestis finished the night with three rejections for a career total of 169, two more than Young.

Along with Huestis, three of Stanford’s other four starters hit double-digits in scoring, with guards Anthony Brown (13) and Chasson Randle (18) joining forward Dwight Powell (14) on the list of scorers with ten-plus points. USC guard Pe’Shon Howard led the Trojans with 13 points, while Julian Jacobs chipped in 11. The Trojans were without junior guard Byron Wesley, team leader in scoring (17.6) and rebounds (6.9) due to a violation of team rules.

The Cardinal suffered an early scare when USC’s Strahinja Gavrilovic fouled Powell hard in the head at the 5:36 mark of the first. Powell would leave the game but ultimately returned with about seven minutes left in the half sporting a headband wrapped around some stitches and a new number. Powell’s traditional 33 jersey, now blood-soaked, was shed in favor of one with a 32 stitched on back.

The preeminent fear after Powell’s injury was a continuation of dismal first-half shooting display as the Cardinal only hit 10 of 35 field goals in the first 20 minutes. They managed to hold a 32-23 at the half on the strength of their ability to force turnovers, nab offensive rebounds and a six-point outburst from Powell’s injury sub, Robbie Lemons.

The Cardinal finished the final 20 minutes with a much better shooting performance by outscoring the visitors 48-36, including a stretch where the Trojans were limited to one basket and three free throws made. With Stanford leading 51-42 7 minutes in to the half, the Cardinal went on a dominant 21-8 run till Roschon Prince hit a lay up with 4:17 left in regulation. Stanford coasted from there on out for the 80-59 win to sweep the season series against their Southern California rivals.

Next on the schedule is the University of California Los Angeles for a Saturday tilt at Maples, game number two of the remaining four games at home. The Cardinal also have two road games sandwiched between Saturday’s contest and a return home March 5th against Colorado, the final two-game home stretch of the campaign.

Giants report: Prosecutor says if Stow dies she’ll charge assailants with murder;Lincecum photos prove he didn’t trash unit

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by Ken Gimblin and Amaury Pi Gonzalez

SAN FRANCISCO–Spring training might be in the air in Arizona but on the legal front beating suspects Marvin Norwood 33 and Louie Sanchez 31 could face life sentences in the event that victim and Giant fan Bryan Stow dies. Stow who was beaten by Sanchez and left with permnanent brain damage and Norwood who played a role in the assault holding back Stow’s friends in the attack from protecting Stow at Dodgers Stadium on opening night of March 31, 2011.

Stow who takes 13 different kinds of medication everyday according to family members and is under constant medical watch from nurses and doctors and his medication keeps him as balanced as he well could be but despite all of that Stow’s life is in danger. Sanchez and Norwood sitting in a Los Angeles Superior court room for sentencing from Judge George Lomeli had sentenced both Norwood and Sanchez to eight years and four years running consecutive for the March 2011 beatings.

Sanchez plead guilty for felony mayhem and could have got up to 11 -14 years if he plead not guilty but plea bargained reducing his time to eight years plus four. Norwood will get time served at two years which gives him ten years left. The whole scenario could change for the two suspects whom Stow’s father calls “cretins” for their part in the beating and their remorseless behavior during the trial.

Prosecuter Michele Hanisee said that if Stow dies she will pursue murder charges against Sanchez and Norwood. The jury couldn’t convict either Sanchez or Norwood on attempted murder charges Hanisee said the facts of the case didn’t support attempted murder charges since the prosecutor couldn’t prove that Sanchez and Norwood had murder as their intent.

Tim Lincecum Giants pitcher wins $100k from landlord: In what Lincecum calls “a frivolous lawsuit” Lincecum who was being sued by a former Mission district homeowner Mindy Freile for $350,000 for damages to the condo. Lincecum provided photos of the condo which showed that the condo was clean with luxurious furnishings.

The photos taken in 2010 showed the bedroom, living room, fireplace, bathroom and the kitchen in immaculate condition, Lincecum who countersued for $100,000 ended up winning the case because Freile withheld Lincecum’s security deposit. Lincecum’s lawyer said that Freile was taking advantage of Lincecum’s public persona and that she only filed the case because of financial gain.

Lincecum released the following statement on Thursday: I’m pleased with the result and believe that this was an attempt from the very beginning on the landlord’s part to take advantage of my public profile for financial gain. She kept the balance of my security deposit while making unsubstaniated claims of exaggerated damage. While litigation is something you always want to avoid, I will always defend myself against frivolous lawsuits” said Lincecum

Ken Gimblin and Amaury Pi Gonzalez cover Major League Baseball for Sportstak radio

Cal beat soundly by UCLA at Haas

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By Morris Phillips

The game separating the Bears and  Bruins near the top of the Pac-12 standings seemed a lot bigger on Wednesday night.

Hot-shooting UCLA dusted Cal 86-66 to strengthen their hold on second place behind Arizona.  Cal missed nine of their first 12 shots, turned in a ragged defensive performance and trailed by double digits for the final 30 the minutes of the ballgame.

“We want to stay in the conference race,” UCLA coach Steve Alford said.  “We had a chance tonight to put another team two games behind us with five left and we had a chance to get another road win.”

UCLA won for the seventh time in their most recent eight games and stayed within a game of Arizona atop the conference.  Cal fell for the fifth time in their last eight and once again fell behind early.

“They were certainly better than us tonight.  I don’t think there’s any question about that,” Coach Mike Montgomery said.

Jordan Adams led the Bruins with 28 points and Kyle Anderson added 11 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. Adams made 12 of his 19 shots and had five steals.

Cal was led by Jordan Mathews with 16 points off the bench.  The Bears poisoned their effort by allowing 44 first half points and by shooting just 34 percent.

The Bears (17-9, 8-5) host USC on Sunday afternoon at Haas Pavilion.

 

 

Lee, Warriors roll past Kings

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By Joe Hawkes

SACRAMENTO — With the All-Star break a thing of the past, the stretch run towards the playoffs has officially begun.

The Golden State Warriors know that very well.

With center Andrew Bogut sitting out his fifth-straight game with a left shoulder injury, the Warriors needed a late Andre Iguodala three-point play to cruise to a 101-92 victory over the Kings Wednesday night at Sleep Train Arena.

Golden State (32-22), had five players score in double figures, led by David Lee’s 23 points and 11 rebounds. Lee recorded his 17th 20 point/10 rebound game of the season. Klay Thompson (18 points) and Stephen Curry (13 points,) combined to shoot 11-for-28 from the field (2-for-7 from 3-point range).

Iguodala finished with 13 points, Draymond Green scored 12 points and grabbed eight rebounds, while Jordan Crawford got the bench really rolling with 10 points in nine minutes in the first quarter.

The telling part of the game was how the Warriors passed the ball tremendously with 26 assists and only seven turnovers. Those numbers were instrumental in Golden State holding a 52-5 edge on fast break points. Curry finished with a team-high eight assists.

Isaiah Thomas had 26 points and seven assists, Travis Outlaw finished with 18 points off the bench, and Rudy Gay scored 16 points and grabbed eight rebounds (four offensive) for Sacramento (18-35), who played without star center DeMarcus Cousins who sat out with a left hip flexor he injured in the Kings’ final game before the All-Star break.

Quincy Acy pulled down a career-high 12 rebounds.

Sacramento erased a 15-point deficit before taking their first lead in the third quarter at 76-75 behind Thomas’s 12 points in the quarter, but Sacramento couldn’t stop Lee and the Warriors in the fourth quarter, with the Warriors out-scoring the Kings 26-16.

As the 3:00 p.m. EST trade deadline looms, both the Warriors and Kings pulled off trades, but the Warriors trade was the biggest to boot.

Sacramento shipped swingman Marcus Thornton to Brooklyn for veteran shooting guard Jason Terry and power forward Reggie Evans early Wednesday, while Golden State waved good-bye to Kent Bazemore and MarShon Brooks and acquired reliable point guard Steve Blake from the Los Angeles Lakers just before tip-off.

Golden State used their $4 million trade exception that the team received from Denver in the Iguodala deal last summer to absorb Blake’s remaining $4 million salary in the final year of his deal to complete the trade, according to Associated Press. The Warriors are hoping that the acquisition of Blake and Jordan Crawford earlier in the season from Boston, will allow the team to pull back on both Curry and Thompson’s minutes.

In 27 starts for the Lakers, Blake 9.5 points and a career-high 7.6 assists a game this season. Clearly the addition of Blake strengthens the bench, which has clearly been one of the weakest in the league this season.

It’s unclear if Blake will suit up Thursday night when the Warriors play host to the visiting Houston Rockets, who destroyed the Lakers 134-108 at Staples Center Wednesday night.

With the win over Sacramento, Golden State improves to 3-0 over the Kings this season.

Warriors Handle Kings

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By Tony Renteria

Sacramento CA:  The Golden State Warriors(31-22) came into the Capital City to face the hosting Sacramento Kings (18-35) on the first game after the All-Star break leaving with an easy 101-92 win.

Sacramento came into the game shorted handed by two players,  DeMarcus Cousins who had to rest due to strained hip flexor and recently traded guard Marcus Thornton who is headed to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for Jason Terry and Reggie Evans.

The Warriors went out to an early first quarter lead of 30 to 26 in a very ugly first quarter that was plagued by bad calls and turnovers.  Golden State opened the lead to nine points at the half.  The first half took over an hour and seven minutes to play as the turnovers and bad calls continued to slow the action at Sleep Train Arena.

The Kings outscored the Warriors by ten in the 3rd quarter and took a one point lead into the fourth quarter but the Warriors offense was too much and the Kings failed to score with any rhythm and were lost the same ten point lead.

David Lee led the Warriors with 23 points, while Isaiah Thomas led the Kings with 26 Points.

Warriors report: W’s don’t come in too shellshocked after LeBron buzzer beater to end first half; ready themselves for Linsanity & the Rockets

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by David Zizmor

SACRAMENTO–The Warriors realize that the Miami Heat’s LeBron James three point step back shot that won it for Miami on a buzzer beater to end Golden State’s first half was not a whole lot they could have done about it. The only thing they could have done was maybe keeping the ball away from LeBron in the first place. The Warriors would have liked to have had anybody else to have had the ball instead of LeBron.

The fact of the matter is he really made a really difficult shot and if your going to have LeBron taking a difficult shot in that situation it’s probably the one you want him to take nine times out of ten. Most of the times he’s not going to hit that shot and that was a really difficult shot and the Warriors Andre Iguodala was on him and the Warriors had good defense.

LeBron made a great shot, you just tip your cap to him and go about your business and the Warriors look at that and say “hey we were in that game with the world champs and we beat them the other time we were in Miami” and you move on and you go about your business. The Warriors have to say ” we hang with the best that’s how good we are.”

The Warriors problems haven’t been with the good teams, the Warriors problems have been with the bad teams and the mediocre teams. They’re kind of known to play to the level of their competition. So you worry about a team like Sacramento where the Warriors played on Wednesday night. They may not take the night off but they played a poor game because that’s the trend this year when a bad team hosts the Warriors, the Warriors are known to play to that level of competition.

This is a very young team and their still learning, they have to learn and they have to learn they can’t coast on their reputation that they kind of earned that in the playoffs last year and the Warriors have to earn their way into the post season. Your not guaranteed anything in this league and while games they’ve won against Miami, Oklahoma City, and the Clippers and such proved that their just as good as anybody they need to get up for the bad teams too.

They have to look at the Spurs and say “hey San Antonio comes to play every single night no matter who the other team is on the other side of the floor, the Spurs are in there night in and night out. Even if Tim Duncan and Tony Parker are taking the night off to get some rest, the other guys step up their game and play as hard as they possibly can.

This is the reason why the Spurs are always at the top of the standings and the Warriors have to learn from that hopefully as the season gets down to the home stretch. The Warriors have to start taking that to heart. The Warriors are hoping that this is the part of the season where they really get into it. They have a favorable schedule going forward so hopefully that plays to their benefit.

David Zizmor covers the NBA for Sportstalk radio

Morris Phillips and Michael Duca on Cal basketball: Cal looking to avenage for tough loss at USC in January

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by Morris Phillips and Michael Duca

BERKELEY–For Cal in the post season will and as it always has depends on seeding and placement, last year was the first time in memory that Cal didn’t wind up playing a 9 AM game in College Park Maryland under something equally absurd. They typically go in with a nine or ten seed and get shuttled across the country and get the 9 AM game.

Or at least a game that feels like a 9 AM game to Cal because they’ve gone from west coast to east coast. If they can stay on the western half of the United States and they can get to a place where they can travel a few fans and get a favorable match up they can certainly get to the round of 16. They’re good enough to have proven to beat anybody and they’ve also proved they can lose to anybody.

They lost to USC proving they stunk up the joint proving they can lose wire to wire losing down there 77-69 on Wednesday January 22. It’ll be interesting to see how Cal and USC match up on Wednesday night at Haas. They made the game at Washington State a lot more exciting then it needed it to be.

Justin Cobbs for Cal was named as one of the 23 finalists for the Bob Cousy Award and it’s well deserved, Cobbs is a senior and he acts like it on the court at all times. He looks to distribute, the Washington State game is where he handed out seven assists before half time and then scored about a million and half points in the second half in order to win that game.

Cobbs is one of those kids that just does whatever is required of him at any given time and he seems to have a high basketball IQ. Duca hung him with a basketball name that he really liked Mike calls him the “Iceman” now because it just doesn’t seem to matter what’s going on. He was out there watching the Syracuse-Pitt game before Washington State the other night and Cobbs was excited when he heard that Syracuse had won the game in the final second on a final 33 foot three point shot, his first question was “was it a step back?” The step back is the best way to put a dagger in someone’s heart.

Cal is as good as good as the 2010 team and the conference is better than the conference was in 2010. Arizona is a better team than they were in 2010, UCLA has a lot of talent and Cal is as good as they were given the fact that they don’t have a Patrick Christopher. They don’t have a swing man who can step out on the wing and drill 22 foot shots all night long.

That 2010 team could just light it up on the outside, this 2014 Cal team is not as skillful a shooting team as the 2010 team was.

Michael Duca and Morris Phillips cover the Cal Bears for Sportstalk Radio