Women's Hoops Blog

Inane commentary on a game that deserves far better


Monday, April 05, 2010

Nneka Ogwumike led her team past Oklahoma in a game with a weird storyline: Stanford led by double digits most of the way, then let their control turn into cruise control as Oklahoma came within one possession in the final minute of play.

Ogwumike, back home in Texas, tallied 38 and 16; an obviously not-quite-mobile Appeal Appel (whoops) finished with 13 and 10. Ogwumike's career-high 38 points are also, apparently, the second-highest individual point tally in women's Final Four history: regular readers probably know who holds the record still.

OU had to try to beat Stanford's posts with outside shooting, and they never quite pulled it off.

It was the end of an emotional season for OU's seniors Thompson and Olajuwon, who returned to the F4 despite losing the Paris twins to graduation and outside ace Whitney Hand to an ACL. "Our whole season has been about fighting," said Thompson, "and we fought our way back into that game."

Q has detailed analysis, as you'd expect. Helen is in San Antonio-- look for her! She may or may not be wearing bunny ears; look for her along the river walk, one feature of SA that's really as cool as advertised-- at least, it was when I was there. (Also cool in SA: this poet. You might look for her at the Final Four, too.)