Erica Gomez

Stanford uses free throws to beat UCLA.

Jan. 18, 1998

LOS ANGELES - No. 11 Stanford (8-5, 5-1) connected on its final 14 free throws of the game in besting UCLA 75-70 before a Bruin regular-season record crowd of 5,662 in Pauley Pavilion.

Stanford forwards Vanessa Nygaard and Kristin Folkl led the Cardinal with 22 and 20 points respectively, Folkl added a career-best 15 rebounds. Nygaard twice made both ends of the double bonus in the final 1:14 of the game, including a pair of free throws to ice the game with just three seconds remaining and the Cardinal in the lead 73-70.

The Bruins (9-6, 4-2) gradually sliced into what had been an 11-point second-half Stanford lead, at 44-33 with 18:31 to play, and took the lead, 59-57, at the 6:16 mark on a three-point shot by sophomore guard Melanie Pearson. It would be UCLA's only advantage of the second half, although the Bruins battled back to tie the score once again at 63-all with 4:27 to play. Stanford never led by more than its final margin of five the rest of the way.

Stanford led 67-64 after Folkl scored inside at the 2:06 mark. UCLA cut it to 69-68 at 1:44 but missed its next two shots from the field sandwiched around a pair of free throws by Nygaard which made it 71-68 with 1:14 to play. UCLA senior forward Aisha Veasley then missed a pair of free throws with 41 seconds to play and sophomore guard Milena Flores was fouled. Flores drained both charity tosses with 30 seconds to go and Stanford owned a 73-68 lead. UCLA missed its next two shots from the field on the subsequent possession before senior guard Tawana Grimes picked up the offensive rebound and scored with four seconds to play to make it 73-70 and set the stage for Nygaard's final free throws.

"This is a very big win for us against what we believe is one of the best front lines in the conference," said Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer. "It was a real dog fight until the end. Today we made some key free throws unlike earlier this week in Arizona. People concentrated down the stretch and we got help from everyone."

"We didn't get a lot of breaks, but I thought we played a great game," said UCLA head coach Kathy Olivier. "And it was a tremendous crowd which was really into it. Stanford is a top caliber team and we took them to the wire. I think this game showed that we are capable of playing with top-ten teams and, with a few breaks, beating them."

The crowd of 5,662 surpassed the previous largest regular season Pauley Pavilion total of 5,512, set against Stanford on February 11, 1996
 

Printer-friendly format

Email this article