(2) Tennessee 74, (12) Stanford 67
STANFORD, Calif. -- Unbeaten Tennessee's first month has resembled an NCAA tournament run with four ranked opponents, and the Lady Vols have calmly handled each challenge.
Candace Parker had 21 points, 12 rebounds, three steals, two assists and a blocked shot, and No. 2 Tennessee ended 12th-ranked Stanford's 23-game home winning streak with a hard-fought 74-67 victory Sunday.
The Cardinal's streak in Maples Pavilion started immediately after their 70-66 overtime loss to Tennessee on Dec. 14, 2003, then it was the Lady Vols who spoiled things again with a late second-half run to beat Stanford for the 10th straight time dating to a 1996 Cardinal win.
After Kristen Newlin's basket with 6:05 left pulled Stanford to 52-51, Tennessee took over. Shanna Zolman also scored 21 points for the Lady Vols (7-0), who are determined to make an early statement this season after blowing a 16-point lead to Michigan State in the second half of the national semifinals last March.
Newlin finished with a career-high 20 points and had 10 rebounds for Stanford (4-2), which made too many mistakes in crunch time to pull off an upset.
A sellout crowd came out to witness the first collegiate showdown between Candace and Candice -- Tennessee's Parker and Stanford sophomore sensation Candice Wiggins, the reigning Pac-10 player of the year and conference freshman of the year.
The two have been playing against each other since middle school in tournaments across the country and also were teammates on the U.S. junior national team, and they call each other "Ice and "Ace" as a reference to the spellings of their first names. Parker was in uniform but didn't play against Stanford in a last-second 70-67 Tennessee win last season during her redshirt year as she recovered from two surgeries on her troublesome left knee.
Wiggins had 16 points, five rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocks but also committed eight turnovers.
Brooke Smith, Stanford's second-leading scorer behind Wiggins, scored nine points after missing all four of her first-half field goals and making only one free throw, but committed several crucial turnovers down the stretch and also missed an open layup. She had five turnovers in all.
Clare Bodensteiner's baseline 3 with 16:35 to play began a 10-2 spurt by Stanford that also featured a 3 by Krista Rappahahn from the same spot and back-to-back layups by Wiggins off steals, the first by Bodensteiner and the next when Wiggins sneaked behind Parker to take the ball away on the way to a 40-39 lead with 14:50 to play.
Tennessee began the second half 3-for-13, two of those field goals by Nicky Anosike, while the Cardinal made six of their first nine shots in the final 20 minutes, but the Lady Vols made 12 of 17 free throws after halftime.
Tennessee has also beaten ranked opponents in Michigan State, Maryland and No. 16 Texas after a 102-61 win over the Longhorns on Thursday night.
Freshman forward Jillian Harmon gave the Cardinal a boost with her rebounding effort in the first half -- getting in position on the boards was a top priority from coach Tara VanDerveer coming into the game on the heels of a 109-58 victory at Pacific on Thursday.
Harmon had five boards and Stanford wound up getting outrebounded 36-34.
The Cardinal went just 5-for-11 from the free throw line in the first half and Tennessee used a 7-0 spurt over the final 1:39 of the half to overcome foul trouble for a 35-28 lead at the break.
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