Luck

Tonight, the Stanford women were lucky, and not very good. In the first half at Arco arena in Sacramento, Stanford shot a miserable 25%, a season low. The Cardinal threw up bricks and clanked off the rim all night long. Their big stud Jayne Appel fouled out. The team looked flat and completely out of sync. Kayla Pederson and Nnemkadi Ogwumike hoisted the struggling team on their shoulders and kept them in the game against a tenacious Xavier team who for 39 minutes took it to the number 1 regional seed. In the waning seconds of a tied game, it all came down to one play. With elbows flying in a full out scrum under the basket, Xavier missed 2 huge shots, gimmes, right beneath the rim. Pederson having an outstanding game somehow snagged her 10th board and called time out with 4 seconds left. Did VanDerveer or her assistant Tucker really draw up the next play? Because when the ball was inbounded Jeanette Pohlen, utilizing her blazing speed, who was 1 for 5 all night drove the length of the floor for an 'out of body' money layup which gave Stanford the win as the clock expired catapulting them into the Final Four. The Cardinal spilled off the bench and dog-piled. They knew they had dodged a bullet. In sports, unlike the real world, luck always finds a way, baby. Tonight was a wake up call. If Stanford cannot snap out of their current narcoleptic state it'll be another sorry post-season collapse and a quick return flight from San Antonio. Appel the big, the Pac 10 star of the team took the game net and gave it to Pohlen, the unlikely hero, who was, uh, in the locker room savoring a Farokmanesh moment of her own.