No. 4 Stanford beats UT Martin 92-68 in Hawaii

[November 19, 2012]  HONOLULU (AP) -- No. 4 Stanford is leaving a weekend in Hawaii with plenty of aloha and what it hopes is a good omen for the rest of the season.

Three games, three wins. Good for a national contender, great when one comes against the country's top team and the NCAA's best player.

And right on track with the team's plans, said Chiney Ogwumike, who had a double-double Sunday in a 92-68 win over UT Martin.

"Our goals were to leave Oahu happy with where our team is going," Ogwumike said after celebrating her team's win in the Rainbow Wahine tournament in Honolulu. The Cardinal opened the tournament with a thrilling 2-point victory against No. 1 Baylor, winning after player of the year Brittney Griner missed a last-second shot that would have taken the game into overtime.

"It was a journey for us," said Ogwumike, the tournament MVP. "We're happy with the outcome -- but we have a lot of work left, too."

Joslyn Tinkle scored a career-high 25 points and Ogwumike had a season high 25 points and 10 rebounds, one night after putting up 15 points and 17 rebounds against host team Hawaii. The double-double was the third this season for Ogwumike, who donned a lei along with Tinkle and got a small trophy for her performance. She was two points shy of her career high.

"This will help people's confidence," Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. "We had a lot of different contributions from different people."

Amber Orrange also had a double-double with 12 points and 10 assists. She also had seven rebounds.

Stanford (5-0) took longer than expected to pull away from UT Martin, but finished the first half on a 14-5 run to take a 10-point lead at 41-31. The Cardinal soared in the final 20 minutes, taking a 20-point lead midway through the half on a jumper from Taylor Greenfield then building its margin to 30 after Tinkle scored a layup with 6:17 left.

Heather Butler scored 27 points for the Skyhawks (1-4). UT Martin shot 40 percent and under 31 percent from 3-point range as they hoped to try to hang with the tournament's toughest team.

"That's two games that we played where the first half was tight for a long time," said UT Martin coach Kevin McMillan. The Skyhawks lost all three games in the tournament. "We have to learn how to sustain and get over that hump if we want to be that kind of team to win a game in the NCAA Tournament."

The Cardinal win over the Lady Bears to start off the weekend avenged a loss in last season's national semifinals.

[Associated Press; By OSKAR GARCIA]

Oskar Garcia can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/oskargarcia.

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