For Stanford's Yamasaki, a Season in Adapting

Stanford star loses starting spot after playing volleyball and learns to contribute to team in other ways.

By JOHN SAITO JR.

RAFU SHIMPO ENGLISH EDITOR

  WESTWOOD.— If her sophomore year at Stanford has been one of accepting a new and less prominent role, then as hard as it might be, Lindsey Yamasaki has been willing to adapt.

In Friday's 64-61 loss to UCLA before 6,072 at Pauley Pavilion, Yamasaki showed flashes of her game from a year ago when she led the team in scoring and rebounding and was named to the All-Pac-10 Honorable Mention team.

The 6-foot-1 guard came off the bench and grabbed 11 of her career high 12 rebounds in the first half. She also hit three of her first six shots and helped the Cardinal ( 18-7, 1 1-4) build its biggest lead, 19-12, with 5:33 left.

The Bruins (16-9, 10-5) rallied to take a 25-23 halftime edge and then turned to forward Maylana Martin, who scored 19 of her game-high 22 points in the second half. Martin's jumper with 6:33 left capped a 6-0 run that lifted UCLA to a 52-45 lead, and Stanford never got closer than the final score.

Yamasaki played seven minutes in the second half, took no shots, had one rebound and sat out the final 5:51 with the team trailing and desperately lacking some offense.

The Cardinal, led by freshman guard Jamie Carey with 16 points, went without a field goal from the 8:15 to 1:03 marks.

"No one was really having a good game; no one was really scoring every time on offense," said Yamasaki. "I think (Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer) tried to go to some shooters, and unfortunately we weren't hitting tonight."

Just a year ago on this floor, Yamasaki hit a three-point shot with 3.8 seconds left to give Stanford an 87-84 win over the No. 12 Bruins.

But then again, that was a year ago.

"I'm definitely playing a different role this year," said Yamasaki. "It's hard to get used to, but I think the best part is that I've acclimated myself to the position I'm playing now and trying to do the best I can when I go out there."

For a player who once admitted that her "main love is shooting," it has been a singularly tough adjustment.

The process began last year when Yamasaki averaged 14.0 points and 5.9 rebounds as a freshman, both team highs, during an 18-12 season. She became known as a triple threat, having the skills to shoot the threes, post up smaller guards and take bigger players off the dribble.

Her highlights included a career-high 32 points in a loss to Santa Clara and a 24-point game, including six three-point shots, in a 60-58 loss to Maine in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Stanford's Lindsey Yamasaki hits a quick turnaround jumper over the outstretched hand of UCLA center Janae Hubbard in the first half of the Cardinal's 64-61 loss to the Bruins at Pauley Pavilion on Friday, March 3, 2000.