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The women's basketball team suited up for the first time this season in an exhibition game against the Division I Stanford Cardinal on Saturday, only to be overpowered 123-39.
"Despite the score, I think it's still a positive experience for us," head coach Brian Fogel said.
The Cardinal is the No. 2 team in the country, according to The Associated Press preseason poll, and was runner-up in the NCAA tournament last season
The 84-point-margin home win, the 56-24 out-rebounding performance and 32 assists compared with Chico State's seven allowed Stanford to coast to victory.
"That is an excellent basketball team," Fogel said. "There's three, probably four, WNBA players on that team."
Cardinal Lindy La Rocque led all scorers with 21 points, scoring seven 3-pointers, while four other Stanford players were also able to reach double-digits in scoring.
The visiting Wildcats were trailing 57-18 going into halftime and managed to score 13 of those points in the final five minutes of the first half. The Cardinal opened the second half with a 10-0 run and never let up. Chico State shot only 24.6 percent from the field compared with Stanford's 59.7 percent.
Senior Renee Goldoff had a team-high six points on 30 percent shooting and junior Annelise Miller had a team-high six rebounds for the Wildcats.
The 'Cats are picked to win their conference only one season after the departures of head coach Molly Goodenbour, leading scorer Audi Spencer and former starting point guard Jade Smith-Williams, all of whom are now at UC Irvine.
The starters for Chico State's regular season will most likely consist of Goldoff, juniors Christine Vest and Melissa Richardson in the frontcourt, with freshman Synchro Bull and sophomore Natasha Smith in the backcourt, Fogel said.
The Wildcats play another exhibition road game 7 p.m. tonight against UC Berkeley and will start their regular season Nov. 20 against University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Mike Wagner can be reached at mwagner@theorion.com
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