When Titans’ Miller Sits, Stanford Roars : West Regional: With Fullerton star on the bench with three fouls, Cardinal has 16-4 run on way to a 91-67 victory.

Cal State Fullerton women’s basketball Coach Maryalyce Jeremiah got a sneak preview of the post-Genia Miller era Saturday night, but she didn’t like what she saw.

Miller, the Titans’ 6-foot-3 senior center and the nation’s leading scorer, came out of Fullerton’s NCAA West Regional playoff game against Stanford with 4 minutes 46 seconds remaining in the first half after committing her third foul.

Fullerton led by three points at the time, but Stanford scored 16 of the next 20 points and went on to a 91-67, second-round victory in front of 4,657 in Maples Pavilion.

The defending national-champion Cardinal, taking advantage of a decided height advantage on the front line, scored 29 of its 39 field goals from inside.

Julie Zeilstra, a 6-3 forward who was guarded most of the game by 5-7 freshman Cheryl Hightower, scored 20 points, guard Sonja Henning had a triple-double, with 19 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, and 6-3 sophomore center Val Whiting added 17 points and 10 rebounds for Stanford (24-5), which will face Washington in the West Regional semifinals Thursday in Las Vegas.

The Cardinal came out strong in the second half and increased its lead to 22 points, 67-45, with about 11 minutes left, but the turning point in the game was clearly the last five minutes of the first half. When Miller went out, you could roll the credits on Fullerton’s season.

“I told the team at halftime you’d better get used to playing without her because she’s not going to be here next year,” Jeremiah said. “We didn’t have anyone on the floor taller than 6-feet. Without Genia, the other players became tentative.”

And Stanford, a physical bunch to begin with, became even more tenacious, crashing the offensive boards and scoring heavily from inside to take a 39-30 halftime lead.

“Our depth was a big factor, especially when Genia came out,” Stanford Coach Tara VanDerveer said. “We have a great advantage with Julie (Zeilstra) at the small forward spot because no one can stop her on the block.”

Zeilstra was especially effective in the first half, shooting her short, turn-around jump shots over the smaller Hightower and scoring 16 points, making eight of 11 shots. Besides Zeilstra and Whiting, the Cardinal had one more 6-3 forward, Trisha Stevens, who scored eight points. The trio helped Stanford outrebound Fullerton, 50-38.

“If they had one less big kid or if we had one more big kid, maybe we would have been OK,” Jeremiah said. “My biggest concern with Stanford was it had one too many weapons.”

Miller, the Titans’ biggest gun, finished with a game-high 23 points and 12 rebounds but had only two points in the first half. Claudette Jackson added 17 points, and Hightower scored a career-high 14, all in the first half.

But the Titans (25-8) got only seven points from their backcourt--point guard Michelle Hennessey scored five and Joey Ray, normally the team’s best outside shooter, went 0 for 8 from the field and scored two, 11 below her average.

Fullerton tried several defensive tactics, even going to a 1-3-1 zone late in the first half and a 2-3 zone to start the second half. Jeremiah said the Titans had played zone for all of about five minutes the entire season.

“I thought I was going to be sick there for a while when we went to a zone,” she said.

After getting pounded inside through the first half, Fullerton tried sagging off Cardinal guards and denying passes inside. Then Henning and guard Christy Hedgpeth got hot from the outside.

Henning scored 13 of her points in the second half and Hedgpeth, who made three of four three-pointers, scored 12 of her 16 points in the last 20 minutes.

“What really got them going was when we tried to shut off the inside pass and they started hitting the three-pointers,” Jeremiah said.

The Titans made one run at the Cardinal in the second half, scoring 10 consecutive points to cut a 22-point deficit to 67-55 with eight minutes to go. But Stanford went on a 12-4 run to push the lead back to 20, 79-59.

Miller closed her Fullerton career with 2,392 points, 1,150 rebounds, 905 field goals, 1,578 field-goal attempts, 582 free throws, 843 free-throw attempts, and 421 blocked shots, all school records.

“It hasn’t hit me yet--I can’t believe I won’t be playing college basketball any more,” said Miller, who became a starter early in her freshman season.

A few moments later, it hit her. Miller, after thanking Jeremiah for her coaching over the years, almost broke down in tears at the close of the post-game news conference.

Jeremiah wasn’t crying. But perhaps she was just holding it in.