Despite losing 71-83 to the visiting Tennessee
Lady Volunteers on Dec. 21, the Stanford women’s basketball team and its fans
have reasons to hope.
One is that the team stayed relatively close to
the Lady Vols, who came to Maples with an undefeated record and a No. 7
national ranking.
Another is that senior guard Brittany McPhee
returned from an injury to play for the first time since early in the season.
She proved to be a spark plug and led the team with 27 points.
Some of those points came on drives to the basket,
the kind of drives that should earn her the nickname of “Fearless” McPhee.
Fans cheer for Brit
Shortly before the team took to the floor for its
final warmups, she came out to gather balls for the entrance. As soon as fans
saw her, they started clapping and cheering. She responded with a shy smile.
However, no one besides Brit was in double
figures. Junior guard Marta Sniezek had 9 points, while sophomore forward Nadia
Fingall and freshman forward Maya Dodson had 8 each.
Rebounding was noteworthy, with Stanford pulling
down 48 to Tennessee’s 35. Senior forward Kaylee Johnson, junior forward Alanna
Smith and Nadia had seven each.
Stanford also had more assists, 13 to nine, and
more blocks, seven to five. Marta had nine of the assists, and Alanna had five
of the blocks.
Stanford
outscores Tennessee in second half
The Cardinal ended the first half with a 16-point
deficit, 30-46, but actually outscored the visitors by 4 points in the second. For
the game, Stanford had more points in the paint, 44-30.
Free throws were a continuing problem, with only
11 of 22, while Tennessee made 31 of 36, or 86.1 percent.
The visitors had 19 fouls, while the hosts had 25.
Some perspective is that several of those fouls came late in the fourth quarter
when Stanford came within 6 points and deliberately fouled to try to get the
ball.
It seemed that freshman guard Estella Moschkau was
inserted for that reason with about a minute to go. She had three fouls, but
she also made a basket.
Turnovers were another weak point, 15 to
Tennessee’s 10.
Unlike past games, 3-point shooting was off –-
only two of 15. They came from Brit and junior guard Alexa Romano.
DiJonai
still out of action
The starting lineup featured Brit, Alanna, Kaylee,
Maya and freshman guard Kiana Williams. By the end of the game, everyone had played.
Sophomore guard DiJonai Carrington was still in street clothes.
Although the band, Tree, Dollies and cheerleaders
were still absent because of the holiday break, the crowd of 3,084 supplied
lots of noise.
When the lights dimmed for introduction of
Stanford’s starters, fans waved the red glow sticks supplied by the Stanford
Federal Credit Union.
The team has a 6-6 record at this juncture, but five
of the losses were to teams in AP’s top 25. Stanford’s most recent ranking is
18. Four other Pac-12 teams are ranked.
The players have some time off before returning
for the Pac-12 season, which starts by hosting No. 11 UCLA at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 29
and USC at 1 p.m. Dec. 31.
