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| The Hull twins, freshman forwards Lacie (24) and Lexie (12), greet sophomore forward Alyssa Jerome. |
Although it
wasn’t always pretty when AP’s No. 7 Stanford women’s basketball team defeated
UC Davis 71-43 in its season opener Nov. 7 in Maples, the Cardinal showed
flashes of good times to come.
And as head
coach Tara VanDerveer says, it’s not how you start the season, it’s how you
finish.
This was
true in even in this game. The score was 17-14 after the first quarter, 36-24
after the second, 57-34 after the third and 71-43 after the fourth.
Abundant boards
The finish also
yielded some impressive numbers beyond the final score, starting with rebounds,
where the home team had a 50-25 advantage. Assists also were in the plus
column, with 10 by Stanford and six by Davis.
The
Cardinal shot a respectable but not great 42.6 percent, compared with 22.6 by
the Aggies, in part due to tough defense. Shooting from the free-throw line was
72.2 percent by Stanford vs. 53.8 percent by Davis.
Davis shot
25.8 percent beyond the arc with eight three’s, while Stanford shot 25 percent
with six. Sophomore guard Kiana Williams chipped in three, while senior forward
Alanna Smith, senior guard Alexa Romano and freshman forward Lexie Hull had one
each.
Moreover, Stanford
racked up too many turnovers, 21 to the Aggies’ 19. Many of those turnovers
came on errant passes.
Steals were
close, 13 by Davis, 12 by Stanford (four by Lexie); as were fouls, 18 by
Stanford, 17 by Davis.
Alanna, Nadia, DiJonai, Kiana, Lexie
get the start
The
starting lineup was the same as in the exhibition game against Vanguard, with Alanna,
Kiana, Lexie, junior forward Nadia Fingall and junior guard DiJonai Carrington.
Sophomore
forward Maya Dodson was first off the bench, followed by freshman guard Jenna
Brown, freshman forward Lacie Hull and sophomore forward Alyssa Jerome, all in
the first quarter.
All 14
available players got into the game by the time the final buzzer sounded. Four
players were in double figures, led by Alanna with 16 even though she had four
fouls, limiting her floor time to 15 minutes.
Injury sidelines Kiana in second half
Kiana
followed with 14 points even though she missed the second half after a nasty
fall and appeared to hit her face late in the second quarter.
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| Playing the point, Kiana orchestrates the offense. |
She stayed in
action until the halftime break but didn’t emerge from the locker room until
about four minutes into the third quarter. There was no official word on her
injury.
Next came
Lexie with 11 points to go with 11 rebounds for the team’s only double-double.
Maya pitched in 10 points and led the team with three decisive blocks.
The band,
Tree and Dollies were all there to support the team, but not the cheerleaders.
Attendance was reported as 2,471.
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| Senior forward Shannon Coffee, Alanna and Nadia sport their new Stanford socks. |
Socks for socks
Game-goers
who donated a new pair of socks for the homeless received a spiffy pair of red
Stanford socks in exchange.
The
yearbook, on sale at Roscoe’s Corner at the northwest entrance, costs $10 and
covers both the men’s and women’s basketball teams.
Timeouts
featured one old favorite and a new one. The old favorite was Copy the
Cardinal, in which a fan tried to duplicate a player’s video feat. In this
case, sophomore forward Estella Moschkau made two free throws while seated at
the line.
The new one
was Cardinal Category. This time a fan and Estella were each asked to name as
many sights at a zoo as possible in 15 seconds. It was a draw with nine apiece.
Stanford
has three more games at home -- Idaho at 2 p.m. Nov. 11, San Francisco at 7
p.m. Nov. 15 and Ohio State at 1 p.m. Nov. 18 -- before going to Hawaii for a
three-game tournament the weekend after Thanksgiving.
The Idaho
game will feature a post-game Behind the Bench. The Ohio State game will be
televised by the Pac 12 Network.
Photos by Stanford Athletics
