 |
| Junior guard Estella Moschkau (standing) and senior guard DiJonai Carrington (in T-shirt) like what they see. |
Stanford women’s basketball players have developed a habit that its fans and everyone else connected to the team hope will continue. It’s called winning.This habit has led the team to compile a 9-0 record and a No. 1 AP national ranking.
Its latest manifestation was a 71-52 victory over the visiting Ohio State Buckeyes on Dec. 15.
According to the Stanford Daily, this was the 1,100th win in program history.
With a two-week break for finals behind them, all 11
available players saw action, and most of them helped to assure the win.
Four
players on injury list
The major downside was that the three players who
have been sidelined recently were joined by a fourth, sophomore guard Lacie
Hull, who had a walking boot on her right foot.
Also out with injuries are senior guard DiJonai
Carrington, senior guard Mikaela Brewer and junior forward Maya Dodson.
 |
| Lexie makes her way toward the basket. |
However, Lacie’s twin, Lexie, gave her and her
teammates plenty of reason to cheer. The guard stole the ball a career-record
seven times, according to the Pac-12 Network announcers, on her way to 13
points and three rebounds in 30 minutes.
 |
| Undaunted by the defense, Haley gets ready to shoot. |
Haley,
one of four in double figures, leads with 15
Joining her in double figures was freshman guard
Haley Jones with a team-high 15 points to go with seven rebounds, six assists,
one block and two steals in a team-high 34 minutes. She was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week for the second time.
 |
| Fran towers over her Buckeye defender. |
Freshman
forward Fran Belibi had 13 points, a team-high eight rebounds, one assist and
one steal in 20 minutes, while junior guard Kiana Williams had 13 points, six rebounds and two assists in 31 minutes.
Freshman guard Hannah Jump, as has become her own habit,
gave the crowd of 2,970 lots to cheer by making three 3’s for 9 points in
seemingly effortless fashion.
For the game, the team had six 3’s, while Ohio State
had four. The Cardinal shot 50 percent overall, compared with 38.6 percent for
the visitors.
Free-throw shooting was somewhat improved at 71.4
percent in a game in which each team had only nine fouls. The first quarter was
foul-free.
Too
many turnovers
The one major flaw in this game was the 21
turnovers, many of them from passes that went to a Buckeye or from lapses that
allowed a Buckeye to swipe the ball.
Both teams had 15 steals, but OSU had 24 turnovers,
while Stanford had 15 assists to OSU’s nine.
The starting five were senior forward Nadia Fingall,
who was first to score after a steal by Lexie; junior forward Alyssa Jerome;
Lexie; Kiana and Haley.
The game had sentimental significance for head coach
Tara VanDerveer, who coached at Ohio State before coming to Stanford in 1985.
With most students gone for the winter break, no
student contingent such as the band was there. Even the traditional Conga on
the Court after the first quarter had to recruit one of the kids to lead.
Trinkling
Team entertains fans at halftime
Halftime entertainment that held many fans
spellbound came from the youngsters of the TR Trinkling Team from Daly City.
Working in pairs, six of them each slapped two long bamboo poles rhythmically
on the floor while other team members hopped back and forth between them with
their arms behind their backs. Overseen by their coach, the maneuvers
became increasing more intricate and challenging.
Speaking of challenging, the Cardinal’s next
challenge comes at 7 p.m. Dec. 18 against Tennessee in Maples. It will be followed
by a 10 a.m. Dec. 22 game at Texas. Pac-12 Networks will air the Tennessee
game. ESPN2 will carry the Texas game.
Photos
by Don Feria/ISIPhotos.com
