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| Lexie takes the ball upcourt. (John P. Lozano/ISIPhotos.com) |
Stanford vs. Cal is traditionally billed as the
Battle of the Bay, but in Stanford’s case on Jan. 10, it was a pleasure cruise
as the Cardinal sailed to a 73-40 win over the visiting Bears.
Except for an opening basket in the early going, Cal
never led. Instead, Stanford was up 20-5 after the first quarter. It went on to
outscore Cal 19-10 in the second (39-14) and 19-3 (58-18) in the third.
While not enough to close the cumulative gap, Cal
surged 22-15 in the fourth quarter, when the Cardinal starters were spending
most of their time cheering from the bench.
Freebies
add to festivities
There was a festive air overall, starting before the
game when the 3,529 fans could avail themselves from any number of freebies:
pens, pompons, rally towels, glow sticks and lighted headbands.
The latter two items cast a red glow throughout
Maples when the home starters were announced. “It’s time to glow,” the
videoboard said.
The fans included a sizable contingent in the
student section as well as the band, Tree, Dollies and cheerleaders. There
seemed to be only a smattering of Cal fans with no appearance by their band,
etc.
Fran
dunks before game
As the team prepared to finish its warmups with free
throws, freshman forward Fran Belibi delighted the crowd with a dunk, which has become a
staple for that routine.
The band delivered an impressive rendition of the
national anthem, which began with a lone trumpet playing the first few stanzas
before the other musicians joined in.
With the same three players out as usual – senior
guards DiJonai Carrington and Mikaela Brewer along with junior forward Maya
Dodson – the starting lineup featured Fran plus senior forward Nadia Fingall,
junior guard Kiana Williams, sophomore guard Lexie Hull and freshman guard
Haley Jones.
By game’s end, all 12 available players had seen
action, and all contributed in some way.
Freshmen
make a big impact
Just how important were the four freshmen in this
game? Consider this: One more point from them would have tied Cal’s total
output, and two more would have defeated the Bears.
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| Haley was the game-high scorer with 17 points. (Ben Margot/AP) |
As it was, Haley with 17 points; forward Ashten
Prechtel, 13; Fran, 6; and guard Hannah Jump, 3; combined for 39 points. That
was more than half of the team’s total, yet the four rookies played just under a third (a combined 55 minutes) of the team’s total minutes (200).
Halftime entertainment was provided by Swift Shift, a two-person magic act with repetitious tricks, some of which became
easy to predict.
There was a festive air to the game in general,
especially during the second quarter when the women’s soccer team was honored with cheers and a standing
ovation for its second national championship in two
years.
Tara
hits a conference milestone
Then there was the announcement just after the game
that head coach Tara VanDerveer had just won her 500th conference
game, the most by any Division 1 head coach with one women’s basketball team.
Although they weren’t shown in the videoboard,
several of her former players were on hand for the occasion.
They included Kaylee Johnson, ’18; Briana Roberson,
’17; Ashley Cimino, ’11; Jayne Appel-Marinelli and JJ Hones, ’10; Brooke Smith
Easter and Clare Bodensteiner, ’07; and Azella Perryman, ’05.
On the coaching side there was Cal head coach Charmin
Smith, ’97, who became assistant coach at Stanford from 2004-07.
Stanford associate head coach Kate Paye was on the
team through 1995; and assistant coach Lindy La Rocque, who has been an
assistant coach since the 2017-18 season, graduated in 2012.
Therefore, she was teammates with Jayne, JJ and
Ashley and coached Kaylee.
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| Alumnae join the team and coaches in the locker room after the game (Stanford Athletics) |
Lindy
invites alumnae to locker room
After the game, she went over to the family section
where the player alums were seated and invited them to the locker room to meet the
team.
Round 2 of the Battle of the Bay shifts to Cal at 5
p.m. Jan. 12.
After that is what could be the team’s toughest tests
to date: road games at Oregon at 6 p.m. Jan. 16 and Oregon State at noon Jan.
19.
Stanford returns to Maples to play Colorado at 7
p.m. Jan. 24 and Utah at noon Jan. 26. That’s when Tara’s 1990 national
championship team is slated for a reunion.
Pac-12 Networks will televise the Cal, Oregon State,
Colorado and Utah games. The Oregon game is slated for ESPN or ESPN 2.
