A look back: Part 2 of 3 -- Pac-12 play

Pac-12 competition began at home Jan. 3, when Stanford beat Colorado 62-55. Starters were senior guard Amber Orrange, sophomore guards Lili Thompson and Karlie Samuelson, senior forward Bonnie Samuelson and freshman forward Kaylee Johnson.

Amber and Lili did much of the heavy lifting, teaming up for 43 points, 69.3 percent of the final score. Amber had a career-high 26 points, while Lili had 17.

The team had 16 turnovers, 11 of them in the second half, while Colorado had a total of 13. In just over seven minutes at the 11:06 mark of the second half, the team had eight successive turnovers. That’s just about when Amber took over, scoring 9 points in the final minutes.

Utah falls 55-44

Completing the opening round of Pac-12 play, Stanford defeated Utah 55-44 at home on Jan. 5. Amber and Lili again led the scoring with 17 and 14 points, respectively.

Head coach Tara VanDerveer was wearing a black brace on her left wrist during the Colorado and Utah games. She told the Associated Press that she broke a bone just above her left wrist during practice on New Year’s Eve. She had stepped in front of junior forward/center Tess Picknell to take a charge and fell backward, landing on the hand. Tara said that Tess apologized, but the 61-year-old coach blamed only herself.

Heading northwest, the team defeated Washington 60-56 on Jan. 9. With the score 57-55 with 27 seconds left, Lili iced the victory with a trey.

The team went on to beat Washington State in overtime 86-76 on Jan. 11. Amber and Bonnie led six players in double figures with 19 and 18, respectively. Also in double figures was Kaylee, who had a career-high 13 points plus 15 rebounds.

Balance helps in win over Arizona

Balance was the name of the game Jan. 16 when the team returned home to beat Arizona 77-47. Led by Bonnie with 14 points, five players were in double figures. Sophomore forward Erica “Bird” McCall had 13. Lili, Karlie and sophomore guard Briana Roberson had 12 each.

Combined with her career-high 16 rebounds, Bird had the first double-double of her Stanford career.

In a press conference afterward, she said that wearing glasses for the second consecutive game improved her court vision. She hadn’t worn glasses during previous games this season, and contacts don’t work for her.

Twenty-seven points came from 3’s, with Bonnie and Karlie making four each and Amber one.

ASU dishes out first Pac-12 loss

The team endured its first conference loss, 60-57, at the hands of Arizona State at home Jan. 19. 

At the half, Stanford was down 39-22. Tara altered the starting lineup, replacing the Samuelsons with Bri and Bird. The team went on to outscore ASU 35-21. It had a chance to tie with 2.6 seconds left, but there wasn’t enough time to get the ball from under ASU’s basket to make a trey.

A trip to Southern California resulted in two victories: 79-70 over UCLA on Jan. 23 and 71-60 over USC on Jan.25.

Washington schools fall at Maples

Five players were in double figures in the 76-56 victory over Washington State at home Jan. 31. 

Amber had 15; Bird 14, Bri 11, and Lili and Karlie 10 each. Everyone got into the game.

Amber had six assists. One of them in the first half was the 500^th of her career, making her only one of seven Cardinal players to reach that level.

Fans had been missing announcer Betty Ann Hagenau (Boeving), who was in a bicycle accident and recuperating at home. They were asked to sign a get-well card for her.

Washington was next to fall, 82-69, on Feb. 2 at Maples. Once again, five players were in double figures, led by Bonnie with 17. She was followed by Bri with 15, Amber with 14, Kaylee with 11 and Karlie with 10.

Kaylee also had 17 rebounds, resulting in the fifth double-double of her first year on the Farm. To that point she was the leading freshman rebounder in the NCAA with an average of 10.5 per game. On top of that, she tied her career-high of four blocks, giving her a season total of 30 to that date.

She finished the entire season with 51 blocks, ranking third behind Val Whiting, ’93, with 57 and Jayne Appel, ’10, with 61 when they were freshmen.

A trip to the desert turned out to be dry with the Cardinal, falling 53-52 to Arizona State on Feb. 6 and 60-57 to Arizona on Feb. 8.

SoCal teams leave with losses

After those two squeakers, the team came home to defeat USC 79-60 on Feb. 13 behind a revised starting lineup. Amber, Bonnie and Kaylee were joined by redshirt junior guard Jasmine Camp and senior forward Erica Payne.

UCLA was the next to fall, 68-50 at Maples on Feb. 15. The Samuelsons contributed 12 3’s to the score, with eight from Bonnie and four from Karlie.

During a timeout at the 7:56 mark in the second half and Stanford ahead 60-40, it was announced that Bonnie’s trey just before that was her seventh of the game and a career high.

Her eighth trey raised her career total to 215, third for a Stanford career, behind Candice Wiggins, ’08, with 295 and Jeanette Pohlen, ’11, with 268.

Scoring wasn’t her only contribution. She tied her career high of three blocks, most on the team, and was second with six rebounds.

With 11 rebounds, Kaylee recorded her 14^th game with double-digit rebounds for a total of 268 through that date. By then, she ranked third for a Stanford freshman behind Chiney Ogwumike, ’14, with 281 and Kayla Pedersen, ’11, with 329. When the season ended, she had moved into first place with 344.

Her 4-point, 11-rebound performance against UCLA, combined with 9 points and five rebounds against USC, resulted in her being named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week for the third time.

Cal, Stanford go1-1 in Battles of the Bay

After crossing the bay on Feb. 18, the team faced a 28-17 deficit at Cal with 3:56 to go in the first half. That’s when Tara sent in freshman guard Brittany McPhee, who immediately scored 6 points to cut the deficit to 32-23 when the halftime buzzer sounded.

That was just the start of a Stanford rally that didn’t just lead to a 59-47 victory. The second half saw defensive and offensive efforts that led to no Cal field goals during the final 12:59 minutes, leaving Cal with a shooting average of 11.1 percent in that half and 27.3 percent for the game. Only free throws added to Cal’s score.

Meanwhile, the Cardinal shot 48.3 percent in the second half and 45.3 percent for the game. Amber poured in 19 points, followed by Lili with 18.

The starting lineup was altered again with Amber, Lili, Karlie, Bonnie and Kaylee.

Cal got its revenge on Feb. 22 when it visited Maples and won 65-53, spoiling Senior Day, the last regular home game for Stanford’s six seniors.

Brittany got into the game at the 15:41 mark when Cal was ahead 7-3. She finished with a game-high, career-high 24 points and a team-high six rebounds. She was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week for the first time on Feb. 23.

Stanford was ahead 29-27 at the half, but the Bears outscored the Cardinal 36-24 in the second half.

Turnovers, fouls and rebounds contributed to the loss. The team had 17 turnovers, several of them shot-clock violations, while Cal had 13 TO’s. Cal outrebounded Stanford 35-31.

The refs called only nine fouls on Cal, while whistling Stanford for 16, with the final ones coming in an effort to get the ball. Cal got 13 points from its 20 trips to the charity stripe. Brittany got Stanford’s three shots and made two.

After the game, the six seniors – guard Alex Green, Jasmine, Erica, forward Taylor Greenfield, Amber and Bonnie -- were honored. A video featured highlights from each one’s career.

“It goes really fast,” Tara said before each senior spoke. Taylor’s comment was typical of her classmates’ love for their teammates and appreciation of the fans’ support. “Thanks for sticking with the senior class for four years,” she said.

Split outcome in trip to Oregon schools

Wrapping up the conference season, the team traveled north to face the Oregon schools for the only time this season.

The trip began with a 69-58 win over conference-leading Oregon State on Feb. 26. Apparently based on her play in recent games, Brittany made her first start, joining Amber, Lili, Bonnie and Bird.

The victory was costly, though, because Karlie broke a finger on her right hand, resulting in surgery and her loss for the season.

Playing Oregon on March 1, Stanford lost 62-55 to complete Pac-12 play with a 13-5 conference record.

Two days later, the league’s coaches named Amber to both the All-Pac 12 squad and the Pac-12 All-Defensive Team. Lili was named to the All-Pac 12 squad, too, while Bonnie was an honorable mention. Kaylee was chosen for the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team.

Coming next: Part 3 –Tournament time