Players perfect their steps for Big Dance

Confetti rains down on the Pac-12  reigning champions.

After waltzing through and winning the Pac-12 tournament championship in Las Vegas, the Stanford women’s basketball team looks ahead to the NCAA tournament.

Well, the team didn’t exactly waltz, but it did win three games in fairly impressive fashion. 

Thus its AP national ranking rose to No. 6 from No. 7 while Oregon dropped to 7 from 6.

Stanford holds Cal to 28.8 percent shooting

The first win came with a 72-54 victory over cross-bay rival Cal on March 8. While shooting 52.9 percent, the Cardinal held the Bears to 28.8 percent. Cal star Kristine Anigwe was held to, for her, an unusually low 14 points.

Next to fall was Washington, 72-61, on March 9. Washington, the tournament’s No. 11 seed, faced No. 2 seed Stanford after besting No. 6 Utah and No. 3 Oregon State.

The TV announcers said Washington apparently had expected to play two games at best and had packed only two sets of uniforms. Therefore, the team managers had to scramble to launder a set to face Stanford.

Clean uniforms weren’t a problem for the Cardinal, which wore its white uniforms as the higher seed in the first two games, then switched to black road uniforms for the expected game against No. 1 seed Oregon on March 10.

Stanford wins 13^th Pac-12 championship

Otherwise, that game didn’t turn out as seeded. Stanford defeated Oregon 64-57 to cut the nets and take home the championship trophy, its 13^th in 18 years. Oregon had advanced to the final game by defeating UCLA in overtime the previous night.

The Cardinal win helped to erase memories of Stanford’s 40-point loss to Oregon in February and its loss to the Ducks in last year’s championship game.

Most outstanding player Alanna looks up at the score and clock and knows victory is at hand.

Also garnering trophies were senior forward Alanna Smith, who was named the tournament’s most outstanding player; and junior guard DiJonai Carrington, who was named to the all-tournament team.

DiJonai displays her all-tournament team trophy.

As has been the case for most of the season, Alanna, DiJonai and sophomore guard Kiana Williams led the team in scoring.

Defense credited for three-game sweep

And yes, Stanford did outscore its three opponents, but the real key to its success was defense. There’s an old saying that offense sells tickets, but defense wins championships. The Cardinal’s defense was stellar in all three games.

Everyone did well, but some less-heralded players stood out, especially on defense, players like senior center Shannon Coffee, junior guard Anna Wilson and freshman forwards Lacie and Lexie Hull.

They also made some key plays, such as Shannon’s trey near the end of the Cal game to spark the final push to victory.

In the Washington game, sophomore forward Maya Dodson scored a career-high 14 points. She had four blocks against Oregon.

Everyone joins in the celebration and deserves Tara's praise. (That's DiJonai off to the left.)

In her comments after the Oregon game, head coach Tara VanDerveer lavished praise on everyone, including the bench players who don’t get much on-floor time but who are vital in the practice. She lauded associate head coach Kate Paye for her scouting report on Oregon.

NCAA to unveil seedings, bracket March 18

Stanford won’t know its next opponent until the NCAA selection committee announces seedings and the tournament bracket at 4 p.m. March 18 on ESPN. 

Most predictions see Stanford as a No. 2 seed hosting the first two rounds. They would be in Maples on March 23 and 25, according to the Stanford ticket office. 

In the meantime, the team can working on improving even more. The players also can focus on end-of-quarter projects and can study for finals, which are March 18-25. Therefore, finals will be behind them and spring break under way when tournament play begins.

Photos by Stanford Athletics