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| Lexie drives toward the basket. |
Fans of Stanford and the University of San Francisco
women’s basketball teams had a chance to take part in Bay Area history when
their teams played the first college game ever at the Golden State Warriors’
new Chase Center in San Francisco on Nov. 9.
USF was the home team, but the visiting team
recorded the first collegiate win in the arena with a 97-71 score.
Lexie
leads the team with 27 points
Wearing their black road uniforms, the Cardinal were
led by sophomore guard Lexie Hull, who poured in a game-high 27 points, boosted
in part by shooting 5-for-7 on 3-pointers. She also had eight rebounds,
three assists and one block.
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| DiJonai makes her way around a defender. |
Also in double figures were senior guard DiJonai
Carrington with 16 and junior forward Alyssa Jerome with 11. She was playing
without a mask for the first time this season. Like Lexie, DiJonai had eight rebounds to go with
two assists and one block.
Freshman forward Ashten Prechtel had the most
rebounds, nine, to go with 8 points and one assist.
The starters were freshman forward Fran Belibi, who
dunked during warmups; Alyssa; Lexie; DiJonai and junior guard Kiana Williams.
The bulk of the minutes went to Kiana with 29, Lexie with 28 and DiJonai with
27.
Stanford
has advantage of more players
While Stanford was able to field all 13 available
players (junior forward Maya Dodson and senior guard Mikaela Brewer are still recovering
from injuries), USF used only eight.
Stanford’s depth undoubtedly was an advantage as
head coach Tara VanDerveer could send in fresh legs.
In all, Stanford had 14 3’s, led by Lexie’s five. Alyssa
had three. DiJonai and sophomore guard Lacie Hull had two each. Senior guard
Anna Wilson and freshman guard Haley Jones had one each.
Although the Cardinal had more points, rebounds
(49-39), assists (22-4) and blocks (3-1), both teams had five steals. On the
negative side, the Cardinal had more turnovers (15-12) and more fouls (14-11).
USF’s
Stanford connections
The Lady Dons’ coaching staff has two Stanford WBB
alumnae with Molly Goodenbour, ’93, as head coach and Katy Steding, ’90, as an
associate coach.
Because Chase Center is so vast, 18,064 seats, the
crowd of 3,025 was widely dispersed. Many of those fans were backing Stanford,
but they were without the band, Tree, Dollies and cheerleaders, who most likely
were at the Stanford football game at Colorado.
Perhaps attendance was higher for the nightcap,
which featured the USF men vs. Princeton. Tickets
were good for both games.
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| With Stanford players in the foreground, the teams warm up before the game at Chase Center. |
What
it’s like to go to Chase
Just being at Chase Center is an experience in
itself. For those parking in one of its garages, the experience starts at the
entrance, where the driver is ordered to put the car in neutral and turn off
the engine while a police officer and his bomb-sniffing dog go around the car.
For those taking public transportation, there’s a
Muni stop right next to the arena.
Before the doors open, fans can stroll around a
plaza to admire the architecture or buy Warriors merchandise at the Warriors
store.
More security is in order at the doors where items
like purses and other bags are screened and patrons pass through a metal
detector.
Because it’s likely that most fans were there for
the first time, many of them went sightseeing around its corridors and then
went on a hunt for their seats.
Friendly
staff people are a big plus
All along the way there were friendly, helpful staff
people to answer questions and steer visitors in the right direction. These workers were one of the biggest contributors to making the visit a pleasant one.
On the other hand, the music before the game and
during the half was at ear-splitting levels. I was lucky to have earplugs, so I
didn’t leave with a headache as some fans did.
And probably because the arena wasn’t anywhere near
capacity, only two food stands were open, both offering the same mostly unhealthful
food to go with soft drinks and bottled water. Wine, beer and liquor were sold at other
stands. No cash is accepted.
Inside the arena, the scoreboard showed only the
score, time and each team’s fouls and time outs left. There was no way to keep
track of individual and team stats.
The Cardinal return to the familiar environs of
Maples Pavilion for games against Northern Colorado at 7 p.m. Nov. 14 and
Gonzaga at 5 p.m. Nov. 17.
Photos by Stanford Athletics
