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| Seniors and their families gather with Tara at center court. |
After enduring a 10-point home loss to UCLA two days
earlier, the Stanford women’s basketball team rebounded with a resounding 79-59
victory over USC on Feb. 9, also at home.
Playing in front of a loud crowd of 5,221, the
Cardinal got off to a fast start against USC, leading 13-0 until the Trojans
finally made a 3-pointer with just over six minutes to go in the first quarter.
The first quarter ended 28-6. By then, five Stanford
players had popped in six 3’s.
The total had risen to 11 3’s by the end of the game with
six players joining in. They were led by sophomore guard Lexie Hull with three.
Senior guard Anna Wilson, junior guard Kiana
Williams and freshman guard Hannah Jump each had two, while junior forward
Alyssa Jerome and freshman forward Ashten Prechtel chipped in one each.
Three players were in double figures: Lexie with 14
and Ashten and senior forward Nadia Fingall with 11 each.
USC never had a lead, while Stanford enjoyed as much
as a 33-point advantage.
Two
reasons to celebrate
It was a day of double celebrations. First, it was National
Girls and Women in Sports Day, when a number of girls groups attended and
several women’s sports teams had exhibits. The volleyball team was honored for
its second consecutive national championship and its third in four years.
It also was Senior Day when Anna, Nadia and guards
DiJonai Carrington and Mikaela Brewer were saluted after the game.
That was an emotional time when those four plus two
male practice players were introduced with family members.
Head coach Tara VanDerveer pointed out that even
though there are two more home games – Oregon State on Feb. 21 and Oregon on
Feb. 24 – neither is convenient for family members.
Underclass
players salute seniors
Each senior was saluted by an underclassman,
starting with junior forward Maya Dodson, emotionally lauding Mikaela, who “has
gone through a lot of battles” and emerged victorious.
(By then, athletic trainer Katelin Knox had fetched
a box of tissues for the tears, which flowed throughout the ceremony.)
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| Mikaela gets into action against USC. |
Mikaela responded, “I’ve grown so much.” Noting that
she’s minoring in creative writing, she said she has written a novel that she
hopes to have published. Because she hasn’t had much time at home in Canada,
she plans to spend time with family next year.
Kiana spoke of DiJonai as being “like a big sister
that I never had.”
Tara added, “It’s been tough not seeing Di out
there” because of an injury, but there’s still hope that she’ll be back.
DiJonai said, “I’m grateful for all my time here.”
References
to big sisters
The big sister theme arose again when Maya talked
about Nadia and their longtime friendship. After suffering a torn ACL last
year, “she came back 10 times better, 10 times stronger,” Maya said.
“It’s great to have Nadia playing,” Tara said.
Nadia noted that she suffered her injury against USC
at home almost a year ago and said she hopes to play more basketball after
graduation.
Alyssa called Anna, an art practice major, “one of
the kindest people I’ve ever met.” Anna also was saluted by her older brother, Russell Wilson, quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks.
Tara added, that coaches are “trying to get another
year for Anna.” She missed quite a few games because of injuries earlier in her
Stanford career and wants a red shirt year.
As for this game, Tara said, “Our team played
extremely well.”
Stanford
dominates the stat sheet
The dominance shows up in statistics like rebounds,
48-38; assists, 13-7; blocks, 7-2; and steals, 9-7.
Stanford shot 42.1 percent and held USC to 27.7
percent.
The starters were Nadia, Lexie, Alyssa, Kiana and
sophomore guard Lacie Hull.
As usual, Nadia and Maya were out. Freshman guard
Haley Jones was back with the team after being absent for an injury, but was
unable to play for either SoCal game. She was wearing a full-length brace on
her right leg.
UCLA
beats Stanford by 10
The outcome of the Feb. 7 game against UCLA was
different from the USC game, when Stanford lost 69-79 before a crowd of 4,530.
Prior to the tipoff, there was a moment of silence
in honor of NBA great Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven other people who died in a
helicopter crash in Southern California on Jan. 26.
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| From left: Maya, Haley, Ashten, DiJonai, Fran, Nadia, Estella and Alyssa show off their Kobe Bryant T-shirts. |
In addition, the Stanford players wore black
T-shirts with Bryant’s retired numbers 8 and 24 on the front and the names of
the victims on the back.
The starters this time were Lexie, Nadia, Lacie,
Kiana and Ashten.
Kiana led the team with 25 points. Lacie with 12 and
Ashten with 10 also were in double figures. In addition, Ashten had 12
rebounds.
This loss ended the team’s streak of 12 home wins
this season and 16 from the past season, when the last loss was an 88-48
thumping by Oregon on Feb. 10, 2019.
Next up for the Cardinal is a road trip to the
mountains with Utah at 6 p.m. Feb.14 and Colorado at 11 a.m. Feb. 16. Both
games will be televised by Pac-12 Networks.
Photos
by Stanford Athletics
