After the Stanford women’s basketball team had completed
the pre-conference season with an 11-1 record, senior forward Nadia Fingall
helped the team get the Pac-12 season off to a good start with 20 points, her
season high, in the 77-58 home victory over Washington State on Jan. 3.
Her accomplishment came almost exactly a year after
she had suffered a torn ACL at home against USC on Jan. 4, 2019.
After the team beat Washington 77-56 at home on Jan.
5, the players celebrated in the usual way by tossing victory balls into the
crowd.
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| Tara joins the team and Stanford Soul Line Dancers to celebrate after the Washington game. (John Lozano/ISIPhotos.com) |
Players
join in on line dance
The celebration became more joyous when some members of the Stanford Soul Line Dancers, who had entertained at halftime,
joined the players for a spontaneous line dance at center court. Even head
coach Tara VanDerveer got in on the fun.
Yet another win came Jan. 10 when Stanford sailed
over Cal 73-40 in the first round of the Battle of the Bay.
The game had a festive air starting before the game
when fans could avail themselves of freebies like pens, pompons, rally towels,
glow sticks and lighted head bands. The latter two items cast a red glow
throughout Maples as the lights were dimmed for introduction of the starters.
Freshmen
help to beat Cal
The freshmen played a major role in the win. One more point from them would have tied Cal’s total output, and two more would have defeated the Bears.
Guard Haley Jones with 17 points, forward Ashten
Prechtel with 13, forward Fran Belibi with 6 and guard Hannah Jump with 3
combined for 39 points. That was more than half of the team’s total, yet the
four rookies played just under of third of the total minutes.
More festivities came during halftime, when the
women’s soccer team was honored for its second national championship in the
past three years.
Following the game, it was announced that Tara had just won her 500th conference game, the most by any Division I coach with one women’s basketball team.
After Stanford won round two of the Battle of the
Bay by defeating Cal 79-65, Haley was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week for the
third time.
Journeying north, Stanford split a pair of games,
losing 87-55 to Oregon on Jan. 16 and defeating Oregon State 61-58 on Jan. 19.
Injury
at OSU takes Haley out for season
The latter win proved costly as Haley suffered an
injury that kept her out for the rest of the season.
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| Hannah hugs Ashten as Nadia (4) and Fran add their congratulations. (Stanford Athletics) |
It took overtime, but Stanford defeated Colorado
76-68 at home on Jan. 24. With less than 2 seconds to go in regulation,
Colorado was 64-62, but Ashten took the inbound pass and made a layup to tie
the score.
Senior guard Mikaela Brewer was in uniform for the first
time but didn’t play. Junior forward Alyssa Jerome was in street clothes along
with senior guard DiJonai Carrington and junior forward Maya Dodson.
Defeating Utah 82-49 at home on Jan. 24 was a lot
easier. Among the stat sheet highlights were only five turnovers, compared with
Utah’s 16.
Mikaela played for the first time. She entered with
game with about two minutes to go and snared a rebound.
1990
national championship team honored
The afternoon started on a celebratory note as
players and staff from SWBB’s 1990 national championship team were saluted at
center court.
At the Behind the Bench afterward, associate head
coach Kate Paye called for a moment of silence in memory of retired NBA great
Kobe Bryant, who, with his daughter and seven others, had died in a helicopter
crash in Southern California earlier in the day.
A trip to the Evergreen State netted two wins: 58-41
over Washington on Jan. 31 and 71-49 over Washington State on Feb. 2.
After enduring a 79-69 home loss to UCLA on Feb. 7,
the Cardinal rebounded with a 79-59 victory over USC on Feb. 9, also at home.
During the game, the volleyball team was honored for
its second consecutive national championship and its third in four years.
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| Seniors and their families gather with Tara at center court on Senior Day. (Stanford Athletics) |
Senior
Day celebrated after USC win
Afterward, the four seniors were honored. Even
though two more home games were scheduled, this one was more convenient for the
families of DiJonai, Mikaela, Nadia and guard Anna Wilson.
Venturing to the mountain schools, Stanford returned
with a 97-64 score over Utah on Feb. 14 and 69-66 over Colorado on Feb. 16.
These two games marked Maya’s first for the season.
Although her minutes were limited, she scored 7 points against Utah and 6
against Colorado.
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| Everyone celebrates as her teammates swamp Kiana (seen above the ref's head) after her game-saving heroics against Colorado. (Cliff Grassmick/Boulder Daily Camera) |
The Colorado game was one that likely will go down
in SWBB history thanks to junior guard Kiana Williams. With a mere 13 seconds
to go, she hit a game-tying 3, then stole
the ball and made a 3 from about 40 feet out with just four seconds to
go.
Another home win came Feb. 21 – a tight 63-60 defeat
of Oregon State.
Oregon came away with a 74-66 win on Feb. 24. In
this game, sophomore guard Lexie Hull had a team-high 27 points, the bulk of
them coming from her career-high six 3’s
Stanford then traveled to the desert, where it lost
a 73-72 heartbreaker to Arizona on Feb. 28 but defeated Arizona 55-44 on March
1.
That wrapped up the regular season, but it ended
with some conference honors for the Cardinal. Kiana and Lexie were named to the
All-Pac-12 team. Lexie was named to the All-Defensive team, with honorable
mentions for Kiana, Nadia and sophomore guard Lacie Hull.
Fran and Ashten merited honorable mentions for the
All-Freshman team.
Entering the Pac-12 tournament, the team delivered a
birthday present to Kate by beating Oregon State 68-57 on March 6. It followed
that up with a 67-51 defeat of UCLA, avenging its regular season loss.
Nadia
makes football-like pass to Fran
That game featured another memorable play when Nadia was to inbound the ball under the UCLA basket. She did so with a vengeance, hurling the ball to Fran nearly the entire length of the court, enabling Fran to make an easy layup.
Oregon knocked off the Cardinal 89-56 to capture the
Pac-12 championship on March 8.
Afterward, Lexie and Kiana were named to the
All-Tournament team.
Four days later, on March 12, Tara met with the team
for the last time. There were tears aplenty as this group of players realized
they would never play together again.
And in keeping with Stanford’s order to close the
campus because of the coronavirus, they were all on their way home that
evening.
As the San Francisco Chronicle’s Ann Killion
reported March 15, Mikaela and Nadia have completed their last year of
eligibility and will graduate. However, Anna has already applied for a fifth
year, or redshirt, and DiJonai is expected to do the same. One scholarship is
available for next year.
Now that this 27-6 season is over, we can look
forward to the promise of next season. Assuming life has returned to something
more normal, the 2020-21 team will start summer classes on June 22, arriving a
few days before that.
It'll be without assistant coach Lindy La Rocque. Stanford announced on March 18 that Lindy will become head coach at UNLV in her hometown. She will be missed.
It'll be without assistant coach Lindy La Rocque. Stanford announced on March 18 that Lindy will become head coach at UNLV in her hometown. She will be missed.
