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| Bench players polish off the win over Washington. (Bettina Hanson/Seattle Times) |
After sweeping Washington State 71-49 on Jan. 27 and 77-49 on Jan. 29, the Stanford women’s basketball team flew across the Cascades to brush off Washington 74-48 on Jan. 31.
The Washington game really was no contest. Stanford fielded
all 12 players, while Washington was missing three starters and had only nine
players available. That was barely enough to practice, according to the TV
announcers.
Coming off the bench, sophomore guard Hannah Jump
led the team with 15 points. In all, the bench contributed 29 points.
Three starters -- junior guard Lexie Hull, senior
guard Kiana Williams and sophomore guard Haley Jones -- each had 12 points. No
one played more than 29 minutes (Lexie and Hannah).
Eight three-pointers helped to boost the score.
Hannah had three, Lexie and Kiana had two each and senior forward Alyssa Jerome
had one.
The team got a scare late in the first quarter when
Haley went down hard on a knee. She sat
out for the rest of that quarter and all of the second but returned to action
in the third.
Only when it came to steals did Washington do better
than Stanford. The Huskies had 10 to the visitors’ nine.
Weekend
starts with win over WSU
The five-day marathon started auspiciously with
Stanford’s 71-49 whipping of Washington State on Jan. 27, a game that made up
for one postponed by a coronavirus concern at WSU.
On her way to a team-leading (with Kiana) 17 points,
Lexie scored the first six points.
The Cardinal dominated both the first and second
quarters, but WSU tried to stage a comeback in the third quarter and outscored
Stanford 19-10. However, it wasn’t enough, as the quarter ended 54-37 in the
visitors’ favor. WSU never held the lead.
Besides 17 points each from Lexie and Kiana, Haley
with 10 and freshman forward Cameron Brink with 12 scored in double figures.
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| Cameron goes for the tip in the first Washington State game (WSU Athletics) |
Cameron also nailed a double-double with 14 rebounds
and led the team with five of its eight blocks. She accomplished all this with
no fouls, a welcome change from some of her previous games.
The team popped in nine 3’s, with three by Kiana,
two by freshman guard Jana Van Gytenbeek, and one each by Lexie, Cameron, Haley
and sophomore forward Ashten Prechtel.
Thus WSU had never defeated Stanford in 68 tries.
Stanford
remains undefeated against WSU
That number rose to 69 as the Cardinal downed the
Cougars 77-49 on Jan. 29.
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| Anna's defense was a big factor in the second victory over WSU. (WSU Athletics) |
In her post-game press conference, head coach Tara VanDerveer
credited fifth-year guard Anna Wilson for holding WSU’s and the Pac-12’s
leading scorer Charlisse Leger-Walker to two points, 17 below her season
average.
“Anna’s defense was phenomenal,” Tara said. “She's a
lockdown defender. ... Her defense really sets the tone for our team.”
Stanford held WSU to 33.3 percent shooting, while
Stanford logged 52.5 percent.
Haley and Kiana both had 16 points to lead the team.
Ashten was the only other Cardinal in
double figures with 11, but a total of nine players scored, with 30 points
coming from the bench. Bench players finished off nearly three minutes of the
game.
As happened in the earlier game, Stanford had nine
3’s: Ashten with three, Kiana and Hannah with two each, and Anna and junior
guard Lacie Hull had one each.
Another standout statistic was 10 blocks: five by
Cameron and one each by Haley, Ashten, Fran, Lacie and Alyssa.
After these three victories raised their record to
15-2 and after a grueling two months on the road, the players finally were allowed to return to campus and their home court, thanks to an easing of restrictions by
Santa Clara County.
The team will have a chance to avenge one of its two
losses when it hosts Colorado at 6 p.m. Feb. 5. Utah will visit at 2 p.m. Feb.
7.
Both games will be televised by Pac-12 Networks.
