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| Confetti showers the team and coaches after the UCLA win. (Las Vegas Review Journal) |
Cheered by family members, the Stanford women’s basketball team completed its sweep of the Pac-12 by winning the conference tournament in Las Vegas after finishing on top during the season.
The Cardinal defeated UCLA 75-55 on March 7 to
clinch an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Stanford began the conference tournament with a
92-53 blowout over USC on March 4.
Stanford
dominates USC in first game
The outcome was never in doubt as the Cardinal
dominated the Trojans in nearly every statistical category.
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| Haley and Cameron celebrate during the USC game. |
While USC had no players in double figures, Stanford
had four: sophomore forward Ashten Prechtel with a team-leading15 plus 11
rebounds for a double-double, sophomore guard Haley Jones with 14 plus 10 rebounds
for another double-double, sophomore guard Hannah Jump also with 14 and junior
guard Lacie Hull with 10.
USC managed only two 3’s, while Stanford had 15,
tying a tournament record set by Oregon last year, according to the TV
announcers. Hannah had four, Lacie had three, and junior guard Lexie Hull and
Ashten had two each.
Freshman forward Cameron Brink, fifth-year guard Anna
Wilson, senior guard Kiana Williams and senior forward Alyssa Jerome had one
each.
Stanford dominated on the glass with 54 rebounds to
USC’s 33.
Bench
players add 54 points
Bench players, who took over in the fourth quarter,
contributed 54 points, one more than USC’s total score.
Everyone played, including Lacie, who had missed the
two previous games with an injury, and everyone contributed in some way.
Everyone played at least nine minutes, and no one played more than 22.
One concern: Free-throw shooting could have been
better, only nine of 14, or 64.3 percent. Also, there were 14 turnovers, but
they were offset by 21 assists. In fact, the first score came from an assist
when Cameron passed to Haley as she made a back-door cut.
Interviewed after the game, Haley was asked about
the team’s arduous season when COVID-19 restrictions forced it to play 16
consecutive games on the road, moving from hotel to hotel and living out of
suitcases for more than two months. “We’re never giving up,” she said.
Slow
start over OSU
Certainly the team didn’t give up against Oregon
State the next day, March 5, when the first quarter ended in a 13-13 tie. By
the end of the fourth quarter, though, Stanford had a 79-45 advantage.
OSU scored first and initially grabbed most of the
rebounds. Stanford’s first basket didn’t come until the 6:48 mark, when Lexie
scored, was fouled and made the free throw.
The second quarter began going the Cardinal’s way,
ending 33-22 at the half.
The gap widened to 55-32 after three quarters,
leading to victory at the end, when most of the bench players were in.
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| Cameron gets a high-five from a teammate in the OSU game. (Kirby Lee/USA Today Sports) |
Cameron
scores career-high 24
Cameron proved to be a major factor in this victory,
scoring a career-high 24 points to go with 11 rebounds, four blocks and only
one foul – a marked improvement from some past games. With her obvious energy
and enthusiasm, the TV announcers called her fiery.
Kiana wasn’t far behind with 20 points, followed by
Lexie with 12 and Hannah with 10.
Nine treys helped the cause, with five from Kiana,
two from Hannah and one each from Cameron and Lexie.
OSU’s early rebounding advantage vanished, too.
Stanford finished with 48, OSU, 32.
Then there was the tough defense, signified by 10
steals while allowing only one OSU player to score in double figures.
Unselfishness helped, with 15 assists and only five turnovers.
The team got a boost from the presence of several
family members. Those shown on TV included members of the Hull, Williams and
Wilson families.
Interviewed after the game, Tara called the victory
“a great team win for us.”
20-point
win over UCLA
Stanford logged another great win two days later, March 7, with its 75-55 defeat of UCLA for the championship.
TV viewers were initially frustrated when ESPN2 was
showing a college wrestling tournament at game time. The game’s start was
delayed, but it was already under way with Stanford ahead by the time I managed
to find the right station.
The first quarter ended 24-11. The Stanford defense
held UCLA to only nine points in the second quarter, while the offense scored
19, closing out the half at 43-20.
Team
lags in third quarter, but revs up
Things got dicey in the third quarter when UCLA
outscored Stanford 20-11, but still the quarter ended with Stanford up 54-40.
Cold shooting and turnovers plagued the Cardinal. It also hurt that Cameron had
to go to the bench with four fouls.
The Cardinal righted the ship in the fourth quarter,
allowing head coach Tara VanDerveer to send in the bench to finish the game. In
the meantime, Cameron had returned to action but fouled out with under six
minutes to go.
Stanford had 10 3’s, thanks to six from Kiana, three
from Lexie and one from Lacie.
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| Kiana goes for 3 against UCLA. (Erica Chang/Isiphotos.com) |
Kiana also led the team in scoring with 26 points,
followed by Lexie with 24 and Haley with 10, plus 13 of the team’s 38 rebounds.
While the players received championship hats and
T-shirts and were showered with red and white confetti, Tara was interviewed
and said, “This is just the beginning of a great tournament run. … We were
tough.”
Cardinal
rack up conference, tournament honors
It came as no surprise to anyone when Kiana was
named the tournament’s most outstanding player. In addition, Lexie and Cameron
were named to the all-tournament team.
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| Anna's defense, as here in the OSU game, merited Pac-12 defensive honors. (Bryan Steffy/AP) |
Earlier in the month, Stanford collected conference
honors. Anna was named co-defensive player of the year and part of the
all-defensive team. Lacie was named sixth player of the year. Lexie, Haley and
Kiana were named to the 15-member all-conference team, and Cameron was named to the all-freshman team.
To top it off, Tara was named coach of the year.
Next up for the Cardinal is the NCAA tournament,
which starts March 21 in the San Antonio area. It ends with the championship
game April 4 in San Antonio.
Brackets and teams will be announced during the
selection show March 15.
In the meantime, the players can focus on academics
before classes end March 19. Spring quarter starts March 29.
Although Texas has lifted COVID restrictions, Tara
told the San Francisco Chronicle’s Ann Killion that Stanford will continue to
follow all the precautions that helped it get so far.
“The Stanford team is determined that, even in a
state where the governor thinks magically declaring the pandemic over makes it
so, it will keep all eyes on the ultimate goal,” Killion wrote.
“ ‘Our team has been very disciplined,’ VanDerveer
said. ‘We’ve worked very hard to get here. We are focused on playing well. We
do not want to test positive.’”
And as the TV announcer said during the USC game, “March is Tara time.”
