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| Lacie and Haley celebrate the tough win over Oklahoma State. (Stephen Spillman/AP) |
Designated the overall No. 1 seed, Stanford opened its NCAA tournament run with an 87-44 first-round drubbing of Utah Valley in San Antonio on March 21 but had a tougher time in defeating Oklahoma State 73-62 on March 23 to advance to the Sweet 16 and face Missouri State at noon March 28.
Stanford led throughout the Oklahoma State
game except for a brief time when the Cowgirls
tied it in the second quarter.
OSU outscored Stanford 23-19 in the third quarter
and equaled the Cardinal 12-12 in the fourth, but it wasn’t enough to overcome
Stanford’s momentum from the first half.
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| Anna shoots. (Stephen Spillman AP) |
Anna opens the game with two 3’s
Fifth-year guard Anna Wilson started
Stanford’s scoring with two consecutive 3’s. Fans were glad to see her back in
action after she had suffered what turned out to be a minor injury in the Utah
Valley game.
Then fans got a scare about halfway through the
third quarter when senior guard Kiana Williams limped off the court after a
fall, but she returned to action for the fourth quarter.
By game’s end, seven players had made 3’s for the
team’s total of 13. Kiana had four, while Anna had three. Sophomore guard Haley
Jones, who doesn’t usually try 3’s, had two.
Also making one trey each were freshman forward
Cameron Brink, junior guard Lexie Hull, sophomore forward Ashten Prechtel and
junior guard Lacie Hull.
Eight
players score
In all, nine players got into the game, and eight
scored. Those in double figures were led by Haley with 17, followed by Kiana
with 13, Cameron with 12 and Anna with 11.
Both teams had 16 turnovers, but Stanford had more assists,
16-14; rebounds, 36-33; and blocks, 6-2. On the other hand, OSU had 10 steals
to Stanford’s seven.
Nevertheless, a win is a win, and in the NCAA
tournament, it means advancing to the Sweet 16.
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| Kiana takes the ball upcourt against Utah Valley. (Charlie Riedel/AP) |
Easy
win against Utah Valley
The Utah Valley game was no contest from the start
as the Cardinal stayed ahead the entire game and outscored UV in every quarter.
It also was an epic homecoming for Kiana, a San
Antonio native, who led the team with 20 points in just 23 minutes. Later she
showed off a T-shirt emblazoned with “She’s coming home.” The first ‘S’ was
formed by the Stanford logo.
Cheered by a large contingent of fans like her
parents, other relatives and friends as well as other players’ families , she
opened the game with a 3-pointer that tied the Stanford career record of 295 set
by Candice Wiggins, ’08. Later in the quarter she added another trey to break
the record.
She finished the game with six 3’s, raising her
overall total to 300. It was the most 3’s in a tournament game by a Cardinal
since Karlie Samuelson, ’14, also had six against Kansas in 2014.
15
3’s make big difference in win
In the meantime, six others also made 3’s. Anna,
Lacie and sophomore guard Hannah Jump had two each. Cameron, freshman guard Jana
Van Gytenbeek and Ashten each added one for a team total of 15 on 33 attempts,
or 45.5 percent success. Overall, the team shot 55.9 percent on its way to the
87-44 victory.
Another impressive number: Eleven players accounted
for 24 assists (seven by Haley), meaning that about 27.6 percent of its points
were assisted. Head coach Tara VanDerveer has always touted the team’s
unselfishness. Or as one of the TV announcers put it, “Sharing is caring.”
All of this came with only eight turnovers on top of
eight blocks and eight steals. Ten players accounted for the team total of 39
rebounds.
Everyone
plays; starters get some rest
Utah Valley was no match for Stanford’s depth as all
12 players had seen action before the end of the second quarter, and no one
played more than 23 minutes. Thus the starters had a chance to rest for the
next contest with the others gained valuable experience.
The only scary part of the game came with just over
seven minutes to go in the fourth quarter when Anna was injured in a fall. She
lay on the court for a few minutes before limping off to see trainer Kaitlin
Knox. She later returned to the bench.
During the post-game news conference, Tara said that
she’ll probably be OK.
Jenna
with the team in San Antonio
On another note: Junior guard Jenna Brown is with
the team in San Antonio. She has missed the entire season with an injury but
appears to be on the road to recovery.
Some more numbers: Tara raised her career winning
record to 1,120. This was the team’s 90th tournament win and its 34th
tourney, according to Associated Press.
The Oklahoma State game added one more win for Tara
and the team.
