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| Haley shows off the USA Basketball plaque she got from Tara. |
After a four-game road trip and a break for finals,
the Stanford women’s basketball team swung back into action with victories of
91-62 over Pacific on Dec. 12 and 68-42 over UC Davis on Dec. 15.
Prior to the Pacific game, head coach Tara
VanDerveer presented junior guard Haley Jones a plaque honoring her role on USA
Basketball’s FIBA AmeriCup championship team, a role that earned her a gold
medal.
Then in the present, Haley was one of the starters
along with senior guards Lexie Hull and Lacie Hull, junior guard Hannah Jump
and sophomore forward Cameron Brink.
By game’s end, she was one of the four players in
double figures with 11 points in 17 minutes.
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| Cameron drives to the basket on her way to 25 points against Pacific. |
Cameron scores career-high 25
Cameron led the way with a career-high 25 points
plus 11 rebounds and four blocks. Lexie added 16 points, and Hannah had 12
points in a game-high 29 minutes.
Pacific stayed fairly close during the first two
quarters, which ended with a 45-34 Stanford lead. After that, the Cardinal
women turned on the jets.
Before the final buzzer sounded, all 14 available
players had seen action and all contributed to the comfortable lead in some way.
Freshman forward Kiki Iriafen scored the game’s final seven points, giving her
a total of nine in just six minutes.
The team’s seven 3’s were produced by Hannah with
three, Lexie with two, and Haley and sixth-year guard Anna Wilson with one
each.
Redshirt junior guard Jenna Brown was still
sidelined while recovering from an injury last season. Freshman guard Jzaniya
Harriel was in uniform and warmed up with the team but has been sidelined all
season. Sophomore guard Jana Van Gytenbeek wasn’t there.
Nneka
visits Maples
Closely observing the action was former Stanford
great Nneka Ogwumike, ’12, a WNBA player who was named one of the league’s 25
all-time best players this year. Sitting courtside next to associate head coach
Kate Paye’s younger daughter, she was introduced to cheers by the crowd of
2,789 during the first quarter.
During a break during the first half, it was noted
that it was a year ago when Stanford visited Pacific and won, tying Tara for the
women’s coach with the most career wins.
This win moved Stanford up to No. 3 from No. 4 in
the Dec. 13 AP poll.
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| Tara, wearing her T-Dawg jacket, is celebrated by the team. |
Happy
anniversary, Tara
The Davis game held special significance for Tara.
It was exactly one year earlier that she became the all-time winning women’s
basketball coach, surpassing the late Pat Summitt of Tennessee.
Since then, her career win total has reached 1,132,
including the current Davis game.
Early-arriving fans received rally towels inscribed
with “Tara at the Top.”
Videos from her career, including comments from
present and former players, were shown during the game. Some of them cited
their favorite Tara-isms, sayings unique to the coach.
Alumna Kaylee Johnson,’18, was on hand to watch
the game.
Another video followed the final buzzer, and
athletic director Bernard Muir paid tribute to Tara.
Tara
believes in more magic
Tara then spoke briefly, saying, “Last year was a
magical year,” referring to all the difficulties the team faced on its way to
the national championship.
She was wearing the T-Dawg inscribed quilted jacket
given to her by the team last year.
“I believe we still have that magic,” she said, as the
team rushed her for a group hug.
The magic wasn’t always in place during the game as
the team shot only 43.1 percent overall. However, stout defense limited the
Aggies to 30.9 percent.
And the team limited its turnovers to eight while
recording 13 assists, showing how well the magic can work. Rebounding also was
a plus, 46 compared with 31 by Davis.
Hannah
logs most minutes, points
Starters for this game were the same as for the
Pacific game with Hannah again playing the longest, 37 minutes, followed
closely by Lexie with 34 minutes.
Hannah also led the team in scoring with 17 points.
Cameron logged 11 points plus 10 rebounds for another double-double. Lacie
added 10 points.
Nine of Hannah’s points came from three 3’s. Lacie
had the only other 3-pointer.
All 14 available players got into the game. As she
did with Pacific, Jzaniya warmed up with the team but didn’t play. Jana was
back but was in street clothes, along with Jenna.
Four-game
road trip upcoming
Now the team hits the road again, this time to face No.
7-ranked Tennessee at 2:15 p.m. Dec. 18 and No. 1 South Carolina, the team it
edged out in the semi-final game of the Final Four, at 4 p.m. Dec. 21. ESPN2
will televise both games, which conclude the pre-conference season.
After a short break for Christmas, it’s back on the
road once more, this time to tip off the Pac-12 season by playing Washington at
7 p.m. Dec. 31 and Washington State at noon Jan. 2. Both games can be seen on
the Pac-12 Network.
The first home games of 2022 are scheduled for 7
p.m. Jan. 7 against Oregon and 3 p.m. Jan. 9 against Oregon State. The Pac-12 Network will air both games.
Winter quarter classes start Jan. 3, but Stanford
announced Dec. 16 that they will be virtual for two weeks. There was no word on
whether fans would be allowed at games during that time.
Photos by Stanford Athletics
