Playing to Pac-perfection

 

The team celebrates with T-shirts, hats and a banner after the Washington game. (Stanford Athletics)

The Stanford women’s basketball team capped off its eighth perfect Pac-12 season and its 25^th conference championship with two close home games.

Defeating Washington State 61-54 on Feb.24 and Washington 63-56 on Feb. 26, the team clinched the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Pac. 12 tournament March 2-6 in Las Vegas.

Before both games, a video featuring head coach Tara VanDerveer and assistant coach Katy Steding paid tribute to WSU’s late head coach, June Daugherty. Tara and Katy knew her well from her stint as an assistant Stanford coach when Katy was a player there. Tara added that they had maintained a friendship after that.

Lexie out of action against WSU

Attended by just over 3,000, the WSU game began minus one of Stanford’s usual starters: Senior guard Lexie Hull was in street clothes. It was reported that she had an injury. Junior guard Hannah Jump replaced her in the starting lineup.

Although Stanford led by 10 or so points throughout the game and outscored WSU in the first three quarters, the visitors tightened it in the fourth quarter by scoring five more points than Stanford, but they weren’t enough to overtake the Cardinal.

On her way to 16 points, Cameron shoots against WSU. (John Hefti/AP)

Sophomore forward Cameron Brink led the team with 16 points and 15 rebounds and four blocks, but she also had five of the team’s 17 turnovers and four of its 13 fouls.

Junior guard Haley Jones also had a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds to go with four of the team’s 13 assists.

Three-pointers were hard to come by with two by Hannah and one each by Cameron, senior guard Lacie Hull and sophomore guard Jana Van Gytenbeek for a total of five. WSU had eight, helping to keep the game relatively close.

Washington proves worrisome

Played before the season’s largest home crowd, 3,777, the Washington game was even more worrisome. It began well enough with Lexie back in the starting lineup and Cameron opening the scoring with a 3-pointer.

However, the first quarter ended with Washington up 17-16 and the second quarter with Washington ahead 34-32. Stanford suffered from poor shooting, just under 33 percent versus the Huskies’ 50 percent. Washington also had more rebounds, but Stanford had only two turnovers to the Huskies’ 10.

Lexie brightened the picture in the third quarter by scoring the team’s first seven points, leading to a 47-46 advantage by the quarter’s end.

With just over six minutes to go in the fourth quarter, Washington was up 53-49.

It mainly led by a point until the final 42 seconds, when the score was 56-55 in the visitors’ favor.

Anna drives past a Washington player. (Scot Tucker/AP)

Anna helps to save the day

That’s when sixth-year guard Anna Wilson’s heroics helped to save the day. After stealing the ball, she made one basket and three free throws, putting her team up 60-56.

Cameron helped to cement the win with two defensive rebounds and a free throw, while Haley topped it off with two more free throws.

Cameron finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds plus five of the team’s six blocks, all with only one foul. Lexie had 15 points plus five of Stanford’s 13 steals.

The team had five 3’s: two each by Lexie and Hannah plus Cameron’s one.

Thus the team capped off its perfect Pac-12 season and received championship hats and T-shirts along with a banner. And it gave Tara the 1,150^th win of her career.

From left: Jordan, Lexie, Lacie, Anna and Alyssa on Senior Day. (John Hefti/AP) 

Senior Day celebrated

Next came lots of flowers, hugs, tears and expressions of love and thanks as the team and fans celebrated Senior Day.

The five honorees -- Anna, fifth-year forward Alyssa Jerome, fifth-year guard Jordan Hamilton, Lexie and Lacie – were accompanied by their parents and other relatives as their accomplishments were enumerated.

Each was honored by a teammate: Anna by Jana, Alyssa by junior forward Ashten Prechtel, Jordan by Haley, Lacie by junior forward Fran Belibi, and Lexie by Hannah.

Since this was Anna’s third Senior Day, it was noted that she had played in 152 games and counting.

Jordan was the team’s first graduate transfer, coming from Northwestern.

Tara commented on Alyssa’s basketball acumen and said she’d be a good coach.

Lexie and Lacie are both graduating with bachelor’s and master’s degrees earned in four years while maintaining high grades.

Their mom, Jaime, said that when Tara was visiting the Hulls on a recruiting trip, Jaime asked what she does to promote team bonding. Tara responded, “We win.”

Next up: the Pac-12 tournament

That’s what the team hopes to do as the Pac-12 tournament gets under way in Las Vegas starting March 2. Since Stanford has a bye as the top seed, its first game is at 2:30 p.m. March 3 against either No. 9 Arizona State or No. 8 Oregon State.

Assuming it wins then, it plays at 6 p.m. March 4. The championship game is set for 3 p.m. March 6.

The Pac-12 Network will televise all of the games except the championship, which will be aired by ESPN2.

The complete bracket is on this FBC site.

In the meantime, Lexie was named Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year on Feb. 28.