Happy players and staff with their new Pac-12 trophy. (Stanford Athletics)
The Stanford women’s basketball team has returned
from Oregon with two more wins and a shiny new trophy.
With an 87-63 victory over Oregon State on Feb. 18,
the team clinched its 25th conference season championship and
received the trophy.
It went on to top Oregon 66-62 on Feb. 20, thus
upping its overall record to 23-3 and its Pac-12 record to 14-0.
Depth played a major role in the Oregon State game
as all 15 available players got onto the court and 12 scored. Senior guard
Jenna Brown and freshman guard Jzaniya Harriel, who haven’t played all season,
didn’t make the trip.
Lexie
leads with 21 points
Senior guard Lexie Hull led the scoring with 21
points, followed by junior guards Haley Jones and Hannah Jump with 13 each.
Haley also had 10 rebounds for a double-double. Junior forward Fran Belibi
contributed 10 rebounds plus seven points.
Sophomore forward Cameron Brink, normally one of the
team’s best players, had only five points and two rebounds because foul trouble
kept her on the bench for all but seven minutes.
Eight 3-pointers helped the cause with three by
Hannah, two by Lexie and one each by sixth-year guard Anna Wilson, Haley (a
rarity for her) and sophomore guard Jana Van Gytenbeek, returning after an
absence due to COVID protocols.
Playing in front of a crowd of just over 5,000, Stanford
dominated in all statistical categories, most notably rebounds, 37-29, and assists,
17-9. Free-throw shooting could have been better, only 15 of 23, but the team
limited its turnovers to 10.
Although Stanford led after every quarter, the game
was relatively tight until the fourth quarter, when the Cardinal scored 27
points to OSU’s 14.
Haley makes an unbelievable shot in the final minutes against Oregon. (Thomas Boyd/AP)
Team
comes from behind to beat Oregon
With the arena filled with nearly 9,000 people, the
Oregon game was a come-from-behind nail-biter as Stanford had trouble scoring
initially and trailed throughout much of the game, sometimes by as many as 11
points. It led for only 84 seconds during the game, AP reported, but the final
seconds clinched the game.
It took some late heroics by Haley. For example, in
a highlight play, she made a layup while falling and added a free throw to put
the Cardinal up 63-60. She
wound up with 18 points.
Lexie made some clutch free throws and finished with
nine.
Bench
players help out
The Cardinal got some key contributions off the
bench, especially by freshman forward Kiki Iriafen, whose 11 points made her
the only other Cardinal in double figures; and by sophomore guard Agnes
Emma-Nnopu, who, among others, played tight defense. She also added one of the
team’s three 3’s. The others came from Anna and senior guard Lacie Hull.
Cameron fouled out in the fourth quarter after
playing only 19 minutes and adding just eight points and three rebounds.
Stanford wraps up its regular season by hosting
Washington State at 8 p.m. Feb. 24 and Washington at noon Feb. 26, Senior Day.
Pac-12 Network will carry both games.
