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| Lexie scored a career-high 33 points against Oregon at home Jan. 7. (John Hefti/AP) |
Traveling north to begin its perfect Pac-12 season, the Stanford women’s basketball team defeated
Washington State 82-44 on Jan. 2 despite having only 10 players available.
The team had been scheduled to open the season at
Washington on Dec. 31, but that game was postponed because of COVID issues
there.
Missing for the WSU game were sophomore forward
Cameron Brink, fifth-year forward Alyssa Jerome, junior forward Ashten
Prechtel, sophomore guard Agnes Emma-Nnopu and freshman guard Brooke Demetre.
Redshirt junior guard Jenna Brown and freshman guard Jzaniya Harriel didn’t
make the trip.
Head coach Tara VanDerveer said five were out for
COVID protocols and another was in a car accident but was OK.
Junior guard Haley Jones to secure the victory
against a team that has never beaten the Cardinal by scoring 24 points and
snaring 16 rebounds in 34 minutes.
Playing just 14 minutes, freshman forward Kiki
Iriafen had 13 points and eight rebounds.
Afterward, Haley was named Pac-12 Player of the Week
and Kiki was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week.
Finally back home with a nearly full contingent, the
team defeated Oregon 80-68 on Jan. 7 and Gonzaga 66-50 in a nonconference
rematch on Jan. 9.
Gonzaga was a last-minute fill-in for Oregon State,
which had to cancel because of COVID issues there.
Lexie
logs 33 points against Oregon
In the Oregon game, the undoubted highlight was the
game-high and career-high 33 points by senior guard Lexie Hull, who seemed almost
unstoppable.
Because of COVID issues imposed by Stanford,
attendance at both games was limited to players’ families and friends.
Haley led with way against Gonzaga with 21 points.
Hitting the road again, Stanford defeated Colorado,
which had been the only undefeated Division 1 team, 60-52 on Jan. 14 and Utah
83-73 on Jan. 16.
In the Colorado game, Stanford trailed 28-24 at the
half after committing 15 turnovers, but righted the ship in the second half.
The Utah game was a seesaw affair with the lead shifting
six times.
Leading by as many as 13 points in the second
quarter, Utah had a 37-30 lead at the half. Stanford had 10 turnovers during
that half, but only two in the second half while outscoring the Utes.
Cameron shoots in front of a Utah defender. (Rick Bowmer/AP)
Cameron had another double-double, 24 points and 11
rebounds, leading to Pac-12 Player of the Week honors for her.
Stanford
beats Cal at home; game at Cal postponed
Stanford rolled over the visiting Cal team 97-74 on
Jan. 21, but its Jan. 23 trip across the bay for a rematch was postponed
because of COVID issues at Cal.
Stanford’s 97 points were the most it had scored so
far, but Cal’s 74 turned out to the most it allowed all season.
Haley was Stanford’s do-it-all player with 26 points
and 10 rebounds. Junior guard Hannah Jump was next with 21, followed by junior
forward Fran Belibi with her season-high 20 and Cameron with 12.
Tara used 14 players. Sixth-year guard Anna Wilson
was in uniform but didn’t play. Tara said she was slightly under the weather.
Fifth-year guard Jordan Hamilton filled in for her and had a team-high seven
assists.
Fans
allowed back in Maples after six weeks
Allowed in Maples for the first time since the UC
Davis game on Dec. 15, fans saw the team defeat Arizona State 78-50 on Jan. 28
and Arizona 75-69 on Jan. 30.
Stanford was missing Hannah and freshman guard Elena
Bosgana for unexplained reasons in the ASU game.
Hannah had been a starter in recent games, so Anna
stepped in for her.
Coming into the game later, sophomore guard Jana Van
Gytenbeek did her best Hannah imitation with three 3’s for nine points.
Logging 12 points each were Fran, Kiki and Haley,
who had 10 rebounds for a double-double.
The Arizona game was a rematch of the national
championship game that Stanford won 54-53 in April.
It wasn’t that close this time with Stanford winning
75-69 after leading most of the way.
Cameron had an epic game with 25 points, 15
rebounds, three blocks and two steals. As a result of her performance over the
weekend, she was named Pac-12 Player of the Week for the third time.
Jana continued her Hannah imitation with a
career-best 18 points on six 3’s.
This Tara bobblehead honors the 2021 national championship. (Stanford Athletics)
Fans
get Tara bobblehead
The first 3,000 fans at Maples received a Tara
bobblehead showing her waving in the parade that followed the national
champions’ return to campus in April.
A Behind the Bench followed as associate head coach
Kate Paye introduced three of the freshmen: Kiki, Jzaniya and Brooke. Tara
later said that the other freshman, Elena, was expected for the next game, as
was Hannah.
Making its annual trek south, the team returned home
with two more wins: 76-48 over UCLA on Feb. 3 and 83-57 over USC on Feb. 6.
The UCLA win came without two of the team’s top
scorers, Haley and Hannah, along with Agnes because of COVID protocols.
Hannah and Elena were in uniform but didn’t play
because they hadn’t had two practices as required by Stanford.
Fran replaced Haley in the starting lineup and went
on to lead the team with 20 points and 13 rebounds.
Also recording a double-double was Lexie with 14
points and 10 rebounds. Haley and Agnes were still out.
Stanford led the entire way as Cameron scored 26
points and snared 14 rebounds.
After her weekend performance, she was named Pac-12
Player of the Week for the second straight week and the fourth time to date.
Three
home wins in six days
Continuing its winning ways at home, the team beat
Oregon State 82-59 on Feb. 9, Utah 91-64 on Feb. 11 and Colorado 63-46 on Feb.
13.
The Oregon State game marked the return of Haley,
Hannah and Agnes. On the other hand, Jana was out because of COVID protocols.
That game also was noteworthy for balanced scoring
with five players in double figures: Hannah, Fran, Cameron, Lexie and Kiki.
Moreover, the team had only six turnovers while OSU had 17.
In defeating Utah two days later, the team unleashed
another balanced attack with six players in double figures: Lexie, Haley, Anna,
Cameron, senior guard Lacie Hull and Fran.
Jana was still out for that game and Colorado.
The Colorado game on Feb. 13 was a rough-and-tumble
affair with Stanford trailing 30-29 at the half.
Things seesawed in the third quarter until Stanford
pulled ahead to stay with just under four minutes left, ending that period
43-35, thus holding Colorado to only five points.
Four players were in double figures: Lexie, Cameron
(plus 11 rebounds), Anna and Haley.
25th
conference championship cinched at OSU
A two-game road trip resulted in two more wins along
with a new trophy.
With an 87-63 victory over Oregon State on Feb. 18,
the team clinched its 25th conference championship and received the
trophy.
It went on to top Oregon 66-62 on Feb. 20.
Lexie led the scoring in the OSU game with 21
points, followed by Hannah and Haley, who also had 10 rebounds for a
double-double, while Fran had 10 rebounds plus seven points.
Foul trouble kept Cameron on the bench for all but
seven minutes, giving her time for only five points.
With the Oregon arena filled with 9,000 people,
Stanford’s win was a come-from-behind nail-biter as the Cardinal trailed for
most of the game, sometimes by as many as 11 points. It led for only 84
seconds, but clinched the 66-62 win in the final seconds.
Despite falling, Haley made a basket and got a free throw against Oregon. (Thomas Boyd/AP)
It took some late heroics by Haley. For example, in
a highlight play, she made a basket while falling and added a free throw to put
her team up 63-60. She wound up with 18 points.
Cameron fouled out in the fourth quarter after
playing only 19 minutes and adding just eight points.
Conference
season ends perfectly
Going home, the team capped off its eighth perfect
Pac-12 season and its 25th conference championship by defeating Washington
State 61-54 on Feb. 24 and Washington 63-56 on Feb. 26, thus clinching the No.
1 seed in the conference tournament.
Lexie was in street clothes for the Washington game.
It was reported she had an injury. Hannah replaced her as a starter.
Despite accruing four fouls, Cameron led the team
with 16 points, 15 rebounds and four blocks. Haley also had a double-double.
Played before the season’s largest home crowd, 3,777,
the Washington game began well enough with Lexie back in the starting lineup
and Cameron opening the scoring with a three-pointer.
Washington was ahead in the first two quarters, but
Lexie helped in the third quarter by scoring the team’s first seven points
leading to a 47-46 edge going into the fourth quarter.
With just over six minutes to go in the game,
Washington was up 53-49. It led by a point, 56-55, until the final 42 seconds.
That’s when Anna 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,
making the final score 63-56.
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.
Thus the team capped off its perfect Pac-12 season
and received championship hats, T-shirts and a banner. It also gave Tara the
1,150th win of her career.
Coming
next: Part 3, the tournaments
