Win and loss end the regular season

 

                                    Brooke is closely guarded by a Utah player. (Stanford Athletics)

The Stanford women’s basketball team wound up its regular season schedule on the road with a win, 73-62 over No. 21 Colorado on Feb. 23 in double overtime, and a loss, 78-84 to No. 8 Utah on Feb. 25.

Thus Stanford and Utah share the regular season championship, but Stanford has the top seed in the Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas from March 1-3 and 5.

Stanford’s first game is at 2:30 p.m. March 2 against the winner of the Washington-Oregon game on March 1. If Stanford wins this game, it will play again at 6 p.m. March 3. The championship game is at 2 p.m. March 5.

Pac-12 Networks will televise all of the games except for the championship, which ESPN or ESPN2 will air.

Flight problems limit players’ rest

Going into the Utah game, Stanford had some potential problems because of limited rest. Its two-hour flight from Boulder to Salt Lake City was delayed, not leaving until after 4 a.m. Feb. 24. Thus the players didn’t get to bed in their hotel until about 7 a.m., the TV announcers reported.

Nevertheless, the team started off well as junior guard Agnes Emma-Nnopu, who got the start over sophomore forward Kiki Iriafen, nailed a 3-pointer to open the scoring. The team then went on to a 9-0 start before Utah got two 3’s of its own.

The first quarter ended with Stanford up 17-15, but Utah prevailed after that. Despite getting close several times in the fourth quarter, the Cardinal couldn't close the gap.

Hannah leads team in scoring

Sharp-shooting senior guard Hannah Jump led the team with 24 points, 18 of them from six 3’s. Sophomore forward Brooke Demetre had two 3’s to go with Agnes’s one for the team’s total of nine.

On the other hand, Utah had 12 3’s and prevailed at the free-throw line, 26-11. Twenty-one turnovers also were costly to Stanford. Three in the final minute of play secured the win for Utah before a home crowd of 9,611.

Besides Hannah, the only other Cardinal in double figures was junior forward Cameron Brink with 14 points and 12 rebounds. She also had four of the team’s 11 blocks. She played only 28 minutes because of foul trouble.

Senior guard Haley Jones had 9 points and eight rebounds but fouled out late in the fourth quarter after playing 28 minutes.

Stanford had more rebounds, assists and bench points.

Victory at Colorado gave the team a share of the Pac-12 championship. (Stanford Athletics)

Team triumphs over Colorado in 2 OTs

It took two overtimes, but the Stanford women’s basketball team finally overcame obstacles to defeat No. 21 Colorado 73-62 on Feb. 23.

Even before donning its black road uniforms, the team’s schedule allowed only three days between the UCLA game at home Feb. 20 and the game in Boulder, and that included a travel day. Then there were the time change and the thin air at high altitude.

Once play began, the team went scoreless until just over a minute to go in the first quarter, when Haley made two free throws to prevent a shutout. Brooke made a 3-pointer shortly thereafter, but the quarter ended with an 8-point deficit, 5-13, on 6.25 percent field goal shooting.

There still was a 6-point deficit at the half, but the team led by 6 points after the third, 38-32. Colorado tied it up at the end of the fourth, 48-48. The first overtime also was tied, 60-60, but Stanford scored 11 more points than Colorado in the second OT to claim the victory and clinch the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament.

It was a nerve-wracking affair with numerous ties, lead changes and turnovers (18 by Stanford, 13 by Colorado). Neither team would give up.

Haley, Hannah, Lauren in double figures

Aiding Stanford’s cause were three players in double figures: Haley with 23 points plus 11 rebounds in all 50 minutes, Hannah with 14 plus two rebounds in 41 minutes and freshman center Lauren Betts also with 14 plus eight rebounds in 29 minutes.

After some problems in previous games, Hannah regained her long-range touch to make four 3’s, one of them late in the second OT to help ice the win. Brooke and sophomore guard Elena Bosgana each had one for the team’s total of six.

Because of foul trouble, Cameron was limited to 21 minutes, when she scored an uncharacteristically low 8 points and had only six rebounds, but added four blocks to her ongoing record. She fouled out in the first OT.

Senior forward Fran Belibi came off the bench and hustled to 6 points, eight rebounds, three blocks and a steal.

She, Lauren and senior forward Ashten Prechtel all come from Colorado, so one would assume a contingent of their families and friends was in the crowd of 2,963. Tara’s mother, Rita, lives in Boulder and was there, too.

After this win and the loss to Utah, the team finished the season with a 27-4 record overall and 15-3 in the Pac-12.

 

 

 

 

Two too close for comfort

Fran spins Cameron around after the win over UCLA. (Carlos Avilia Gonzalez/SF Chronicle)

 

It wasn’t pretty, and it wasn’t easy, but the team defeated USC 50-47on Feb. 17, thus avenging the 46-55 loss it suffered at USC on Jan. 15. It then faced more challenges with UCLA on Feb. 20 but came out on top 71-66.

The UCLA game looked as if it would be a romp when the Cardinal led 39-26 at the half, much to the delight of fans in the crowd of 5,813.

However, UCLA came out hot in the third quarter scoring 25 points, while Stanford went cold with only 11 points, thus trailing 50-51 to end that period.

The lead shifted several times in the fourth quarter. Thanks to another two free throws by junior forward Cameron Brink, Stanford led 68-65 with just over a minute to go. Freshman guard Talana Lepolo iced the win with two free throws with just over 12 seconds to go.

Cameron goes a record 15-15 at charity stripe

Cameron led all scorers with 25 points, including a perfect 15-for-15 at the free throw line. Those 15 free throws without a miss were the most by any Cardinal since Candice Wiggins, ’08, went 14-for-14 in 2008, AP reported.

For the game, the team was 23 of 25 on free throws.

Also in double figures were senior guard Haley Jones with 18, freshman center Lauren Betts with 12 and Talana with 11. 

Part of what made UCLA so challenging came from its advantage in rebounds, turnovers and bench points. UCLA had seven 3’s, Stanford four, with three from Talana and one from sophomore forward Brooke Demetre. 

On the other hand, Stanford had six blocks, including the two that Cameron added to her ongoing team record. Senior guard Hannah Jump, usually so accurate from beyond the arc, had no points at all. 

Fran, Hannah, Haley and Ashten were honored after the UCLA game. (Stanford Athletics)

Seniors honored at last regular home game

Because it was Senior Night, head coach Tara VanDerveer gave flowers to UCLA’s seniors before the game and oversaw the salute to Stanford’s seniors after the game. 

Calling themselves the Funky Four (Tara calls them the Fabulous Four or the Final Four), they are Haley and Hannah and forwards Fran Belibi and Ashten Prechtel.

Each one was escorted to center court by family members and received flowers. Announcer Betty Ann Hagenau reported that this class has won 116 games to date and has Pac-12 and national championships on its list of credits.

Fran was the first Cardinal to dunk and has done so in three games. She’s a human biology major.

Haley has amassed numerous honors. So far she has recorded 31 double-doubles and one triple-double. She’s a communications major. A large contingent of family and friends from her hometown of Santa Cruz wore black T-shirts with her name and number.

Hannah, the 3-point specialist, is majoring in psychology.

Ashten will graduate with both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in management science and engineering.

Teammates speak highly of seniors

During this emotional event, each senior was honored by a teammate, starting with Cameron, who called Hannah “a ray of sunshine” through all the team’s ups and downs.

Hannah’s father talked about her early schooling in England before the family moved to California, where she chose basketball over softball. She’s “a very driven individual,” he said.

Lauren and Talana teamed up to salute Fran. Both Lauren and Fran hail from Colorado, where Lauren’s first basketball game was against Fran’s team. She’s “a huge inspiration to me,” Lauren said.

Fran has been helpful to Lauren as she adjusted to college life. Talana echoed similar sentiments, saying “I’m Fran’s second child.”

Fran’s mother, who’s from Africa, spoke proudly about her.

Speaking about Haley, redshirt freshman Jzaniya Harriel said Haley helped her get through her redshirt year last season. Noting that the Jones family has hosted the team several times, Haley’s father praised its sisterhood and community.

Saluting Ashten, junior guard Agnes Emma-Nnopu called her “a great teammate and friend.”

Ashten’s dad talked about her initial interest in several sports, including badminton, and her numbers prowess. She once calculated the value of pi, representing the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, to 200 digits after the number 3.

Ending the event and saluting the seniors, Tara said, “We still have great basketball ahead, and they will be the leaders.”

Haley drives to the basket as Cameron is impeded by a USC player. (Santiago Mejia/SF Chronicle)

USC keeps fans on edge until the final buzzer

The first few plays against USC seemed promising as Stanford got the tip and sophomore forward Kiki Iriafen scored first within the first minute, but USC scored 8 points before Kiki scored the next 3 points.

USC, as it did throughout the game, made some 3’s during that quarter, but Stanford managed to pull ahead18-17 to end the first quarter. The Cardinal also outscored the Trojans in the next two quarters, giving it a 44-37 advantage at the end of the third.

Stanford managed only 6 points in the final quarter, while USC had 10, but the home team came away with the 50-47 win.

It was a highly physical game with lots of pushing, shoving and grabbing, mostly by USC, but the refs called only 10 fouls against the visitors and nine against the hosts.

Cameron owns the SWBB record for blocks. (Santiago Mejia/SF Chronicle)

Cameron sets school record for blocks

Cameron was the only Cardinal in double figures with 12 points to go with 10 rebounds. More notably, she had six blocks, raising her career total to 278 and surpassing the 273 that Jayne Appel, ’10, tallied in four years. Cameron broke the record about halfway through the second quarter.

On hand to watch this historic performance were family friend Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors, along with his daughter, Riley, and 49ers quarterback Trey Lance. Curry was at the UCLA game, too.

Both teams hauled in 43 rebounds, but Stanford had more success in the paint, scoring 34 points there and holding USC to just 2 points in the paint.

For the game, Stanford shot 35.6 percent, compared with USC’s 22.2 percent. USC’s biggest lead was 6 points in the first quarter. Stanford had an 11-point edge in the third.

While USC had eight 3’s, Stanford had only three: two from Hannah and one from freshman guard Indya Nivar. Stanford had 15 bench points, USC none.

Because the corner video displays of team and individual statistics weren’t working, it was impossible to keep track of them. (They were back for the UCLA game.)

The game drew a crowd of 6,343, filling the Maples lot and forcing some people to park elsewhere.

Pink Game supports breast cancer awareness

It was the annual Pink Game in honor of breast cancer awareness. Stanford’s home white uniforms were trimmed in pink, and most of the players wore pink hair ribbons. USC’s uniforms were mostly pink. Early-arriving fans received light-up pink pompons.

The win put Stanford alone atop Pac-12 standings because Utah, then ranked No. 4 nationally by AP, lost to No. 18 Arizona earlier in the day and fell to No. 8 in the latest rankings.

Up next: No. 3 Stanford will complete its regular season schedule by visiting No. 21 Colorado at 2 p.m. Feb. 23 and Utah at 11 a.m. Feb. 25. Pac-12 Networks will televise both  games.

 

 

Dominant in the desert

 

Indya Nivar (12) watches as Agnes's 3-point buzzer beater goes in. (ASU Athletics)

The Stanford women’s basketball team returned from a road trip by adding two decisive wins to its resume: 84-60 over Arizona on Feb. 9 and 96-64 over Arizona State on Feb. 12, raising its season record to 24-3 and its Pac-12 record to 12-2.

These two wins, combined with losses by teams ranked higher than Stanford, elevated the Cardinal to AP’s No. 3 from No. 6.

The ASU game was notable for major contributions from bench players. Junior guard Agnes Emma-Nnopu led the team with 17 points, while freshman center Lauren Betts added 13.

This performance by Lauren, combined with what she did against Arizona, earned her the honor of Pac-12 Freshman of the Week for the first time.

Thirteen players saw action against Arizona State, 11 scored and all contributed in some way.

Among the starters, junior forward Cameron Brink had 15 points and eight rebounds in 12 minutes. She had one block, leaving her just one shy of the Stanford season record of 94 set by Jayne Appel-Marinelli, ’10.

Senior guard Hannah Jump and sophomore forward Kiki Iriafen each had 12 points. Kiki, like Cameron, also had eight rebounds in 13 minutes.

Hannah’s points came from four 3’s, three in the first quarter and one in the second.

Agnes leads team in points, 3’s

But she wasn’t the 3-point leader. That honor went to Agnes, who made five of six in 16 minutes. One of them was a buzzer-beater to end the second quarter.

Adding to the team’s 12 3’s were freshman guard Talana Lepolo, sophomore forward Brooke Demetre and senior forward Ashten Prechtel with one each.

No one played more than 22 minutes (senior forward Fran Belibi, who had 9 points and eight rebounds). Senior guard Haley Jones played 21 minutes and had only 2 points, quite unusual for her, but she had five rebounds, five assists and four blocks.

In all, the bench added 52 points, an indication of the team’s depth. “Tag-team basketbalI,” Cameron said after the game. “Everyone contributed. Everyone played really well.”

Playing in front of 1,759 people, Stanford outscored ASU in the first three quarters and tied in the fourth. For the game, the Cardinal scored 46.1 percent on field goals and held the Sun Devils to 33.3 percent.

The team also led in rebounds, 58-35 and points in the paint, 38-24.

Arizona falls 84-60

Fans watching the Feb. 9 Arizona game on ESPN missed about the first five and a half minutes while a hockey game wrapped up.

When the Arizona game came on, Stanford was winning 10-5. The Cardinal never tied or trailed throughout the game, going on to win 84-60.

At that time, one of Cameron’s nostrils was plugged, but there was no explanation, and it was gone after halftime.

Although Cameron and Haley were the leading scorers with 18 each, plus 12 rebounds for Haley, eight other players scored. Among them was Lauren, who came off the bench to add 12 points and four rebounds in 21 minutes.

Bench players add 31 points

In all, the team had 31 bench points. Fourteen players got into the game, and 10  scored while two others helped in other ways.

Lauren led the team with four of its 10 blocks. Cameron had an unusually low two blocks, but they were enough for her to break her own Stanford season blocking record with 92 – and counting.

Lauren and Cameron excelled in the high-low game with one feeding the ball to the other for a score. This play also was used by other post players, helping the team to reach 50 points in the paint.

The team registered only three 3’s, all of them from Hannah.

Playing before a crowd of 9,868, No. 6 Stanford dominated No. 17 Arizona in nearly every statistical category, including rebounds, 45-27. For the game, it shot 59.3 percent, compared with Arizona’s 35.8 percent.

During the half, the first NCAA tournament reveal was announced. It placed Stanford in the Seattle regional as a one seed, the third of four one seeds.

The team returns to the Farm for its final two home regular season games, hosting USC at 8 p.m. Feb. 17 and UCLA at 6 p.m. Feb. 20. Pac-12 Networks will broadcast the USC game. The UCLA game will be on ESPN2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mixed outcomes after trip to Washington

 

The Huskies' Elle Ledine exults next to Cameron and Brooke. (Stephen Brashear/AP)

The Stanford women’s basketball team returned from the Evergreen State with a decisive win over Washington State 71-38 on Feb. 3 and a painful upset loss to Washington 67-72 on Feb. 5.

The loss dropped Stanford to No. 6 from No. 2 in the AP poll. It also moved the team into a Pac-12 tie with Utah.

With attendance at 4,317 for the Washington game, the Cardinal had a comfortable 17-8 first-quarter lead on 53.85 percent shooting but was outscored in the second and fourth. For the game, Stanford shot 48 percent to Washington’s 43.1 percent, but the home team made four more free throws.

The fourth quarter was a nail-biter with several ties and lead switches even down to the last few seconds, but Stanford ran out of luck.

Cameron not feeling well

The TV announcers said that junior forward Cameron Brink was under the weather, but she started the game and finished with14 points and six rebounds in 27 minutes. While she is known for blocks, she had none in this game.

Senior guard Haley Jones played all 40 minutes and led the team with 18 points and seven assists. Also in double figures were sophomore forward Brooke Demetre with 15 points and senior guard Hannah Jump with 10.

Brooke’s points came from five 3’s, while Hannah had two.

Besides being outscored, the team also was outrebounded, 34-24. Sixteen turnovers didn’t help, nor did 18 fouls. However, several of those fouls came late in the game when Stanford fouled deliberately in hopes of regaining possession and a chance to score.

Ten players got into the game, and six scored.

Lauren shoots over a Washington State player. (Young Kwak/AP)

Defense, depth help in win over WSU

Defense and depth led to the 71-38 domination of Washington State on Feb. 3. Thus the Cardinal spoiled the Cougars’ hopes of defeating Stanford for the first time in all 72 games they have played.

WSU nailed a 3 to start the game, but Stanford took over after that, leading 15-3 after the first quarter. The Cardinal outscored the host team in every quarter thereafter.

All 15 players got into the game, and most of them contributed in some way.

Seen by 1,128 people, this was a game in which no one player needed to post gaudy numbers. Instead, 11 scored as the bench contributed an impressive 37 points, more than half the total.

Haley led the scoring with 13 points. The only other players in double figures were Cameron and freshman center Lauren Betts with 10 each. Cameron played only 16 minutes because of foul problems and probably because others were doing so well.

Lauren’s performance was noteworthy. Besides her 10 points, she snared three rebounds and had two assists, a block and a steal with no fouls or turnovers in 16 minutes, one of her longer playing times.

Five players make 3’s

The balanced scoring extended to seven 3-pointers from five players. Hannah and sophomore guard Elena Bosgana had two each. The others came from junior guard Agnes Emma-Nnopu, Brooke and freshman guard Indya Nivar.

Fans watching at home endured a blank TV screen during several minutes of the third quarter. During that time, the Cardinal poured in 7 more points. The broadcast came back in time to see the rest of the quarter, which ended 51-30.

As might be expected by the final score, Stanford dominated the stat sheet. For the game, field goal shooting was 50 percent, treys 38.9 percent and free throws 85.7 percent.

Stanford takes to the road again to face Arizona at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 9 and Arizona State at 11 a.m. Feb. 12. ESPN will air the Arizona game. The Arizona State game will be seen on Pac-12 Networks.