 |
| 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.
