Early exit ends 29-6 season

 

Lauren, Haley, Elena and Indya leave the court after the Ole Miss game.

After an easy win in the first round of the NCAA tournament, the one-seeded Stanford women’s basketball team and its fans saw their hopes and expectations dashed with a stinging loss in the second round.

The easy win was a 92-49 victory over 16-seeded Sacred Heart on March 17. The stinging loss was to eight-seeded Ole Miss, 49-54 on March 19.

The Rebels took the opening tip, scored first and never looked back. Stanford trailed by as many as 13 points in the third quarter and tied the game 49-49 only briefly in the fourth quarter. Stanford actually outscored Ole Miss 14-12 in the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t enough.

This loss marked only the first time since 2007 that Stanford didn’t advance to the Sweet Sixteen. In that year, Stanford lost to Florida State, 61-68, in the second round.

Team returns to full roster

Everyone was available after junior forward Cameron Brink and redshirt freshman Jzaniya Harriel had missed the Sacred Heart game.

Although, as reported by head coach Tara VanDerveer, Cameron wasn’t at full strength after a stomach bug, she led the team with a double-double, 20 points and 13 rebounds in 34 minutes despite being harassed, sometimes manhandled by Ole Miss’s tough defense. Half of her points came from the free throw line, where she was 10-10. Oh, and she had seven of the team’s 12 blocks.

Senior guard Haley Jones played all 40 minutes and had 16 points and eight rebounds. Senior guard Hannah Jump had 8 points, six of them by making both of the team’s two 3’s.

The Ole Miss defense contributed to Stanford’s 21 turnovers, while committing 17 of its own.

During halftime, Stanford’s 2022 national championship women’s water polo team was introduced and cheered.

The game was attended by the mostly Stanford crowd of 5,361. However, the Ole Miss band booed the Stanford players when they took to the court for their final pre-game warmups.

Despite the loss, fans cheered the players loudly as they left the Maples court for the last time this season. This was an especially poignant moment for the four seniors, the self-dubbed Funky Four -- Haley, Hannah and forwards Fran Belibi and Ashten Prechtel. However, ESPN reports that Hannah intends to return for the extra year granted in the wake of COVID disruptions.

“We will start off-season workouts in the spring for returners,” said associate head coach Kate Paye in an e-mail. Stanford is on a break until April 3, when the spring quarter starts.

Players on the sidelines celebrate Hannah's buzzer beater against Sacred Heart.

Cameron misses Sacred Heart game

Although Cameron missed the Sacred Heart game because of illness, her teammates made up for the loss of her production with a 92-49 win over the 16 seed to open the first round of the NCAA tournament on March 17 at Maples. It was the Cardinal’s 100^th NCAA tournament win, according to a Pac-12 tweet.

Five players posted double figures: Haley, 17; Hannah and Fran, 12 each plus 10 rebounds for Fran; freshman guard Indya Nivar, 11; and freshman center Lauren Betts, 10.

Four players made up for Cameron’s shot-blocking prowess: Lauren with three; freshman guard Talana Lepolo with two; and Fran and junior guard Agnes Emma-Nnopu with one each.

All 13 available players got in. Jzaniya was the other absentee.

Stanford dominated the team from Fairfield, Conn., in every way, notably rebounds, 57-28; assists, 21-4; and steals, 8-1.

The Cardinal’s six 3’s came from Hannah with four and Indya and sophomore guard Elena Bosgana with one each. Hannah’s buzzer-beating trey that ended the first half broke the season record of 96 held by Karlie Samuelson, ’17, and Jeanette Pohlen, ’11. By game’s end she had 98 for the season.

The game drew a crowd of 4,020 people, some of them sporting something green in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.

The arena was reconfigured with some courtside seating removed to make room for coaches and others to scout the game. Consequently, some season ticket holders had to move.

The band sat in what has been the family section. The Sacred Heart band sat in the Stanford band’s usual area.

The Sacred Heart band taunted Stanford players who missed a free throw by shouting, “You let your whole team down.” It added “again” if the second free throw is missed, too.

Fran took Cameron’s place in the starting lineup, which also included Haley, Hannah, Talana and sophomore forward Kiki Iriafen.

Sacred Heart took a lead of four points early in the first quarter, and the score was tied several times during that period, but the Cardinal soon took over, ending the quarter up 23-18 and leading the rest of the way.

Everyone gets to play

Because the team was doing so well, no one played more than 25 minutes (Haley). Thus bench players had a chance to shine with 39 points. When freshman guards Stavi Papadaki and Lauren Green, who usually don’t play, got in with just under 3½ minutes to go, they were greeted by loud cheers.

At one point late in the second quarter, all four seniors were on the court along with Talana.

Live feeds from other games were shown on the videoboard during breaks. During one break, spirit squads from both teams tossed socks to fans.

The following matchup between No. 9 seed Gonzaga and No. 8 Mississippi ended with Mississippi on top 71-48, making it Stanford’s next opponent.

Before the tournament started, Haley and Cameron were named All-Americans for the second year. Hannah was named an Academic All-American.

 The team ended the season with a 29-6 record.

Photos by Scott Strazzante/SF Chronicle

 

 

No tournament title this year

 

Cameron defends against a UCLA player. (Chase Stevens/AP)

The Stanford women’s basketball team’s hopes for another Pac-12 tournament championship were dashed with a 65-69 loss to UCLA on March 3 in Las Vegas.

Played in front of 5,071 people, the game started well with Stanford leading by 9 points after the first quarter, 13 points at the half and 10 points after the third quarter.

UCLA immediately cut the lead in the fourth and edged ahead by a point with about two minutes to go. Stanford kept trying to regain the lead, but couldn’t quite make it. Several deliberate fouls in the closing seconds were made in hopes of regaining possession, but the UCLA players made their free throws and kept Stanford at bay.

It was a bitter disappointment, especially since Stanford was the No. 1 seed in the tournament and UCLA was No. 5. Moreover, this was Stanford’s second straight game, UCLA’s third, including an overtime win in the first round.

Lower seeded teams advance

Even more surprising were some of the other results with lower seeded teams prevailing. Thus the championship game on March 5 found UCLA facing No. 7 seed Washington State, which had upset No. 2 seed Utah and then No. 3 seed Colorado.

Against UCLA, junior forward Cameron Brink posted a double-double to lead the team with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Senior guard Haley Jones also had a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds.

No other Cardinal scored double figures, but freshman guard Talana Lepolo had 8 points, as did senior forward Fran Belibi. Senior guard Hannah Jump, usually a high scorer, had no points.

The team had four 3’s: two from Talana and one each from junior guard Agnes Emma-Nnopu and sophomore forward Brooke Demetre.

Conference honors five Stanford players

Although the championship eluded Stanford, five Cardinal players earned Pac-12 season honors.

Hannah was named Scholar-Athlete of the Year. She follows in the footsteps of Lexie Hull, ’22; Alanna Smith, ’19; Brittany McPhee, ’18; Chiney Ogwumike,’14; Kayla Pedersen, ’11; and Jayne Appel, ’10.

Hannah also was named to the All-Pac-12 Team, as were Cameron and Haley. In addition, Cameron was named Defensive Player of the Year; and Talana and forward Lauren Betts earned honorable mention on the All-Freshman Team.

Talana, left, and Hannah celebrate a 3-pointer by Hannah. (David Becker/AP)

Stanford begins tournament with win over Oregon

Making its first appearance in the tournament, the team downed Oregon 76-65 on March 2 before a crowd of 4,245.

Oregon, the tournament’s No. 9 seed, had earned the right to play No. 1 seed Stanford by defeating No. 8 Washington the day before.

Stanford opened the game on a 7-0 run before Oregon’s first score at the 6:30 mark. The Cardinal held the lead for the rest of the game and outscored the Ducks in every quarter except the fourth, when they had a 2-point advantage.

Three players in double figures

Even though her playing time was limited by fouls, Cameron was in double figures with 12 points by about halfway through the second quarter. She went on to lead the team with 22 points plus11 rebounds, but – unusual for her – had no blocks.

Hannah also was in double figures with 13 points, thanks to five-of-five free throws and two of the team’s six 3’s.

Talana made two 3’s on her way to 10 points, five assists, two steals and no turnovers.

Agnes had two 3’s as part of her 8 points. Haley, with a team-high 13 rebounds, and Fran, the Energizer bunny off the bench with 10 rebounds, had 8 points each. Lauren, the only other Cardinal to score, had 7 points.

Stanford dominated the stat sheet in almost every category, especially rebounds, with a 56-39 advantage.

With its unexpected departure from the conference tournament, the team now awaits its seeding for the NCAA tournament. Selections will be announced March 12 at 5 p.m. PDT on ESPN.

Assuming a top four seed, Stanford will host the first two rounds March 17 and 19 or March 18 and 20.

The last day of winter quarter classes is March 17. Spring quarter classes start April 3.