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| Cameron celebrates a teammate's accomplishment. (Stanford Athletics( |
With finals and the season’s lone loss in the
rearview mirror, the Stanford women’s basketball team continued along the
winning road by defeating Portland 81-51 Dec. 15 at Maples.
It wasn’t as easy as the final score might suggest.
First, only 10 of the 12 players were available.
Both redshirt sophomore guard Jzaniya Harriel and freshman forward Courtney
Ogden were in street clothes and on the bench.
Second, the second quarter laid bare some of the
team’s vulnerabilities. With senior forward Cameron Brink and junior forward
Kiki Iriafen, two of the team’s highest scorers, on the bench because of two fouls
each, the visiting Pilots outscored their hosts 16-8.
After no turnovers in the first quarter, the team
had seven in the second, but it ended the game with only 10 turnovers total,
while Portland had 14.
Second-quarter defense was iffy as the visitors
scored some easy baskets. The crowd of 2,875, including the band, wasn’t happy
with some of the calls against Stanford either.
Still, the Cardinal held an 11-point lead, 36-25, as
the first half ended.
In the first quarter, Cameron made the first two
baskets. Coming off the bench, junior forward Brooke Demetre made three baskets
in a row before limping off with under two minutes to go in that quarter. She appeared
to walk it off, returned to the bench and got into the game later. However, she
got hit in the eye about halfway through the fourth quarter and didn’t return
to action.
Still, she was one of four Cardinal players in
double figures with 10 points. Cameron led everyone with 23 points plus 15
rebounds, four assists and four blocks in 29 minutes.
Kiki added 13 points in 15 minutes. Freshman forward Nunu Agara also had 10
points. Junior guard Elena Bosgana was in double figures, too, with 10 rebounds
(plus eight points).
The starting lineup remained the same as it has all
season with Cameron, Kiki, Elena, sophomore guard Talana Lepolo and grad
student guard Hannah Jump.
The team had an unusually low four 3’s. Three of them
were by Hannah, who tied the program record of 311 set by Kiana Williams, ’21.
However, Kiana played 4,336 career minutes while Hannah is at 3,042, according
to AP. Elena had the team’s other trey.
During halftime, Stanford staff displayed containers
of unwrapped toys that fans had donated to the holiday toy drive benefiting the
Ronald McDonald House on Sand Hill Road in Palo Alto.
In the third quarter, the Portland coach was
assessed a technical foul, sending
Cameron to the free-throw line, where she made one of two attempts. For the
game she was 11 of 13 to lead the team.
With its season record of 9-1, Stanford next hosts
UC Davis at 1 p.m. Dec. 20 before taking a
break for Christmas.
