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| Alums join the team and staff in honoring Tara. (Stanford Athletics) |
It rained outside over the weekend, but inside Maples the Stanford women’s basketball team reigned, defeating Oregon State 65-56 on Jan. 21 and Oregon 88-63 on Jan. 19.
Thus head coach Tara VanDerveer’s career record vaulted
to 1,203 wins, surpassing former Duke men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski to become the
all-time winningest college basketball coach for either men or women. She
surely would have beaten the record much sooner if she hadn’t taken a year off
to coach the U.S. women’s team to an Olympics victory in 1996.
It wasn’t an easy game, especially since senior
forward Cameron Brink was out after injuring her left leg in the Oregon game.
However, she seemed to be in good spirits and walking without a limp.
Kiki
fills the void and then some
Junior forward Kiki Iriafen stepped up in her place,
scoring a career-high 36 points, more than half of the team’s total. She also
had a game-high 12 rebounds.
Six of Kiki’s points came from the two 3’s she made
late in the third quarter. They were the first of her career.
Sophomore point guard Talana Lepolo also had two 3’s
in her total of 14 points, along with six assists, one steal and only one turnover.
The team’s other two 3’s came from junior forward
Brooke Demetre, contributing to her 10-point total. She started in place of Cameron.
This was the first time the starting lineup had changed all season.
Fans in the near-capacity crowd of 7,022 noted
tenacious defense by redshirt sophomore guard Jzaniya Harriel, who had three of
the team’s seven steals.
The game started slowly with neither team finding
its shooting touch. Thus the first quarter ended with a 10-10 tie, one of six
ties in the game along with eight lead changes. Stanford finished the next
three quarters on the plus side, leading to the 9-point victory.
The weekend wins moved Stanford up to No. 6 from No.
8 in the Jan. 22 AP poll. They also led to ESPN naming Kiki and Tara Player and
Coach of the Week, respectively. The Pac-12 named Kiki its Player of the Week.
Alums
return to honor their coach
Among the crowd were a number of former Stanford
players, who were there to honor Tara. Some of them were with their children
and spouses.
Afterward, a ceremony complete with showers of gold
confetti commemorated Tara’s accomplishments. Ros Gold-Onwude, ’10, served as
emcee. She noted that everyone was there to honor the “historic achievement of
our coach. … She’s so humble, that’s why they brought me here.”
Ros sat on a center court podium in front of lighted
letters “1203” to question fellow alums Chiney Ogwumike, ’14, and Jennifer
Azzi, ’90, who was one of Tara’s earliest recruits.
Players, coaches, staff and alums all received
T-shirts reading “1,202 ... And One.” Tara also got a commemorative jacket
and jersey.
A video featured tributes from such people as Billie
Jean King, Warriors coach Steve Kerr, Hoover Institute director Condoleezza
Rice. Coach K himself, Chiney and her sister Nneka, ’12, South Carolina head
coach Dawn Staley and Lisa Leslie. Like Jennifer, Dawn and Lisa were on the
1996 Olympic team that Tara coached to a gold medal.
As the current team listened from the bench, Tara
began her remarks by thanking everyone for being there and noting that her
record couldn’t have been possible without so many great players and coaches at
a great university. “I am very overwhelmed,” she said.
Team
registers win over Oregon despite loss of Cameron
The 88-63 victory over Oregon on Jan. 19 was marred
by a left leg injury to Cameron during the latter half of the first quarter.
Limping, she was helped off the court and to the locker room after contributing
6 points, two rebounds, an assist and a steal in six minutes.
At that point, her team led 20-2 after holding the
Ducks scoreless before then. She walked slowly to the bench a few minutes later
as the crowd of 4,556, including the band, Tree, cheerleaders and Dollies,
cheered. She then spent some time watching the game from an exercise
bike.
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| Cameron and Kiki lift Tara after the Oregon win tied her for all-time best. ((Bob Drebin isiphotos.com) |
She was missing at the start of the third quarter. When she returned later in the quarter, there was a brace on her leg. It didn’t seem to hinder her after the game when Kiki and she hoisted Tara to celebrate her tying Coach K’s record.
During the national anthem, which was whistled by
Taein Kim to a band recording, the on-court camera showed Cam whistling along
with her. As the team returned to its warm ups, she high-fived the little girl.
Courtney
misses her third game because of injury
Another missing piece of the roster was freshman
forward Courtney Ogden, who didn’t play in the Utah and Colorado games the previous
weekend because of an injury. She warmed up with the team and sat on the bench
for this game, but when she returned after halftime, she was in sweats. She did
play briefly in the Oregon State game.
Despite missing those two players, the rest of the
team rallied with nine players scoring, five of them in double figures. They
were led by Kiki, who had 21 points, 15 rebounds and two emphatic blocks before
fouling out late in the fourth quarter.
Talana tallied 13 points plus eight assists and
three rebounds with only one turnover. Freshman forward Nunu Agara had 12
points, junior guard Elena Bosgana 11 and Brooke 10.
Talana and Elena each had three of the team’s 10
3’s. Graduate guard Hannah Jump and Jzaniya each had two. To most of the crowd,
it appeared that Nunu had three 3’s, but the box score shows no 3’s for her.
Stanford led throughout the game, several times by
more than 20 points.
Coming up next is a trip to the desert to play Arizona
State at 5 p.m. Pacific Time on Jan. 26 and Arizona at 11 a.m. Pacific Time on
Jan. 28. Pac-12 Networks will show both games.
