The 2024-24 team features 14 players (Stanford Athletics photo)
The Stanford women’s basketball
team made history by defeating Le Moyne College of DeWitt, N.Y., 107-43 in its
first game of the regular season Nov. 4.
It was head coach Kate Paye’s first
win since taking the reins from Tara VanDerveer, college basketball’s all-time
winningest coach. Tara retired after last season.
Moreover, the team set a program
record with 18 3’s. Redshirt junior guard Jzaniya Harriel was responsible for
six of them, while senior guard Elena Bosgana had four (including Stanford’s
first basket of the game), and sophomore guard Chloe Clardy had three.
Senior forward Brooke Demetre and
freshman forward Harper Peterson each pitched in with two. Sophomore forward
Nunu Agara had one.
Jzaniya tosses in 24 points
Jzaniya led the team with 24
points, followed by Elena with a career-high 19, Nunu with 18 and Chloe with
15. In all, 10 players scored.
Another notable statistic was that
the team had 25 assists to the Dolphins’ seven. The Cardinal also had more
steals and rebounds and fewer turnovers.
The starting lineup featured Elena,
Nunu, Brooke, Jzaniya and sophomore guard Talana Lepolo. Thirteen of the team’s
14 players were available, all played and all contributed in some way. The only
inactive player was junior guard Tess Heal.
The game started in less than
stellar fashion. Shooting seemed off, and the team had a hard time getting the
ball inside. The shorter Le Moyne players, on the other hand, had good ball
movement.
However, Stanford had a 16-10 lead
after the first quarter, in which eight players saw action.
Between the first
and second quarters the men’s basketball team came onto the court wearing VOTE T-shirts in
recognition of the national election the next day, which was Stanford Democracy
Day.
By the end of the half, the score
was 50-22, and 11 players had seen action.
During the third quarter, junior
guard Stavi Papadaki, usually a bench player, got into the game to loud cheers by both
the crowd and her teammates. Those cheers grew even louder a few seconds later
when she made a decisive block, one of the team’s four.
Moreover, the team did a better job
of shooting from mid-range and getting the ball inside.
Newcomers do well
Four of the newcomers did well in
their debuts: Harper and sophomore transfer forward Mary Ashley Stevenson with
six points each, freshman center Kennedy Umeh with five points and freshman guard
Shay Ijiwoye with two points.
The crowd of 2,887 included the
band and Tree. Betty Ann Hagenau was in her familiar role as announcer.
Stanford's 64-point margin of victory tied for fifth best in program. Its 107 points were the most since 108 against Cal Poly on Nov. 25, 2020.
Tougher tests await the Cardinal with three more home games: 7 p.m. Nov. 7 against Washington State, noon Nov. 10 against Gonzaga, and 7 p.m. Nov. 13 against UC Davis.
The Gonzaga game will be shown on ESPN2, the others streamed on ACCNX. The Gonzaga game will be highlighted with the dedication of the Maples court to Tara.
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