New year opens with two road loses

The Stanford women’s basketball team’s first cross-country ACC games found it losing to Southern Methodist University 63-67 on Jan. 2 in Dallas and to Clemson in overtime 61-65 on Jan. 5 in South Carolina.

Head coach Kate Paye reconfigured the starting lineup against Clemson. Freshman guard Shay Ijiwoye and sophomore guard Chloe Clardy replaced redshirt junior guard Jzaniya Harriel and junior guard Tess Heal at the tipoff.

Shay played just over 28 minutes and recorded three points and three steals before fouling out in overtime. Chloe also fouled out in OT after playing just over 24 minutes and scoring four points.

Sophomore forward Nunu Agara, a starter, led the team with 18 points and 11 rebounds. She gave everyone a scare late in the second quarter when she seemed to hurt a knee and had to be helped off the court.

However, much to everyone’s relief, she returned about halfway through the third quarter and seemed to have suffered no ill effects.

The other two starters, senior guard Elena Bosgana and senior forward Brooke Demetre, scored 15 and 10 points, respectively. They also were responsible for the team’s five 3’s, with two by Elena and three by Brooke.

It was a tight game throughout, with 12 lead changes and 14 ties.

Even though Stanford had fewer fouls, 19-22, Clemson did better at the free-throw line, making 18 of 25 while Stanford made 10 of 19 – a big contributor to its loss, which seen by just over 2,400 fans.

Stanford can’t get ahead against SMU

It seemed as if Stanford was playing catch-up throughout the SMU game. When I logged into the TV broadcast on my computer, only a few minutes had elapsed, yet the Mustangs were up by about 12 points.

As the game continued, it seemed as if SMU would have a double-digit lead that Stanford would cut to single digits, but never pull ahead.

The final few minutes offered hope for a win. Here’s the report from CardinalSportsReport:

“Stanford would continue to scrap and play with fight, forcing some turnovers … They were rewarded with an 11-0 run to make it a 64-63 game with 42.6 to go. …”

An SMU basket “made it 66-63 with under 14 seconds to go as Stanford had a chance to even things up. … A 3-point shot … was a bit wide. SMU would get the rebound.” An SMU free throw made it 67-63, the final score.

SMU outscored Stanford in the first and third quarters, but Stanford won the other two quarters, but not by enough in this game seen by more than 1,400.

Elena led the team with 20 points, followed by Nunu with 19.

Four of the team’s nine 3’s were by Elena. The others came from Nunu, Shay, Tess and Chloe.

Shay played just over 16 minutes, her longest stint to date, and added 6 points.

Each team had 41 rebounds and was fairly close in other stats. Each team missed five free throws. Had Stanford been more successful at the line, the final outcome would have been different.

Coming up next, the team hosts Florida State at 7 p.m. Jan. 9 (to be seen on ACCNX) and North Carolina State at noon Jan. 12 (shown by ESPN).

In the meantime, the team is back on campus for the start of winter quarter.