The Stanford women’s basketball team
kept its record perfect at 7-0 after defeating UC Davis 70-45 on Nov. 20 and
Lehigh 98-43 on Nov. 23, both at home.
In the team’s 70-45 victory over UC
Davis, the dynamic duo of junior forward Nunu Agara and freshman forward Lara Somfai
produced two double-doubles: 16 points, 16 rebounds by Nunu and 14 points, 12
rebounds by Lara.
Junior guard Chloe Clardy completed
the double-digit club with 11 points.
In this season’s first six games,
“the Cardinal limited its opponent to fewer than 60 points in all six, the
program’s longest stretch holding six consecutive opponents under 60 since Feb.
24 – March 28, 2022,” according to Stanford Athletics.
Senior guard Talana Lepolo, freshman
guard Hailee Swain, junior forward Courtney Ogden, Nunu and Lara were the
starters.
Senior guard Lauren Green, sophomore
center Kennedy Umeh and freshman forward Nora Ezike again were unavailable, but
the other 12 players got into the game, and most contributed in some way.
The game started slowly with no score
for the first three minutes until Lara netted a 3-pointer. The first Aggies
basket came shortly after.
In all, the Cardinal had five 3’s. In
addition to Lara, who added another later in the game, they came from Talana,
Chloe and sophomore forward Harper Peterson.
The score was tied at 5-5 with about
five minutes to go in the first quarter. Stanford surged ahead then and never
looked back.
UC Davis did produce a highlight
moment during the final seconds of the third quarter when an Aggies player
scored from behind the center court line just before the buzzer.
On hand to watch the game was Lara’s
father, who had flown in from their home in Australia.
Absolute dominance over Lehigh
With a 3-pointer by Lara, the team
started fast and didn’t look back in its 98-43 defeat of Lehigh on Nov. 23.
Nunu led the team with 24 points on
perfect 10-10 shooting.
Joining her in the double-digit club
were Lara with 15 points, Hailee with 12, and junior forward Mary Ashley
Stevenson and freshman guard Carly Amborn, both with 10.
Only Kennedy was still unavailable.
Otherwise everyone else got into the game.
The team’s seven 3’s came from Chloe
and Carly with two each, along with one each by Nunu, Lara and sophomore guard
Shay Ijiwoye.
There was perfection at the
free-throw line, 15-15.
In an interesting reversal of numbers,
the home team had 17 assists and nine turnovers, while the team from Bethlehem,
Pa., had 17 turnovers and nine assists.
“As a team, the Cardinal shot 66.7
percent from the floor (38-of-57), the third-best mark in program history,” according
to Stanford Athletics.
After Nunu’s standout performances against
UC Davis and Lehigh, she was named ACC Player of the Week on Nov. 24.
The team will spend the Thanksgiving
holiday in Las Vegas to play Florida Gulf Coast at 5 p.m. Nov. 28 and Colorado
State at 5 p.m. in the Resorts World Classic. Both games will be shown on
FloCollege.
After that, it’s back home to host Tennessee at 6:15
p.m. Dec. 3.
The last day of classes is Dec. 5, followed by finals
week.
