After Florida Gulf Coast dealt the Stanford women’s basketball team its first loss of the season, 66-62 on Nov. 28, the Cardinal bounced back to do the same against Colorado State, 62-60, on Nov. 29.
Therefore, score 62 points one day, you lose; score 62 points the next day, you win.
Both games were part of the Resorts World Las Vegas Classic.
Starters for both games were senior guard Talana
Lepolo, freshman guard Hailee Swain, junior forward Courtney Ogden, junior
forward Nunu Agara and freshman forward Lara Somfai.
FGCU controlled most of the Nov, 28 game, which saw five lead
changes and six ties.
When Stanford was down 8 points with just over three
minutes to go, it started fouling in hopes of regaining the ball and the advantage,
but the strategy didn’t work.
Nunu led the team with 22 points. Junior guard
Chloe Clardy with 16 points was her only teammate in double figures.
Despite the loss, Stanford controlled the boards and
was 16-18 on free throws, but committed 18 turnovers to FGCU’s 16.
The team’s four 3’s came from Nunu, Lara, Courtney and
Chloe.
Big comeback fuels win
A similar scenario seemed to be playing out Nov. 9 against
Colorado State, but this time some last-minute heroics saved the day.
The team was down 53-45 with just under seven minutes
to go before going on a 13-0 spurt over the next 5:02.
Courtney “had a mini 7-0 spurt right in the middle,
and when she hit a 3-pointer to put the Cardinal up 54-53 and force a Ram
timeout with 3:10 to go, Stanford had its first lead in nearly 10 minutes,”
Stanford Athletics reported.
With two-tenths of a second left, Chloe hit a driving
layup to ice the win.
As with FGCU, Stanford trailed most of the game in a
seesaw battle with seven lead changes and eight ties.
Nunu led the team with 18 points followed by Courtney
with 15.
Lara, who earlier in the week had been named National
Freshman of the Week, had nine points and a career-high 16 rebounds, “the best
single-game rebounding performance for a Cardinal freshman since Kaylee Johnson
had 17 against Washington on Feb. 2, 2015,” Stanford Athletics reported.
Nunu, Courtney, Talana and freshman guard Carly Amborn
accounted for the team’s four 3’s.
Next up: Stanford hosts longtime rival Tennessee at
6:15 p.m. Dec. 3. The game will air on ESPN2.
