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| Lara Somfai goes for a layup against SMU. |
The Stanford women’s basketball team
completed its regular season on a three-game winning streak that it will take
into the ACC tournament.
The tournament bracket shows the
Cardinal as the No. 13 seed facing Miami, the No. 12 seed, at 8 a.m. PST March
4 in Duluth, Ga. The game will be shown by ACCN and ESPN app. Playing in Miami
on Feb. 19, Stanford lost 51-66.
The current winning streak started
with a 77-61 victory at Florida State on Feb. 22 and continued with two home
wins: 87-57 over SMU on Feb. 26 and an even more decisive 85-50 victory over Clemson on
March 1.
Taken together, Stanford won these three
games 249-168, an 81-point difference.
Stanford easily downs Southern Methodist U
Stanford rode to an easy 87-57 win
over the SMU Mustangs on Feb. 26.
The first quarter told much of the
story as Stanford was ahead 10-0 before SMU finally scored about halfway
through the quarter. The host team led 31-6 when the quarter ended.
“The 31 points were the most the
Cardinal has scored in any quarter this season, and the six points allowed were
the fewest it has surrendered to an opponent in any period,” Stanford Athletics
reported.
After that, Stanford’s lead never
fell below 20 points. Even when SMU scored 4 more points than Stanford in the
second quarter, the Cardinal still were ahead 50-29 when halftime began.
Head coach Kate Paye began pulling
the regulars early in the fourth quarter and inserting players who have seen
little or no action, starting with freshman forward Nora Ezike. She was
followed by freshman guard Carly Amborn, sophomore forward Harper Peterson and
senior guards Stavi Papadaki and Lauren Green.
Nora delighted the bench and the
crowd of nearly 2,800 by scoring twice. And then when Carly hit a 3-pointer
with under three minutes to go, the cheers were deafening.
She was among three players accounting
for the team’s six 3’s. Junior forward Courtney Ogden had three and freshman
forward Lara Somfai had two.
SMU was short-handed with only eight
available players while Stanford had 13. Sophomore center Kennedy Umeh was
there but not in uniform. Senior guard Talana Lepolo was still missing although
she was uniform in a video promoting the upcoming Senior Day.
Five players were in double figures
led by Lara with 19. She was followed by Courtney with 15, freshman guard
Hailee Swain with 14 (10 in the first quarter), junior forward Nunu Agara with
13 and junior guard Chloe Clardy with 12.
Starters were Nunu, Lara, Courtney,
Hailee and sophomore guard Shay Ijiwoye.
Besides the score, Stanford dominated
in most of all the other positive stats, and had seven fewer turnovers than
SMU.
Before tipoff, the video board showed
Brooke Demetre, ’25, who reportedly attended the game, encouraging the team and
praising Stanford.
Kids joined the traditional conga
line after the first quarter, and dozens of fans joined an on-court Zumba
session at halftime while others danced in the stands.
As I was leaving Maples after the
game, I spotted a small girl, probably around kindergarten age, wearing a
T-shirt reading “I’m Nunu’s littlest fan.”
Seniors Laureen Green (left), Stavi Papadaki and Talana Lepolo were honored with flowers
from Stanford and leis from Talana's family.
Senior Day celebrated with big win over Clemson
On paper it looked as if Clemson had
the edge with a slightly better record than Stanford, but paper didn’t count in
the final score: an 85-50 victory on March 1, Senior Day.
The Cardinal had a 9-point lead after
the first quarter, and the margin widened after that. Stanford scored first
with a basket and free throw from Courtney, and it stayed ahead for the entire
game.
While Clemson had only one player in
double figures, 10 points, Stanford had four. Nunu was tops with 24 points and
10 rebounds, another double-double for her.
She was followed by Hailee with 20,
Courtney with 15 and Lara with 11.
Eight 3-pointers helped the cause
with three by Hailee, two by Courtney and one each by Nunu, Lara and freshman
forward Alex Eschmeyer.
Stanford dominated in all statistics.
One of the more notable numbers was 21 assists and only nine turnovers.
Before the game began, the team’s
three seniors – Talana, Stavi and Lauren – were introduced. They were
accompanied by family or friends and hugged by retired head coach Tara
VanDerveer, who had recruited them.
Kate gave flowers to Clemson’s
seniors.
As the two teams lined up for the
national anthem, they first heard the Greek national anthem in honor of Stavi,
who’s from Greece.
This format differed from past Senior
Days that occurred after the game and featured tributes from teammates.
Instead the tributes are posted on the team’s Facebook page, which can be
accessed on the Fast Break Club site, www.stanfordfbc.org.
The need to travel to Georgia on
March 2 for the early game on March 4 likely led to the change.
Senior practice players and senior
cheerleaders were saluted during the game.
All of Stanford’s available players
(Kennedy and Talana still were out of action) got into the game although the
bench wasn’t entirely cleared until just over a minute to go.
Stanford finished the season with a
19-12 record overall and 8-10 in the ACC.
(Photos by ISI/Photos)
