Cardinal disrupts the Dawgs

This was an exciting, tense game, although it was another low-scoring affair, as both the Cardinal and the Dawgs disrupted each others' offense with strong defense.

The defense was extremely effective in the first half, which ended 22-24 and featured (if that's the word) a 2-for-17 streak of "clunks" and "clanks" and "whiffs" by the Cardinal offense.

In the second half, both teams began finding the basket. The Cardinal opened with a 9-0 run but the Dawgs quickly came back. All told, the lead changed five times in the second half, helped by long, dramatic three-point shots from both teams. Bonnie hit two very timely shots from well outside the arc, as did Washington's Kelsey Plum and Brianna Ruiz.

But the most dramatic shot of all came with less than 30 seconds on the clock. Stanford had the ball and ran the shot clock down to 11 seconds without attempting a shot, at which point Tara called time. Out of the timeout, the ball moved about from player to player but nobody could get open. With less than 2 seconds on the shot clock, the ball came to Lili, and she fired from well outside the line just as the shot clock expired. The ball came off the glass high above the hoop and dropped through.

The referees watched replays to make sure the ball had been launched in time – it had been, and Stanford had a four-point lead that Washington could not close in the remaining seconds. Stanford 60, Washington 56.

Nobody ran away with the scoring. Each team had three players who scored in double digits for a combined total of 41 points. For Washington: Kelsey Plum - 16, Jazmine Davis - 13, and Aminah Williams - 12. For Stanford: Lili - 15, Amber - 14, and Bonnie - 12.

Both Cardinal freshmen contributed greatly to the defense. Kaylee grabbed 13 rebounds, four of them O-boards (and committed only two fouls). Brittany came off the bench for 12 minutes, grabbed six rebounds and blocked two shots.

Here are game reports and commentary:

• Calling Glass, the Stanford Athletics game recap


• Dawgs Drop Tight One To Stanford, 60-56, the UW Athletics game recap


• No. 15 Stanford women defeat Washington by Matt Pentz (Seattle Times)


• Bank shot ends upset chance for UW women by Erik Erickson (The UW Daily)


• Stanford women rally to secure Pac-12 hoops road victory from Palo Alto Online


• WBB: Stanford 60 Washington 56 from the CARDboard


• A Whole Lot Better by Wally Mersereau, FBC traveller


• Stanford women's basketball fends off Washington to pick up road win, the Pac-12 game recap video

The box score and play-by-play,

And photos by Elaine Thompson (Associated Press):

Kaylee pulls down one of her 13 rebounds

Bird, the most energetic rebounder

Lili, a bit too aggressive on defense

Bonnie tries to keep Kelsey Plum from going to her left

Amber shoots against Aminah Williams

Karlie shoots over Brianna Ruiz

Lili drives past Kelsey Plum

Amber foils larceny attempt

Washington roadtrip and Bonnie

By Ashley Westhem, managing editor of sports for the Stanford Daily:

• A preview of the Cardinal's visit to Washington this weekend: Women’s basketball prepares for Washington roadtrip


• A conversation with Bonnie: Senior Sit Down: Bonnie Samuelson

By Erik Erickson, University of Washington The Daily:

• A different view of the Cardinal's visit to Washington this weekend: Underdog Huskies hope for repeat of last year against Stanford

Next: Away in Washington

The Cardinal are playing their first conference road games this weekend in Washington:

• In Seattle vs the University of Washington on Friday evening at 7:00
• In Pullman vs Washington State on Sunday afternoon at 1:00

Both games will be televised by Pac-12 Networks, streamed online by Pac-12 Networks, and broadcast by KZSU. Washington live stats here; Washington State live stats here.

Lili drives against Jazmine Davis at Maples last season

  University of Washington Huskies (aka The Dawgs)

Washington took a while to adapt to its new coach (Mike Neighbors) last year, but came on strong towards the end of the season. They finished sixth in the Pac-12 with a .588 winning percentage and advanced to the Elite Eight of the WNIT.

They're continuing that strong play this season. They're the highest scoring team in the conference and the 12th-best in the nation with an average of 80.4 points per game.

They entered the season with one of the top returning backcourts in the country – Jazmine Davis and Kelsey Plum. Both earned All-Pac-12 honors last season, while Plum was the conference Freshman of the Year. They've increased their scoring a bit this season to a combined average of 40.5 points per game, which is the second-best in the nation for a backcourt. Their ball distribution has also improved, with Davis averaging a career-best 4.9 assists per game and Plum adding 3.7.

After losing their first game of the season, the Dawgs went on an 11-game winning streak capped with a 70-45 victory over #5 Texas A&M. That victory got them into the national Top 25 rankings as #23 in the Coaches Poll.

They began conference play last weekend with a loss to Arizona State, which dropped them out of the Top 25 to 26th place in both polls.

It's going to be an exciting weekend in Hec Edmundson Pavilion. Three major school records are on the verge of falling – Jazmine Davis is 58 points shy of the all-time scoring record, Aminah Williams 29 short of the rebounding record and Talia Walton 12 short of the blocks record.

The starting players are expected to be:

• #10, 5'8" sophomore guard Kelsey Plum is the second-best scorer in the nation with an average of 25.0 points per game (just 0.7 less than the leader, Kelsey Mitchell of Ohio State). She takes about 30% of her shots from beyond the arc and makes 42% of them, for an average of 2.0 per game. She averages 3.7 assists per game and has a decent assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.3. She is the most-fouled Dawg and the best free throw shooter – she earns more than a third of the team's total free throws and makes 89% of them. She also tallies 2.0 steals and 3.2 rebounds per game.


• #32, 5'7" senior guard Jazmine Davis runs the point for the Dawgs. She averages 4.9 assists per game (#5 in the conference), with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.4. She averages 15.5 points (#7 in the conference), 2.4 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game.


• #3, 6'2" redshirt junior forward Talia Walton averages 12.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.9 blocks (#2 in the conference) per game. She takes 46% of her shots from beyond the arc and makes 38% of them, for an average of 1.9 per game (#9 in the conference).


• #23, 6'0" senior forward Aminah Williams is the leading rebounder with an average of 10.0 per game (#4 in the conference). She averages 9.0 points per game.


• #21, 5'10" redshirt freshman guard Brianna Ruiz averages 5.7 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game.

The Dawgs' win-loss record (12-2 overall, 1-1 conference) places them in fifth place in the Pac-12. Their RPI (17) places them second and their strength of schedule rank (80) places them seventh.

Here are the Dawg statistics and roster.

  Washington State Cougars

Under the guidance of head coach June Daugherty, now in her eighth season at WSU, the Cougars continue their climb up the Pac-12 ladder.

They made major strides last season when they finished in seventh place with a .500 winning percentage after a very tough non-conference schedule. They advanced to the WNIT, their first postseason tournament appearance since 1991.

This year the Cougars are off to their best start in 24 seasons with a 10-2 record. Their usual tough non-conference schedule included three ranked teams — they defeated Dayton (#22) and Maryland (#10), but lost to Nebraska (#16).

The Cougars aren't ranked, but they have received votes in the national polls for the past several weeks.

With most of their core group returning, the Cougars have their sights set on returning to the NCAA tournament for the first time in more than two decades. Tia Presley and Lia Galdeira have picked up where they left off last season, leading the team in scoring and among the Pac-12 leaders in both scoring and steals.

The starters in every game this season have been:

• #3, 5'11"junior guard Lia Galdeira leads the scoring with 19.5 points per game (#2 in the conference) and is the second-most productive three-point shooter. She takes 37% of her shots from beyond the arc; she makes only 26% of them, but that comes out to 1.7 per game. She averages 5.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 3.2 steals (#2 in the conference) per game.


• #5, 5'10" senior guard Tia Presley scores a bit less than Lia (18.9 points per game, #3 in the conference), but is the better three-point shooter. She also takes 37% of her shots from beyond the arc but makes 41% of them for an average of 2.1 per game (#4 in the conference). She averages 3.1 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.9 steals (#9 in the conference) per game.


• #23, 6'4" senior center Shalie Dheensaw is a strong presence in the post. She gets the most rebounds (7.2 per game, #10 in the conference) and the most blocks (1.8 per game, #3 in the conference). She scores 8.3 points per game.


• #11, 5'9" junior guard Dawnyelle Awa dishes 3.0 assists per game and has a very good assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.1 (#6 in the conference). She scores 5.1 points per game.


• #34, 6'1" junior forward Mariah Cooks averages 5.0 points and 3.7 rebounds per game

The Cougars' win-loss record (10-3 overall, 1-1 conference) places them in sixth place in the Pac-12. Their RPI (42) places them fifth and their strength of schedule rank (154) places them ninth.

Here are the Cougar statistics and roster.

Bonnie and Karlie making waves

Janie McCauley (Associated Press) has written a lovely story about Bonnie and Karlie: Samuelson sister tandem making waves in Stanford's starting lineup

New Year Bracketology

Charlie Creme (espnW) has published his opinion of the results of the 2014 non-conference season in his first bracket of the year.

He has seven Pac-12 teams in the bracket with these seedings and evaluation:

3 Oregon State

If last year's second-round NCAA tournament appearance didn't do it, this season's win at North Carolina certainly announced the Beavers' arrival to the national forefront.

4 Arizona State

The Sun Devils had a solid but under-the-radar nonconference season. They caught everyone's attention with a resounding win over Washington in their Pac-12 opener.

5 Stanford

After the win over UConn, the Cardinal have looked fairly ordinary, and it might be difficult to win at least a share of a 15th straight Pac-12 title. The new offense is still struggling to take shape.

5 California

The Bears have stumbled since losing Courtney Range to a knee injury and are relying on Brittany Boyd more than ever.

7 Washington

With 25.8 PPG on better than 50 percent shooting from the field, Kelsey Plum might be the most efficient scoring guard in the country.

10 Washington State

The Cougars have nonconference wins over Maryland, Gonzaga and Dayton, résumé-builders that could be big in March.

10 Southern California

Despite the dismissal of last season's leading scorer, Ariya Crook, a month before the season started, the Trojans are off to a solid start. Four starters are scoring in double figures.

Click here for the complete bracket.

Cardinal beats the Utes, 55-44

Updated Jan 6: Added press conference audio.

In the first half the Cardinal struggled with a terrible case of lid-on-the-basket-itis, missing shot after shot. Utah graciously allowed them to stay in the game by shooting even more poorly at 21% to Stanford's 27%. The Cardinal showed some life late in the first half, igniting the crowd with a clean 3 by Lili and a strong layup by Kaylee. Still, the half ended on the very low score of 20-14. It was notable that Utah took no free throws in that half.

In the second half the Cardinal found their stroke and quickly raised their shooting to 37%, in the process taking a double-digit lead about the second media timeout and holding it to the end.

The Cardinal found a bit of the inside offense they've been working so hard to develop. Kaylee stayed out of foul trouble and in the game tonight for 29 minutes. She provided some fine defense with seven rebounds, four blocks and a steal. Even better, she scored seven points on two layups, a jumper and a free throw.

Bird made just one of three attempts, but it was a beauty – a clean layup on a perfect bounce pass from Taylor Greenfield.

Bonnie had a rough night, being repeatedly mauled by Ute defenders and scoring only two free throws. But she grabbed seven of the rebounds that gave the Cardinal a 43-33 advantage over the Utes.

Brittany provided an exciting few moments of hustle in the first half, as she stole the ball from Cheyenne Wilson and made a fast break for the basket. She was fouled on her layup, but made both of her free throws. She also blocked three shots.

As in Saturday's game against Colorado, the bulk of the Cardinal offense came from Amber and Lili who led the scoring with 17 and 14 points respectively.

Given the unfriendly starting time of 5pm on a workday, it was no surprise that the crowd was a sparse 2,782.

Here are game reports and commentary:

• No. 15 Stanford women overcome cold shooting, beat Utah, the Associated Press game recap by Janie McCauley


• Utah Women's Basketball Drops 55-44 Decision at No. 15 Stanford, the Utah Athletics game recap


• Utes Undone, the Stanford Athletics game recap


• Stanford women outlast Utah 55-44 by Tom FitzGerald (San Francisco Chronicle)


• Stanford women beat Utah by Elliott Almond (Mercury News)


• Orrange, Thompson gives VanDerveer some hoops comfort by Rick Eymer (Palo Alto Online)


• WBB: Stanford 55 Utah 44 from the CARDboard

The box score and play-by-play,

The press conference audio, with Tara, Amber and Lili,

More about Tara's injury that Rick Eymer mentions in his game report: Tara VanDerveer breaks bone in arm,

And photos by Nhat V. Meyer (Bay Area News Group):

Brittany heads for the basket with her stolen ball

Brittany is fouled on arrival at the basket

Bonnie heads for the basket

Bonnie heads for the floor as her shot is blocked

Amber takes control

Cardinal buffaloes Colorado

Stanford capitalized on a career-best 26 points from Amber to grind out a close, 62-55 victory over a determined Colorado squad.

Lili added 17 more points; no other Cardinal was in double digits.

Although it seemed at times that Colorado’s bigger, more aggressive players were mopping up every loose ball, in the end the Cardinal won the battle for rebounds, 37-35. The rebounding was a great team effort for the Cardinal, with ten players each grabbing from two to five rebounds.

Although Colorado came in with a reputation for sloppy ball handling, the Cardinal actually gave up more turnovers in this game, at 16-13.

Colorado took the lead for just a few seconds in the second half, but a Stanford win never seemed a certainty until the final seconds, and the shower of “victory balls” after the buzzer was very welcome.

Here are game reports and commentary:

• Orrange Ensures Opening Win, the Stanford Athletics game recap


• Lappe's Buffs fall at No. 15 Stanford from the Daily Camera


• Orrange has career game in Stanford's win over Colorado from Palo Alto Online


• Orrange, Thompson lead Stanford past Colorado in Pac-12 opener by Tom FitzGerald (San Francisco Chronicle)


• Stanford women have to work to beat lowly Colorado by Elliott Almond (Mercury News)


• WBB: Stanford 62 Colorado 55 from the CARDboard


• Pac-12 video game recap

The box score and play-by-play,

The postgame interview of Amber by Ros (video),

The postgame press conference, with Tara, Amber and Lili (audio)

A gallery of photos by Bob Drebin (Stanford Photo),

And photos by Jeff Chiu (Associated Press):

Lili takes it to the hoop

EPayne disagrees with a foul call

Good sibling defense

Bri harasses Haley Smith

Jasmine Sborov, Bird and Karlie fight for possession

Chiney and Sara are happy fans

Sweet victory

Next: Cardinal hosts Buffs and Utes

The Cardinal begins its conference season as host of the Rocky Mountain teams at Maples:

• Colorado on January 3, Saturday evening at 7:00
• Utah on January 5, Monday early evening at 5:00

Both games will be televised by Pac-12 Networks with Ros Gold-Onwude as the analyst, streamed online by Pac-12 Networks, and broadcast by KZSU. Live Stats here.

Stanford does not travel to the Rockies this season, so this is the only time these teams will play during the regular season.

Karlie sank five treys in Colorado last year

  Colorado Buffs

Colorado had good reason to be excited this year at the propect of building a winning team around junior forward Arielle Roberson. Arielle was the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year in 2013 and led the Buffs in scoring and rebounding last season. But she tore her ACL during a routine drill in September, and there went Plan A.

The Wilson twins (Brittany and Ashley) have graduated. They took with them a good deal of the aggressive play for which the Buffs are noted. But there is no shortage of competitiveness and intensity – not with coach Linda Lappe at the helm for her fifth season.

The Buffs are a strong defensive team. They're the best rebounders (47.9 rpg) and shot blockers (6.0 bpg) in the Pac-12. They rank 3rd in the nation for defensive boards (32.0 per game).

Unfortunately, the defense has not led to offense. This is partly due to poor ball-handling. The Buffs average 19.2 turnovers per game – six more than their opponents and the worst in the Pac-12. That and, says Lappe, "... our inability to get the ball where it needs to go," has left the Buffs struggling for wins in a tough non-conference schedule.

Lappe has a new assistant this season to work with the guards – Jamie Carey. It's been 15 years since Jamie's dazzling freshman season at Stanford when she made 45.5% of her 3-point shots. That still stands as the best career 3-point percentage in the Stanford record book.

With Roberson's absence, the Buffs are a balanced team. Eight players average more than 16 minutes per game and four score in low double-digits. The likely starters are:

• #34, 6'2" senior forward Jen Reese is the leading scorer (14.4 ppg) and rebounder (8.3rpg, 6th in the Pac-12).


• 50, 6'2" junior forward Jamee Swan is second in scoring (13.6 ppg) and rebounding (8.2 rpg, 7th in the Pac-12). She blocks the most shots (2.0 bpg, 2nd in the Pac-12).


• #22, 6'1" sophomore guard/forward Haley Smith is third in scoring (11.4 ppg) and rebounding (6.7 rpg).


• #1, 5'11" senior point guard Lexy Kresl is fourth in scoring (10.7 ppg) and rebounding (5.6 rpg). She and sophomore forward Lauren Huggins are the Buffs' only two 3-point shooters. Lexy takes 61% of her shots from beyond the arc and makes 38% of them. Her average of 2.2 per game is 4th best in the Pac-12. (Lauren takes almost all her shots from beyond the arc and makes an average of 1.8 per game).

  Lexy dishes 5.6 assists per game (3rd best in the Pac-12) and has a decent assist-to-turnover ratio (1.4).

  She tallied a triple-double (12 points, 11 rebounds, 11 assists) against Colorado State. She and Brittany Boyd are the only Pac-12 players with triple-doubles so far this season.

  She has missed the Buffs' last two games with an upper leg injury, but is expected to play in Bay Area this weekend.

• #21, 5'11" senior guard Jasmine Sborov averages 6.8 ppg and 5.4 rpg.

The Buffs' win-loss record (7-4) places them in a 3-way tie for 8th in the Pac-12, their RPI (68) places them 9th, and their strength of schedule rank (59) places them 5th. They've played one ranked team – Iowa, #22.

Here are Colorado's statistics and roster.

  Utah Utes

Utah began the 2014-25 season minus almost half of the previous season's production.

All-conference senior forward Michelle Plouffe graduated and sophomore forward Emily Potter, who had an outstanding freshman season, tore her ACL in September. Between them, they had provided 47% of Utah's scoring last season and 45% of the rebounding.

The Utes have been hit hard by more injuries during the non-conference season – sophomore starting forward Malia Nawahine (back injury, return unknown), junior guard Katie Kuklok (ACL, season), sophomore backup point guard Devri Owens (ACL, season), freshman third-string point guard Gabrielle Bowie (foot injury, return unknown).

That leaves just ten active players on the Ute roster, six of them freshmen and sophomores. Because Utah's traditional motion offense is difficult to learn, fifth-year head coach Anthony Levrets is using a simplified three-out, two-in variant that allows underclassmen to "play without thinking." (That's what he says. It looks anything but simple to me.)

The young team is led by sixth-year senior Taryn Wicijowski, who was sidelined last season and her sophomore season with a pair of ACL tears. She's making up for lost time with an average of 35.6 minutes per game – the most in the Pac-12.

The likely starters for the Utes are:

• #11, 6'3" redshirt senior forward Taryn Wicijowski leads the Utes in scoring (15.5 ppg, 7th in the Pac-12), rebounding (10.8 ppg, 3rd in the Pac-12), blocks (1.5 bpg, 6th in the Pac-12) and field goal percentage (50.4%)


• #32, 6'0" freshman forward Tanaeya Boclair averages 9.1 points and 3.5 rebounds per game.


• #14, 6'1" redshirt sophomore guard Paige Crozon redshirted last season to recover from a concussion she sustained late in her freshman season. She averages 7.2 points and 2.8 rebounds per game.

  She and senior guard Cheyenne Wilson are the Utes' only 3-point shooters. Paige takes 67% of her shots from beyond the arc and makes 43% of them for an average of 1.5 per game. (Cheyenne takes 73% of her shots from beyond the arc and makes 31% of them for an average of 1.7 per game.

• #2, 5'10" junior point guard Danielle Rodriguez, in her third season at Utah, has played in every game and started in all but one. She's a very good ball handler. Her assist-to-turnover ratio is 2.2 (46-21) – third-best in the Pac-12. She averages 6.8 points and 4.7 rebounds per game.


• #33, 6'4" freshman center Joseta Fatuesi is the Utes second-best rebounder with 5.7 per game. She averages 6.2 points per game.

Utah's win-loss record (6-5 ) places them 11th in the Pac-12, their RPI (195) places them 11th, and their strength of schedule rank (210) places them 10th.

Here are Utah's statistics and roster

2015, The Year of the McPhee?

By Warren Grimes, a fervent Cardinal fan ...

Just last year . . . uhm . . . earlier this week, as a matter of fact, Brittany McPhee had a career day. Not an ordinary one, mind you, but a PBS MB career day. That stands for Points-Boards-Steals-Minutes-Blocks career day. And that does not even mention the most impressive thing about Brittany’s performance: the non-stop hustle. Hustle inspires your teammates, works up the fans, wins loose balls, makes defensive stops, and just plain wins games.

Brittany showed her stuff against what almost certainly will be the most hapless team on this season’s schedule: winless UCSB (Whatever happened to that successful program anyway?). Now it’s up to Brittany to continue this type of showing against stronger opponents. Already, though, the opportunity for her to be a difference maker is evident. Stanford needs the kind of diversified offense that Brittany offers. She’s tall enough to score among the trees, accurate enough to score from the outside, and agile enough to do a lot of driving, cutting, dicing and dishing that is well suited to this year’s offense. So far this season, the perimeter players have been the top scorers. That’s OK, but diversity is critical for this team’s success, and a Diana Taurasi type of versatile scorer may be just what this team needs.

So what past Stanford player comes to mind as a role model for what McPhee could become? Would it be a fellow Oregonian like Lindsey Yamasaki (a versatile small forward who could score in lots of ways), or a journeyman versatile multi-position Oregon hustler like Jillian Harmon? If I were forced to pick, I’d say Lindsey Yamasaki. The truth is, Brittany McPhee is different than either of them. She’s potentially a better outside shooter than Yamasaki (who divided her time with volleyball) and, although not as strong or tall as Harmon, more of a natural scorer. Brittany can write her own ticket.

Brittany McPhee may not be the best freshman on this team. Kaylee Johnson has already set a high mark difficult to equal. McPhee has yet to prove herself as a defender, as an assist maker, and as a go-to player against tough opponents. But the potential for McPhee is exciting. Watching her perform against UCSB, it’s difficult to see how the coaches can keep her on the bench (they didn’t, she played 22 minutes, more than any other player). I hope she seizes the day.

Happy New Year Brittany!