Stanford Juniors Play Key Role in Stanford's Hard-Fought Advance to the Sweet Sixteen

 

On Friday evening, Stanford, by a comfortable margin, beat height-impaired Norfolk State in the First Round of the NCAA tournament.  On Sunday evening, against seventh seeded Iowa State, it was an entirely different matter.  That game was a hard-fought, nerve-wracking, overtime win that tested the mettle of players on both sides.

Bill Fennelly has coached Iowa State for 28 years and has a history of coaching NCAA tournament games against Stanford.  In the 2009 tournament, fourth seeded Iowa State had upset the #1 regional seed and faced off in the elite eight against #2 seed Stanford.  Jayne Appel scored 46 points, her career high and still the highest single-game point total of any Stanford player.  Stanford won.

Fast forward 15 years to Sunday night’s game against the Cyclones.  Jayne Appel was not around, but another amazing post player was.  Kiki Iriafen scored 41 points, her career high, and Stanford won.

Parallels with the 2009 game end at this point.  The earlier game was a comfortable victory that took Stanford to the final four.  The recent encounter was a gut-wrenching second-round game with 18 lead changes and 12 ties, including at the end of regulation.  Stanford’s victory was uncertain until the last few seconds of overtime.

Stanford managed a victory despite being out boarded (42 to 36); Stanford won notwithstanding Iowa State’s amazing 63.2% three-point percentage, including 3 for 3 in overtime.  Stanford prevailed despite foul trouble from Cameron Brink that allowed her to play only 22 minutes, none of them in overtime.  Stanford came out on top despite a phenomenal effort by Iowa State guard Emily Ryan (a career high 36 points on 6 for 9 shooting from distance and 9 boards). 

How did Stanford pull this off?  The Cardinal had the advantage in points off turnovers (21 to 12), assists (17 to 8), blocks (10 to 3), and steals (9 to 5) while shooting 13 for 14 from the foul line.  Despite poor three-point shooting in regulation, Stanford made both three-point attempts in overtime and scored more points in the five-minute overtime (21) than it had in any of the eight-minute quarters.  Hannah Jump was in double figures (15) and Nunu Agara came in to play solid defense.  And two Stanford juniors came up big, making critical plays when it mattered most.

There are three Stanford juniors on the roster, and each contributed substantially to last weekend’s success.  In Friday’s win over Norfolk State, Elena Boscana scored a career-high 18 points on 4 for 6 shooting from three-point land.  She added 4 boards and 2 assists. 

Kiki Iriafen’s contribution was solid against Norfolk State (17 points and 9 boards) and nothing short of mind-boggling against Iowa State (41 points, 16 boards, 4 assists, 3 blocks, and a steal).  She, along with Brink, held Audi Crooks (the Cyclone’s powerful conference freshman of the year) to 10 points on 3 for 21 shooting.

Brooke Demetre, the last of the juniors on the roster, had a modest stat line – 8 points, 3 boards, and 2 steals.  The numbers do not fairly describe her contribution.  Demetre had an inauspicious first half-- she came off the bench but was quickly forced to sit with two fouls.  Her contributions came late.  With Brink benched with five fouls and just 1:18 left in regulation, Stanford had fallen behind the Cyclones.  With nerves of steel, Demetre, who had yet to attempt a three-pointer, uncorked a shot from the right side. When it swished, the bench erupted in celebration.   That shot gave Stanford momenturm to hold on for a tie in regulation.  

There’s more.  The teams continued to exhange the lead in overtime, scoring a collective 36 points in five minutes.  With just 31 seconds left, Iowa State converted a three-pointer to take a one-point lead. Stanford brought the ball up court for what might have been its last offensive opportunity.  With just 18 seconds left, the ball was passed to Demetre who, from well outside the key, launched another three-pointer.  When it swished, Stanford had a two-point lead.  The bench went wild.  

When Iowa State called time out, Cameron Brink ran out to give Demetre a congratulatory hug.  Demetre was still in the moment.  She resolutely walked to the bench without a smile.  Refusing to lose focus, she simply said that there's still game to play.  In the remaining seconds, Stanford played smart and intensive defense; Demetre collected a defensive board in traffic, was fouled, and added two free throws to essentially put the game out of reach.  

The Stanford juniors played their roles to near-perfection in these opening round games.  Basketball is a team sport that requires everyone to understand and execute their role.  Juniors Iriafen, Boscana and Demetre seized their opportunities and made sure that Cameron Brink and Hannah Jump did not end their Stanford careers in Maples with a second round NCAA loss.

The coaches deserve some credit for the results.  Coaching tasks include maintaining team chemistry and deciding who to play when. 

During Friday’s game, one of the TV commentators offered this: the difference between men’s and women’s hoops is that the women win when they play joyfully while the men are joyful when they win.  Along the same line, I’ve heard it said that women want to win to enhance the team and team cohesion whereas men use teamwork and cohesion as a tool to win games. 

A high school basketball coach, who had coached teams for both genders, told me that a common tactic for coaching boys was to come down hard on a player who wasn’t performing.  He went on to explain that this tactic would backfire when coaching girls – the team would rally around the player and fault the coach. 

These generalities may have validity, but I think the genius of a top coach for any gendered team is the ability to coach flexibly based on the team or the personality of individual players.  Coach VanDerveer once told me that she could not coach at Stanford the same way as Pat Summitt coached at Tennessee.  At that point, Summitt had locked her players out of a new locker room, using that as an incentive to get players to work harder in practice.  That tactic, VanDerveer said, would not work at Stanford. 

Elena Boscana’s team-leading 18 points were critical in Friday night’s opening round victory. In the next game, it was Brooke Demetre who coolly sank two critical three-point shots.  In the tournament, well coached opponents will focus on Stanford’s most prolific scorers.  For a deep run, the team needs to show balance and depth on offense, something that VanDerveer allows and encourages her auxiliary players to provide.  Oh, and there's Kiki Iriafen's All American gifts.