Welcome to the ACC: How NC State Eliminated Stanford

 

Warren Grimes

If you’d watched just the first half, you would have been optimistic about the outcome of the sweet sixteen game against third-seeded North Carolina State.  Stanford led by 10 points, notwithstanding Kiki Iriafen’s foul trouble that kept her out of most of that half. 

Things turned in a hurry in the disastrous third quarter.  Iriafen picked up her third foul early in that quarter.  By the end of the quarter, Cameron Bink was on the bench, having picked up her second, third, and fourth fouls in short order.  Meanwhile, NC State began converting inside and out at a 60% clip, also adding 7 for 9 freethrows.  NC State outscored Stanford by 18 points in the quarter.  When Brink fouled out early in the fourth quarter, Stanford could not respond. 

N C State is a fine team, one of the top performing squads in the ACC that includes Virginia Tech, Baylor, Duke, and Notre Dame.  NC State, a deserving final four team, was runner up in the conference and in the conference tournament.  They have balanced scoring and quick and creative guards.  That fact alone suggests a major challenge for Stanford, which lost several games to teams with strong guards (twice to USC and once to Arizona).  In the second-round win against Iowa State, Stanford was sorely challenged by Iowa State’s guard play.

In the post-game press conference, Tara VanDerveer noted that Stanford plays best when both of the team’s outstanding posts can play together, often finding one another with interior passes.  That simply did not happen in the NC State game, where Brink played 23 minutes and Iriafen 22 minutes.  For most of the game, and in the second half when it mattered most, only one of these two was on the floor. 

There was a second reason why Stanford lost this game.  NC State shot 41% from distance while Stanford was a disappointing 20%.  Of Stanford’s three-point conversions, three belonged to Hannah Jump and one each to Brink and Brooke Demetre.  Elena Bosgana, Talana Lepolo, Jzaniya Harriel, Nunu Agara, and Chloe Clardy could have stepped up.  Each, except for Clardy, had season averages well above 30% in three-point shooting.  In the NC State game, they were collectively zero for ten.  That’s not going to win sweet sixteen games. 

The loss was disappointing.  Stanford could have won this game if its dual-post game had clicked or if it had found outside shooting.  That said, this team exceeded preseason expectations.  It won the conference and made the conference tournament final.  It defeated top notch opponents, including Oregon State (three times), UCLA, Utah, and Indiana.  Fans saw some exciting basketball with Brink setting blocking records and the Brink-Iriafen combination executing at the highest level.  The second-round tournament victory against Iowa State was a game to remember.

At the end of the post-game press conference, VanDerveer challenged her returning players (and the incoming freshmen) to show the kind of one-season growth that Kiki Iriafen has demonstrated.  Iriafen scored 41 points against Iowa State.  Then, in the sweet sixteen, she had 26 points, 10 boards and 3 assists in just 22 minutes on the floor.  The NC State performance, on a per minute basis, was even better than what she achieved in the second round game.  Had Iriafen played the same number of minutes as against Iowa State, she was on pace to get more than 18 boards and more than 48 points.  In both of these games, she excelled even when Brink was not on the floor.

That's something to look forward to as Stanford enters the uncertain world of ACC basketball. Just think what Iriafen could achieve next year if she were complemented by players who could execute from the perimeter the way Kiana Williams, Anna Wilson, and Lexi Hull did.  It's up to the returning veterans and the incoming freshmen to provide that missing element.