And both teams are emphasizing better rebounding in their preparation for the game.
Sounds like it's going to be a real battle of boards.
Cougars try to rebound from tough loss by Avery Cooper (Daily Evergreen)
Stanford women need to rebound in more ways than one by Tom FitzGerald (San Francisco Chronicle)
From the Stanford Daily:
Together,Read more: Brewer: New year, new team?
Every day, for each other, we
Admire one another. It would be crazy to doubt us now, because we’re
Motivated by these things, even as simple as they are.
Ellie Chen and Alexandre Bucquet, Ellie Chen, Laura Andersen, and Gregory Block discuss the team's strong 3-0 start in conference play and what it needs to learn from the loss to ASU: Women’s basketball roundtable: Conference play starts
Kiana is named the Pac-12 Women's Basketball Freshman of the Week after averaging double-digit point totals in a weekend road split of the Arizona schools. The honor is the first of Kiana's career and Stanford's fifth all-time freshman of the week selection.
Read more from Stanford Athletics: Williams wins freshman honor
The game got off to a good Stanford start, with Brittany hitting a three, Alanna scoring and getting a block, and Kiana scoring nine points. In addition, the Cardinal defense seemed to rattle the Sun Devils and caused them to commit a half-dozen turnovers. That quarter ended with Stanford up 20-14. Unfortunately that was the end of the good times.
In the second quarter, ASU stopped turning the ball over and went to a zone defense, which held Stanford to only 7 points. ASU won the quarter 7-21, and the score was 27-35 at the half.
The third quarter opened better for the Cardinal, with a nice layup by DiJonai. Defense caused ASU turnovers that were converted to scores. Stanford came back to within 3 or 4 points.
At the start of the fourth quarter, a steal and layup by Brittany, then a steal and layup by Kiana, tied the game at 50-50. However, ASU pulled ahead again, opening a nine-point lead.
With a couple of minutes left to play, Stanford was still down by nine, 56-65, and began fouling. ASU hit only half of the ensuing free throws, giving Stanford multiple opportunities to close the gap, but shots wouldn't drop, and the game wound down with Stanford down seven, 66-73.
The team stats are unusually interesting for this game. Stanford attempted 24 three-point shots, while ASU tried only nine. This suggests the effectiveness of the ASU zone, forcing Stanford to resort to the long ball.
The most notable statistic — noted frequently by Andy Landers doing color commentary for ESPN — was the huge gap in rebounding. In the third quarter the difference was Stanford 17, ASU 37; by the end, it was 24-47, almost a 2:1 ratio in ASU's favor. The Sun Devils took full advantage of their aggressive play, scoring 22 second-chance points on 13 O-boards.
Another striking stat was the difference in free throws. Stanford hit five of nine. Setting aside free throws taken for intentional fouls in the last two minutes, ASU hit 17 of 25, getting 12 more points from free throws than Stanford.
Kiana ended with 14 points (nine came in her red-hot first quarter), hitting 6-12, only one of them from beyond the arc.
DiJonai had 13 points on 5-10 shooting, as well as getting three steals and a block.
Brittany ended with 12 points, the team-high six rebounds, five assists, and four steals. Her long-range shooting woes continued as she hit only one of six tries.
Marta scored ten points. She launched four three-pointers, sank three of them and was fouled on the fourth (but made only one of her free throws). She had two assists and three steals.
Alanna had six points on 3-6 shooting, as well as a steal and two blocks.
The team returns home to play the Washington schools next weekend.
Here are game reports and commentary:
And the game highlights video.
One point of emphasis by the coaches was to reduce the number of turnovers. This they did, giving up the ball only 11 times, against an average of 16. Another was to improve free-throw accuracy. That didn't really happen; the team went 5-8 (63%). Fortunately in this game free throws were not critical to the outcome. Another emphasis was to improve passing, and the team seemed to be moving the ball more freely and quickly than before.
The first quarter and the third quarter opened in almost the identical way: with the shot clock burning down, the ball came to Brittany who drove and put the ball up for a score, almost on the buzzer. Those two plays were pretty much all of Brittany's highlights for the night. Either Arizona had figured out a magic defense against her or she was just having an off-day, scoring only 8 points and going 0-6 from beyond the arc. Fortunately on this night, Stanford could win without a brilliant game from their star senior.
The tone for the first quarter was really set by Kiana, who drained a three-pointer on each of three successive Stanford possessions. Soon after, she hit a jumper. With scores by four other Cardinal players, the first quarter ended 23-11.
In the second quarter, Stanford went through a short scoring drought and let the Wildcats come back within 6. Then Alanna took charge, making a layup, a three, a jumper, and assisting Alissa to hit a three, while the team's defense squelched Arizona. Stanford went to the locker room up 14, at 35-21.
Both teams made nice plays during the third quarter, but it ended 51-37. In other words, both teams had scored 16 points, and Stanford was still up 14. It appeared then that they just had to play good defense to run out the game. And so it proved, with Stanford matching every advance by Arizona and a little more, to finish 61-46.
An important reason for a relatively easy win was that the Cardinal out-rebounded the Wildcats 51-32, including leading 25-14 in offensive boards. That allowed Stanford to take more shots, 68 versus Arizona's 53 attempts.
Alanna carried the team through difficult patches, finishing with 12 points on 50% shooting, plus five rebounds, four assists, and three blocks.
Kiana also had 12 points, nine of them in that red-hot first quarter run, on 50% shooting. She played 34 minutes and had two assists and a steal, against one turnover.
DiJonai played only 22 minutes but into that time she packed ten points (on 5-11 shooting), nine rebounds, two assists, and three steals. She had a couple of tough rebound-and-putback plays under the basket.
As mentioned, Brittany had "only" eight points, seven rebounds, and two assists.
Nadia had five points, five rebounds and a block in a short 14 minutes playing time. In about the same time on the floor, Kaylee had four points and eight rebounds, plus three blocks.
Marta launched an uncharacteristic four three-point shots, hitting one; as well as being credited with five assists (against two turnovers), three steals and — a block!
On Sunday Stanford takes on the much stronger ASU team in Tempe.
Here are game reports and commentary:
A video interview of Alanna,
And a gallery of photos by Stan Liu (Arizona Athletics).
Read more about Stanford's challenging season by Rhiannon Potkey (Summitt Hoops):
By Warren Grimes
In life, as in sports, we learn to expect the unexpected. Surprises can be pleasant or unpleasant. Stanford women’s basketball fans got a heavy dose of the unpleasant variety this Fall. In 12 pre-conference games:
For most, these disappointing outcomes were unexpected.
To be sure, one can find explanations for all of this.
In the new year, things are looking up. Stanford is 2-0 in conference after last weekend’s two impressive wins. The team won against quality teams (#11 ranked UCLA and a USC team that ended the non-conference season with a 10-1 record). In these two games, Stanford executed, not perfectly, but impressively. For the weekend, Stanford shot three pointers at a 39.4% clip, and free throws at a 69% clip.
Turnovers were still a problem - Stanford averaged 19 for the weekend. But rebounding, already a strong point in the opening games, continued to be a major plus (44.5 per game as against 32 per game average for opponents).
The two games gave a number of players a chance to shine. Starting with Brittany McPhee (23.5 average points per game) and Alana Smith (13.5 per game average and the team’s leading rebounder), the veterans have stepped up. Marta Sniezek is still far from a scoring machine, but this weekend managed 6 points per game and continues to shine on assists (5.5 per game) and a strongly positive assist to turnover ratio (2.75 for the weekend). Kaylee Johnson is a motivated defender, shot blocker, rebounder, and opportunistic scorer.
There have been other pleasant surprises. At the top of my list is Nadia Fingall. She played an average of 21 minutes in the two weekend games. In this relatively short span, she averaged 8 points, 4.5 boards, and played well in other aspects of her game as well (.750 FG percentage, 3 blocks, and 3 for 4 from the charity stripe). She plays well in tandem with McPhee (Fingall has surged with McPhee back in the lineup).
Kiana Williams is also showing great promise. She is now the team’s 5th leading scorer while averaging under 19 minutes per game. She’s shooting threes at a .333 clip, free throws at a 91 percent clip, and has a 2.0 assist to turnover ratio. She will be in the lineup in end game situations where foul shooting is critical. Her leadership and assist skills still lag behind Sniezek, but her potential is great.
Maya Dodson has been starting of late – and is consistently winning the tip. She’s rebounding and blocking shots, but her explosive offensive and defensive potential has yet to be realized.
DiJonai Carrington also belongs on the pleasant surprise list. For the season, she’s the team’s third leading scorer and a great creator on offense. On a per minute basis, Carrington may lead the team in turnovers, but she is also generating steals. If she can discipline her game to minimize turns, watch out!
Much of the excitement for this year’s team lies in the potential of these players, plus a number of others who are getting substantial playing time. In three point shooting category, Anna Wilson, Alexa Romano, and Shannon Coffee are all hitting threes at a more than 30% clip. And Alyssa Jerome seems a solid, consistent, and versatile player who will get playing time.
An interesting observation came from Coach VanDerveer, who said that last year’s team did not execute all that well, instead relying on Karli Samuelson. The challenge for the coaches and the team will be to morph into a finely tuned and consistently executing team.
Looking at the big picture, Stanford will have a tough time against a lot of its conference opponents. But this weekend restored some order. Every conference opponent will have to re-circle the Stanford game in red.
And there is something else: Stanford has much room for improvement and likely will be steadily progressing with each game.
After scoring 27 points in the Cardinal's loss to Tennessee, last week she continued with 26 points against UCLA and then 21 against USC.
In recognition of these splendid performances, espnW has named Britt the National Player of the Week: Stanford's Brittany McPhee named espnW's player of the week
Stanford Athletics writes more: Britt's Back
