The No. 6 Cardinal pulled away from Utah in the third quarter -- spurred on by three 3FGs by Hannah Jump -- to win by a very comfortable score of 82-49 on the day they honored the 1990 national champion team.
Stanford needed a game like this after winning a bar fight Friday night against Colorado. Several of the Cardinal probably couldn't feel their legs after that game, especially Kiana Williams. The junior is playing through a slight limp and it's hindering Skippy from being her normal self.
But Williams and Lexie Hull were able to watch the entire fourth quarter from the bench while their teammates poured it on. Utah kept it close into the final minutes of the third quarter before the game turned into a three-point shooting contest. In the last four minutes of that period the teams combined to attempt 13 shots from beyond the arc.
Jump missed three straight before she went on her own scoring run.
Fran Belibi scored 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds in only 18 minutes on the court. The Cardinal finished the game with a remarkable 24 assists to only five turnovers and Belibi often benefited from the assists in that fantastic ratio. The freshman forward consistently did a good job sealing off her defender and finishing at the basket.
Eight different Cardinal had at least two assists and five scored in double figures.
Jenna Brown and Anna Wilson don't need to score to be helpful and they combined for only six points. They will be most helpful if they make good decisions on offense (one combined turnover) and play hard on defense. Stanford doesn't need them to be effective shooters because there will always be at least three, and usually four, teammates on the court with the green light to shoot from anywhere.
Something else that is noticeable since Haley Jones suffered her knee injury is that Tara VanDerveer has no choice but to let the freshmen bigs play on despite bad turnovers/shots/defense. She has to let them play their way out of it because there aren't enough options on the bench. That will change a little when Alyssa Jerome is available but Jerome is a relatively limited player.
Stanford's trip to Washington and Washington State next week presents some challenges. Washington is playing teams tough right now and Washington State has two great scorers. This Cardinal team can't roll over opponents like a wave anymore. If Stanford can use the positive momentum the players probably feel right now to sweep the Washington schools on the road it will set up a huge week when the LA schools come to town.
(P.S. I apologize for the really bad audio from the press conference. It's very difficult to hear the players and I'll bring that up with Stanford.)
Stanford needed a game like this after winning a bar fight Friday night against Colorado. Several of the Cardinal probably couldn't feel their legs after that game, especially Kiana Williams. The junior is playing through a slight limp and it's hindering Skippy from being her normal self.
But Williams and Lexie Hull were able to watch the entire fourth quarter from the bench while their teammates poured it on. Utah kept it close into the final minutes of the third quarter before the game turned into a three-point shooting contest. In the last four minutes of that period the teams combined to attempt 13 shots from beyond the arc.
Jump missed three straight before she went on her own scoring run.
Fran Belibi scored 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds in only 18 minutes on the court. The Cardinal finished the game with a remarkable 24 assists to only five turnovers and Belibi often benefited from the assists in that fantastic ratio. The freshman forward consistently did a good job sealing off her defender and finishing at the basket.
Eight different Cardinal had at least two assists and five scored in double figures.
Jenna Brown and Anna Wilson don't need to score to be helpful and they combined for only six points. They will be most helpful if they make good decisions on offense (one combined turnover) and play hard on defense. Stanford doesn't need them to be effective shooters because there will always be at least three, and usually four, teammates on the court with the green light to shoot from anywhere.
Something else that is noticeable since Haley Jones suffered her knee injury is that Tara VanDerveer has no choice but to let the freshmen bigs play on despite bad turnovers/shots/defense. She has to let them play their way out of it because there aren't enough options on the bench. That will change a little when Alyssa Jerome is available but Jerome is a relatively limited player.
Stanford's trip to Washington and Washington State next week presents some challenges. Washington is playing teams tough right now and Washington State has two great scorers. This Cardinal team can't roll over opponents like a wave anymore. If Stanford can use the positive momentum the players probably feel right now to sweep the Washington schools on the road it will set up a huge week when the LA schools come to town.
(P.S. I apologize for the really bad audio from the press conference. It's very difficult to hear the players and I'll bring that up with Stanford.)
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