And a good time was had by all

         

 

             The Rainbow Wahine Showdown ended with the Cardinal celebrating a tournament championship and another relatively easy win over a team that was overmatched by this tall and talented team. Unlike the previous days, there was a crowd for the final game.  Florida Gulf Coast and Grambling played a much closer than expected game to a mostly empty gym; with Grambling leading for most of the way until FGC pulled out a six point win in the last quarter.  But Stanford and U. of Hawaii played to a crowd of over 2,000!  Much of the audience consisted of girls' basketball teams from around the island, mixed in with other basketball fans.  As one high school coach said, "how often in Hawaii do you get a chance to see the #2 team in the country in action?"  The crowd appreciated their local team and gave them support to "hang in there."

            Despite losing the game, the Hawaii team managed to do something no other team had done during these three days of games -- they won a quarter, the 3rd!  Hawaii came out after halftime and managed to trim Stanford's 23-point lead down to a 19-point lead by the end of the third.  Hawaii's success was partly the result of cold shooting by Stanford, with players missing 12 of the 17 shots they took that quarter, and only hitting 12.5% of their 3-point attempts!

            Stanford's 11-point quarter was significantly the result of Hawaii's ramped up defensive intensity, an intensity that sent Stanford players crashing to the floor on multiple occasions - not all of which resulted in fouls. (Sound familiar?) Several of the Hawaii "bigs" weren't tall, but they were definitely big and they used their bodies. There were players flying.  But the low scoring was also the result of some sloppy play by the Cardinal, resulting in turnovers.  Stanford "righted the ship" in the fourth quarter out scoring Hawaii by 10, but still missed a lot of shots and committed too many turnovers. 

           

            Stanford is Actually a Young Team

 

            It is useful to remember that only Brink and Jones were core starters last season, with Jump and Belibi also playing meaningful minutes.  Much of the sloppy play can be attributed to young players and the lack of time playing together for many of the combinations on the floor.  We can expect these things to correct themselves as the season goes on.  One of the difficulties of having so many talented players is that it takes time for them to learn to play together in all the various permutations that appear on the floor.  Still, 14 turnovers is too many, and the bad practice of not valuing the ball can become a bad habit.

            One bad habit that seems to be getting turned around is missing free-throws.  Only three Stanford players shot free-throws - Brink, Jones, and Betts (remember the point about fouls not getting called).  Both Cam and Haley were perfect from the line -- Brink 7 for 7 and Jones 5-5. 

            Unfortunately, Stanford's shooting performance overall was somewhat sub-par - 40% from the floor, 31.8% from three.  The usually reliable Hannah Jump went 1 for 6 from three.  Luckily, Ashten Prechtal was hot -- going 5 for 9 from three with total 17 points (while also picking up 11 rebounds for her first double-double of the season). She led all players in scoring and rebounds.  Jones (11pts) and Brink (15pts) were the only other Stanford players in double figures.  Brink also added an impressive five blocks to her stat line.  Talana Lepolo played the most minutes for Stanford - 34 - and her eight-to-2 assist to turnover ratio UNDERSTATES her value to the team.  The offense simply runs better when she is on the floor.  The good news is that she is a freshman! That means both that can be expected to get even better and that she will be with Stanford for three more years after this one!

 

           Champions Again

 

         At the end of the game, a representative of the U of Hawaii Athletic Department presented a Championship trophy to Stanford. Cameron Brink was named a member of the five player All-Tournament team and Haley Jones was named the Most Outstanding Player.  Tara sent seniors, Prechel, Belibi, and Jump out to collect the trophy.  One of the few disappointments for the trip is that Fran Belibi's injured thumb is limiting her performance - and her minutes.  

            

            A Fun Interlude Comes to an End

        All in all it was a fun trip - with time for families to celebrate their Stanford stars (and the players are all start to their families) and enjoy Hawaii. Our seniors had fun! <316961441_644367980755477_6324547655108614846_n.jpg>haley j on Instagram: "funky four goes parasailing!"instagram.com Stanford staff, players, and their families got a chance to enjoy basketball and the island.

    Instead of the promised questions, I close with some family photos and only one question:

 

            Can you match the player with these family members ?