Strange Game - Important win

A Much Needed Win!

 

                  Stanford got a much needed win on Thursday night against one of the few ACC teams currently below the CARD in the conference standings. It was a game where a win was good but a loss would have been devastating. In one of the strangest games played at Maples in recent years, the two teams combined for 33 points in the entire first half, going 0 for 28 on three-point attempts. Stanford shot 22.8% (8/35) and Pitt hit 23.3% (7/30) with Stanford "surging" to a five-point on Elena Bosgana's driving layup as time expired. As ugly as the first half was, this was not a totally unfamiliar result for Pitt.  Earlier this season the Panthers scored only 18 points in the first half against SMU before roaring back in the second half to score 56 points in a 48-point comeback win. Pitt has scored less than 20 points in the first half multiple times this season and has rarely scored more than 60 points in a game.  

 

                  The second half looked more a "normal" game.  Both teams had shooting percentages in the mid-forty percent range and Stanford hit over 38% (5/13) on three-point shots. Pitt continued to miss all of its three-point attempts. Interestingly, while both teams were perfect from the free throw line for the first three quarters, Pitt players missed two of their six free throws in the 4th quarter while Stanford remained perfect from the line, hitting 12 of 12 for a team record perfect on 15 out of 15 free throws for the full game. That 4th quarter perfection included two free throws by Shay Ijiwoye. Her jubilant smile and bounce after hitting the second (as well as the bench reaction) showed how hard Shay has worked to improve her free throw shooting.

 

                  This was a game in which all nine of the Stanford players with time on the floor made positive contributions.  Some of those contributions barely showed on the scoreboard -- for example Mary Ashely Stevenson and Brooke Demetre only scored two points each (although Booke also had a steal and three blocks) -- but their physical defense against Khadija Faye, Pitts’ 6'4" center, was critical to Stanford's win. Freshman Kennedy Umeh also played valuable minutes against Faye. Kennedy also scored four points on perfect shooting (1/1 from the floor and 2/2 at the line). Faye was clearly frustrated by being pushed out of her preferred deep positioning in the paint.

 

                  Despite the game's low score, four Cardinal players were in double digits for the game. Nunu Agara played her usual tough defense and was clearly a focus of the Pitt defense, starting with an early play were Nunu's lip was split in a collision with a Pitt player. Nunu's 10 points came mostly from free throws. Nunu shot and made half of Stanford's 12 free throws. Chloe Clardy is beginning to look like Stanford's current version of an Ironman.  She played for full 40 minutes.  In Stanford's last three games, Chloe has been on the floor for all but three minutes of play! Some of this reflects the limited availability of other guards, but it also reflects Clardy’s continued improvement. Her 14 points were tied with Senior Elena Bosgana for Stanford's game high. Another big bright spot for the CARD was Courtney Ogden's continued emergence as a go-to player.  Courtney scored 10 points and grabbed 9 rebounds, barely missing her first career double-double.  

 

Questions:

1. How will Stanford respond to facing North Carolina's starting guard Indya Nivar?

                  Indya played her freshman season at Stanford, departing in Stanford's first multiple player transfer portal loss.  Will the coaching staff's familiarity with Nivar be of use?  How will the crowd respond to her?

 

2.  Will the improving Stanford squad be able to get its first breakthrough win against a Top 25 team?  

                  Once again Stanford will have a national TV audience.  Will the CARD be able to make a better showing at home against North Carollina than they did against Duke on the road?