First Road Trip Yields 2 Wins!
After finishing their three-game season opening home stand with a blowout win 35-point win over Cal Poly Pomona, the CARD traveled to Eastern Washington for two road games. During the first three games at home Stanford and the team’s highly touted freshmen dominated. Although it was clear that the star freshmen were still learning the plays and adjusting to the college game, their talent was more than enough. But, not surprisingly, a team starting two freshmen faced challenges on its first road trip against two teams with tournament aspirations.
Defense In the Luggage
Coach Paye has frequently said that she wants this team to hang its hat on defense and luckily that defense got included in the luggage for the team’s first trip. Both games were grind-it-out defensive battles, and the CARD had the better defense. Stanford held Washington State to 30.2% from the floor and Gonzaga to 37.5%. The was the good news. The bad news was that Stanford apparently failed to pack a lot of the CARD's offense, especially their three-point shooting. The CARDINAL shot only 40.7% against the Cougars, upping that to a slightly more respectable 44.6% against Gonzaga. However, Stanford went two-of-eighteen (11.2%) from three against Washington State and an only slightly better two-of-ten (20%) against Gonzaga.
Washington State
In Pulman the Stanford team never ran away with the game. Washington St. was behind by at least two scores virtually the entire game, but never by more than 13 points. Most of the game Stanford's lead was in the 5-to-7-point range - ahead but not really comfortably ahead. One had the feeling that it might have been even closer if WSU's 6'6 junior center Alex Covill had been on the floor and not on the bench wearing a boot. Without her the Cougars only lost the rebounding battle by 3 -- 37 to 34. It was basically an ugly game. Both teams had more turnovers than assists. Stanford had 11 assists and 15 turnovers while WSU recorded only 6 assists to go with their 16 turnovers. Hailee Swain led Stanford's scoring with 10 points. Agara scored 9 while Somfai and Clardy both added 8. Courtney Ogden continued to show the talent we have long know her to possess, scoring five points and grabbing five rebounds to go with an assist, a steal and a block.
Gonzaga
If the WSU game was ugly, it is hard to come up with a word to describe the opening quarter of Stanford's game against Gonzaga. Stanford scored the game's first basket and then didn't score again for over three minutes, when Stevenson hit one of two free throws to make the score 11-3. Gonzaga outscored Stanford by nine in the quarter. That was the only quarter the ZAGs won -- but it took a while for Stanford to overcome that 9 point deficit. For most of the first half the game was consisted of a push from the CARD and a response from the ZAGS. Stanford finally pulled to within one point (33-31) on a three-pointer from Clardy in the waning seconds of the first half. Courtney Ogden was particularly impressive during Stanford's second quarter play. She is one of the Cardinal's players who can create her own offensive and she did.
Stanford won the third and fourth quarters by 8 and 7 points. The CARD tied the game in the opening minute of the third and took their first lead after just over a minute of play. Gonzaga kept it close, but the CARD never trailed again. Stanford's junior class were the story of the game. Clardy (20), Agara (16), and Ogden (14) all scored in double figures. Stanford’s fourth junior, transfer Stevenson scored four points but also pulled down six rebounds as did fellow junior Ogden. Nunu Agara's team high 11 rebounds gave her another double-double.
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The Game has Changed
During the WSU game one of the ESPN announcers noted that it is hard for coaches to plan appropriate schedules because they never know what players they will have "next year." The days of recruiting a team and being able to count on watching those players develop over four years are gone. She went on to say, now it's all about having the money to pay them. That's how teams get players and how they keep them. People may not like it, but that's the name of the game.
The current Stanford team is exciting. The thought of having these freshmen around for four years AND having the strong junior class back as seniors next year -- along with Shay and Kennedy is enough get me starting to think about National Championship banners. But keeping those players and recruiting more requires money -- and that means that Stanford fans need to step up. I'll be talking about this more in future blogs. But, for now, as you think about your end-of-year giving -- don't forget the CARDINAL.
Questions:
1. How will the freshmen respond to a return to Maples?
Our star freshman played like freshmen in Eastern Washington. Even Hailee Swain, who was the high scorer for Stanford against WSU was only 3 of 14 against Gonzaga. Learning to be an efficient scorer will be important for all of the freshmen. Will the fab five return to their star ways in Maples?
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