The Stanford Cardinal women’s basketball team has completed a double title-winning season in conference play, following up their Pac-12 regular season crown this year with the 2021 Pac-12 Tournament title. They earned the championship after beating UCLA 75-55 in Las Vegas Sunday in the title game.
Despite the Bruins’ Michaela Onyenwere posting 30 points in the championship game, Stanford raced out to a 24-11 lead after the 1st quarter and outscored UCLA in two of the subsequent three quarters to make it a comfortable victory.
Kiana Williams led Cardinal scorers with 26 points, while Lexie Hull was right behind her with 24 points in the victory. Haley Jones had a double-double of 10 points and 13 assists.
The team clearly was the cream of the conference crop this season, but their dominance this season and overall is in some respects historic.
With the win, Stanford also officially clinch their berth in the NCAA tournament this season, although we all knew that was happening anyway. Still, it’s locked in now. And now we await the results of Selection Monday next week to see if the Cardinal get a No. 1 seed in the big dance and who they’ll be playing this time around. Stay tuned.
Comments
Did anyone else get nervous that Stanford could have an epic collapse in the 4th quarter?
It turned out Stanford just needed to start trying again (and Lexie Hull was the MVP of the game for me because of her leadership in that effort), but I was sweating for a few minutes. Go Stanford!
By worldblee on 03.09.21 10:50am
This won't be the last time to get nervous.
Stanford has the potential this year to win it all. Superb coaching. Suffocating defense. Several players who can shoot 3’s (most of the time). Two bigs. All the pieces are there. The problems that have manifest themselves over the course of this season, however, were evident in the UCLA game. When Haley Jones loses her concentration, she forces bad, or lazy passes. When Cameron Brink loses her concentration, she misses easy, close in shots. Everyone on the team reaches in, slaps down on the ball, and tries to swat opponents’ shots (rather than simply block it in the air) — all leading to unnecessary fouls. Everyone on the team, particularly, Brink and Belibi, needs to recognize when an opponent is out of control as they drive to the hoop. They will all veer into the defender, hoping to draw a foul. Don’t belly up to them in these situations. Maybe they’ll make their shot, but likely not. But they will make their free throws. And, finally, on offense, the players occasionally simply stop moving, leading to far too many last second shot attempts. No excuse with this depth. You move or you sit.
In all likelihood, Stanford will enter the NCAA tournament as the #1 overall seed. At worst, #2. That means they should have a relatively easy time into the elite eight. Then they will likely have three games against teams that have jockeyed all season in the top ten rankings: U Conn, South Carolina, North Carolina State, Baylor, Texas A & M, Louisville, UCLA, Maryland. Among them, only U Conn is a lock to the final four and, in my opinion, Stanford’s biggest threat. Texas A & M, Louisville, and Maryland, in my opinion, are all over-rated. U Conn is not, but they can be beaten. Their freshman phenom hasn’t faced defenders like Anna Wilson or Lexie Hull. And they are not that great of a 3 point shooting team, so if Stanford gets on a roll, it will difficult to come back. More good news. If Stanford faces U Conn, it won’t be until the championship game.
It will not be a cake walk to the finals (or even the final four), but if Tara can get her squad to knuckle down on both ends for the first three quarters of each game, this team has the ability and the depth to win it all. Good luck to everyone involved with the team.
By SU74 on 03.09.21 12:30pm