A battle against two No. 1 seeds in the Final Four of an NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament is supposed to be a marquee matchup, and it certainly was Friday, as the Stanford Cardinal just outlasted South Carolina to win 66-65 and advance to the national title game.
Haley Jones had a career night, with 24 points, including the winning basket, to lead the Cardinal, while it was another balanced team effort overall to carry Stanford over the line and just edge South Carolina in an epic game.
South Carolina got out to a 5-0 lead, but good ball movement led to a trademark shot for Jones to get on the board at 5-2. But South Carolina were sharp to open the game and the Cardinal were a bit ponderous in their offensive sets.
Jones was the only player to hit her shots early for Stanford, scoring her team’s first three baskets, before Lexie Hull hit a 3-pointer to bring Stanford within six points. Then Jones buried a 3-pointer of her own after a stop of the Gamecocks, and the lopsided South Carolina lead was gone before the 1st quarter was over. Williams hit a jump shot to tie it at 15-15 just before the buzzer, so Stanford recovered from a sluggish start much faster this time around.
Defense reigned on both ends of the court in the 2nd quarter. Brink, battling a hamstring injury, entered after coming out early in the game and provided a boost in the paint on the defensive end.
Meanwhile, Elite Eight win star Ashten Prechtel found offensive contributions hard to find but did her part on defense, too. But Prechtel came through in the dying minutes of the 2nd quarter, hitting two free throws and a 3-pointer to extend Stanford’s lead to six points. And they went into halftime with that lead, the Cardinal up 31-25, with the job only half done.
Both teams were dropping shots to open the 3rd quarter, and South Carolina started to heat up from deep, Zia Cooke in particular taking a couple 3-pointers to open the 2nd half. Then Cooke and Destanni Henderson traded off 3-pointers for South Carolina, while Stanford continued to drive to the basket and pick up points that way.
This time, South Carolina came back in the 3rd quarter, and Stanford’s lead was three points through three quarters, the Cardinal up 52-49 after Lexie Hull hit a couple free throws in the final seconds.
South Carolina’s sixth woman, Laeticia Amihere, made a three-point play to open up the quarter and tie up the game, but Lexie Hull continued to draw fouls on the other end, and her free throws took Stanford ahead once again.
With Williams effectively playing the role of decoy on offense, Lexie Hull and Jones continually picked up baskets to keep the Cardinal just ahead of the Gamecocks down the stretch, but it was a battle. Both Brink and South Carolina’s star big, Aliyah Boston, were in foul trouble late, and coaches Tara VanDerveer and Dawn Staley were active in switching up their lineups to keep the dominant centers in games while trying to keep them from fouling out.
With just over 2:00 to play, Williams finally hit a 2nd-half shot, tallying a floater before a fast break off a steal moments later led to Brink hitting a layup to make it a five-point game.
That play will be a big talking point, because on the steal Lexie Hull appeared to kick the ball and it wasn’t called, leading to Brink’s layup, which turned out to be vital in the end.
On the next possession, South Carolina had a few chances before Henderson got the basket and and-1 to make it a 64-62 lead for Stanford, 1:09 left in the game.
Henderson hit the 3-pointer out of the timeout, and South Carolina took their first lead of the 2nd half, with 39.1 seconds to play.
Lexie Hull had the initial shot coming out of the timeout, but she missed. Fortunately, Jones was at the ready and her shot was pure, giving Stanford the 66-65 edge with 32 seconds to go.
Prechtel got the steal on the other end without South Carolina getting up a shot on the next possession, and Stanford got a timeout with 13.1 seconds left before their possession. Williams killed time on the in-bounds and got fouled.
But there were no shots, and South Carolina got a steal at midcourt to end the game. Brea Beal missed the initial lay-up attempt, and then Boston’s buzzer-beater at the rim went halfway in and then came back out, and Stanford survived to play another game.
Emotions were at a fever pitch, Stanford jubilant and South Carolina in tears instantly. But while this game came down to the finest of margins, it was the kind of game that both teams can be proud of in terms of their performance. And for Stanford, the season of destiny for the nomads continues for one last game.
This will be Stanford’s first national championship game in women’s basketball since 2010, and they’ll play the winner of the UConn-Arizona semifinal. The title game will take place Sunday at 3 pm PT, on ESPN, so make sure you catch the big game.
Comments
Hope AZ holds on against UCONN
Kiana needs to stop thinking about playing in her hometown…she’s put so much pressure on herself these last 2 games and we need her leadership (and shot) for the final.
Great move by Tara to switch Lexie Hull onto Zia Cooke who couldn’t miss even with our top defensive guard Anna Wilson on her.
But wondering why Brink even got her hand on the ball with Hull, Williams and even Prechtel being better FT shooters.
Lastly, great to see Haley step it up especially from the 3-point line and show why she was the #1 recruit 2 years ago
By davethekid on 04.02.21 8:03pm
Agree with all your points
Kiana has now played 3 underperforming halves out of the last 4. Thank goodness Lexie, Haley, and Ashten have really carried the load (plus a shoutout to the rim at SC’s end in the last 5 seconds).
By worldblee on 04.03.21 9:47am
woohoo!!! UCONN now UGONN
PAC-12 will win the title this year – let’s go Cardinal!
By davethekid on 04.02.21 8:36pm
Get ahead early Stanford, please.
Aari McDonald will play very well, even with Anna Wilson guarding her for the third time this year. But Anna will slow her down. Arizona will also play inspired defense. That’s a given. But Stanford has now played and beaten two teams in a row that played inspired defense. [Okay, this last one involved a little bit of luck at the very end, but that’s the tournament.]
The big question is will Stanford shoot well early. Lexi Hull certainly should, now that she has Saturday to get over the nightmare of missing layups for fear of Aliyah Boston. Fran Belibi will be thrilled to be playing against someone who won’t bang her into submission. Haley Jones may not play as spectacularly as she did against South Carolina, but she is certainly capable of doing it two games in a row. Ashten Prechtel will certainly be more of the afterthought she was in the first two contests ( 9 minutes, 5 points; 7 minutes, 3 points). And Kiana? Please get hot early. Please.
One other point. Tara Vandeveer is an awfully good game coach.
Any team that is this fun to watch deserves to win. Go Stanford.
By SU74 on 04.02.21 9:17pm
Not sure why Cameron was in in the game at the end.
I am at a loss for why Tara has Cameron in the game. She’ s not that great of a FT shooter. Put another quick guard who can get open and hit free throws in. I also would have told Hull if she can’t get it in to Kiana call a time out.
I’m also at a loss as to why Tara didn’t run the same in bounds play that got Kiana wide open the play before.
Good lord. I’ve never seen a FInal Four team miss so many layups, even uncontested layrups. Some of Lexi’s shots weren’t even close to going in.
I thought Tara should have done a better job of trying to setup mismatches with Hailey in the key. I think she did it once or twice, but there were many other times where a big has a guard on them and there doesn’t seem to be any team recognition of effort to immediately exploit that.
I will give much credit to SC. They totally neutralized Anna and Kiana from scoring. But this came at the cost of leaving the lane open for lots of layups (which were unfortunately missed) and Hailey Jones to operate. This is one of the few times I’ve seen a team with the better point guard play, lose the game. Although, we can argue that Hailey plays as a psuedo guard and that is why Stanford survived. Hailey is one of the few players on the team who can create her own shot and she showed up. As someone already posted, she showed why she was a #1 recruit, and that’s how you win, your best players play well.
Fran made some plays, but her offense is all but evaporated since the start of the season. She looks like she’s hardly played any basketball on offense. Fortunately Prechtel seems to be unfazed coming off the bench.
By Blackjoy on 04.03.21 3:04pm
I was getting a medical procedure during the game (while watching the first half on my phone)
I now know the difference in my blood pressure between normal and Stanford in the Final Four – it’s not great. Thank goodness the tired SC legs failed them on those last two shots of the game…
By worldblee on 04.03.21 9:48am
Great job to your team!!!
I am an Arizona fan coming here to say that it is an honor to play Stanford for the national championship. I have enjoyed this season and tournament so much and I will be proud of Arizona no matter what the outcome is. Hats off to your team and I wish for a hard fought, well played game. I have an incredible amount of respect for Stanford.
By Just Ian on 04.03.21 10:59am
Can someone
fix that headline typo?
By holdthemayo! on 04.03.21 2:36pm