Cardinal handle Arizona State, and VanDerveer within 3 wins of history

When No. 10 Stanford closed out a 66-56 win over No. 16 Arizona State -- one that they led from tip-off to final buzzer -- the Cardinal finished a season sweep of the Sun Devils and head coach Tara VanDerveer moved within three wins of 1,000 in her career.

The win showed the type of improvement from the Cardinal that VanDerveer has so often been able to help develop from game-to-game, season-to-season.

Last season, Arizona State’s physical, aggressive style on defense at times bullied the Cardinal, especially in a 49-31 Jan. 4 road loss. While the offense has come a long way for Stanford in the past year, the defense led the way by almost completely shutting down Arizona State’s guards and limiting their talented interior players.

“I thought our defense and our rebounding really won the game for us,” VanDerveer said. “I thought we played really hard defensively and we did a much better job on the boards -- limiting them to nine offensive boards is really a great accomplishment for us.

“Their post game is a strength. We didn’t maybe do a good enough job on them, but their perimeter game … they really struggled on the perimeter.”

The Sun Devils’ top four guards -- Reili Richardson, Sabrina Haines, Kiara Russell and Robbi Ryan -- shot a combined 3-for-28 against the pressure of Karlie Samuelson, Brittany McPhee, Bri Roberson and Marta Sniezek. The size and toughness of Samuelson and McPhee in particular gives Stanford an edge in rebounding from the 2/3 positions that few other teams can match.

McPhee and Samuelson combined for 11 rebounds. Samuelson also had five assists and 15 points. McPhee added 13 points with her variety of shot-making skills.

Stanford’s response to Arizona State’s grind-into-dust style of play on both ends of the court provided some positives and negatives in the eyes of VanDerveer.

“This is a team that swept us last year,” she said. “We struggle against their pressure. The one thing we’re not excited about is the turnovers. Some of them I will call unforced. That’s our next project if we play them again to really take care of the ball better.”

But when the ball was moving with crisp efficiency and the Cardinal were able to run, the result was that Stanford bust open a 18-15 game in the second quarter to a 30-19 lead by the end of the half. The Cardinal led by as many as 22 in the third quarter.

Erica “Bird” McCall credited her guards for pushing the tempo off of defensive stops and strong rebounding. She also said what happened last season against Arizona State -- including an overtime loss at Maples Pavilion -- was on her mind after they beat Arizona Friday.

“I thought about it in previous days about how that one hurt me,” she said.” Coming into it I was really fired up and wanted to get my team prepared. I wanted to rebound well for my team and knew the points would come eventually.”

McCall finished with 18 points and nine rebounds. And one emphatic block.

She also welcomed back frontcourt partner Kaylee Johnson to the starting lineup after the the Wyoming forward had missed multiple games this season due to injury. Johnson isn’t counted on to be a scorer -- although she put in six points -- but she is a tone setter on the boards and with her communication.

Johnson’s time away from the court helped accelerate the development of freshman Nadia Fingall and now the junior’s completed return gives Stanford an enviable depth chart. Fingall only played five minutes against Arizona State, but in a game often punctuated by a blown whistle -- a combined 39 fouls is a good indicator that the Sun Devils are in town -- every minute counted to keep McCall and Johnson on the court at key times.

Sophomore Alanna Smith has seen her role grow as well. She grabbed four rebounds and played tough defense in a type of game that gave her trouble last season.

The emerging talent of the team and the Cardinal’s potential is the focus for VanDerveer, but there is no denying the approaching historic career benchmark. Stanford heads up to the Evergreen State this week and then return to Maples Pavilion for four straight games, which means it is likely that VanDerveer will coach her 1,000th win at the home arena she’s helped to make a bastion of the sport.

Stanford hosts USC Friday, Feb. 3, and UCLA Monday, Feb. 6. Colorado visits Friday, Feb. 10, and Utah on Feb. 12.

“It’s going to be pretty amazing,” McCall said. “I was there for 900 and that was a lot of fun, so being there for 1,000 is going to be even greater. It’s going to be a fun time. We just got to get the wins first.”

VanDerveer joked, “I’m not old enough for that,” and, “I can’t really believe I’ve coached that many games.”

She described her mindset is to keep her focus on the present: “The way I really feel is if we keep improving, and we have the great leadership that we have with Bird, this would be a fun team to win it with. I love coaching Erica. She’s just an awesome person, an awesome player. I’m counting down -- not that number -- the number of games she’s got left. I want every game to be a great game for her to keep doing what she’s doing and all the seniors. I’m really excited about this team and we want to keep improving.

“I’m an in-the-moment person. I’m not a perfectionist … but I know what I want it to look like. Today’s game for me I was really excited about our rebounding. I love how we rebounded. But I was not excited about some of our turnovers. To me they were just like, ‘Why?’ I want to see basketball played a certain way with a purpose. I’m just trying to work with this team to understand shot selection, decisions and have to keep running our offense better.

“Each game is a single entity that I enjoy. I want to work on our team getting better.”