Over Thanksgiving, #4 Stanford women’s basketball will play in the Ball Dawgs Classic at The Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nevada. On Wednesday, they’ll open up things up against Belmont at 1:30 PM PT before facing either Florida State or Northwestern on Friday pending on the outcomes. Their games will air on FloHoops and Varsity Network radio.
Last time out: On Sunday, Stanford defeated Duke 82-79 in overtime. Cameron Brink and Kiki Iriafen both had career-highs in scoring. Brink with 29 points, 11 rebounds, and six blocks. Iriafen with 27 points and nine rebounds.
RECAP: #6 Stanford WBB survives in OT against Duke
On Belmont: The Bruins come in at 2-2 overall. They lost to Missouri and Mississippi State while defeating Georgia and Wichita State. Georgia at the time was receiving votes in the rankings as was Mississippi State and they lost to them by one point. So, they are a dangerous team. Just like their men’s program usually is.
The Bruins have four players scoring in double figures: Freshman guard Jailyn Banks (15.5 points & 5.0 rebounds), junior forward Tessa Miller (14.5 points & 7.0 rebounds), junior forward Kendal Cheesman (13.3 points & 6.5 rebounds), and redshirt junior guard Tuti Jones (10.0 points). They have nice scoring balance, which makes them difficult to contain.
As a team, the Bruins average 68.5 points per game on 39.8% shooting from the field, 30.1% shooting from 3-point range, and 67.0% shooting from the foul line. They also average 37.0 rebounds, 13.3 assists, 8.3 steals, 4.3 blocks, and 15.3 turnovers per game while having a -3.0 rebound margin and a +0.2 turnover margin. Their opponents average 63.0 points per game on 39.8% shooting from the field, 20.3% shooting from 3-point range, and 74.5% shooting from the foul line.
Keys to the game: The first thing Stanford needs to do is feed Brink and Iriafen inside. This should be the key to every game, but they should test the Bruins and see how they can handle their two posts. If Brink and Iriafen get rolling, that’ll free things up for the entire offense.
Building off that, Stanford should look to crass the glass and win the rebound battle. They should out-rebound Belmont and if they do, the Bruins are going to have a tough time pulling this one out.
Finally, Stanford needs to defend the perimeter. The Bruins’ top three scorers collectively shoot well above the team average from 3-point range, so they can get going from deep. If Stanford takes away the 3-ball, they should be fine.
Prediction: Against Belmont, I got Stanford winning by a final score of 80-60. I didn’t see Duke playing them as close as they did, so who knows? Maybe Belmont makes this a fight. It’s just that on paper, I think Stanford’s size in the paint alone should make things overwhelming for Belmont.
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