On Thursday at 7:00 PM PT on Stanford Live Stream and Varsity Network Radio, #6 Stanford women’s basketball will take on the Cal Poly Mustangs at home. Stanford comes in at 2-0 overall while Cal Poly comes in at 1-3.
Last time out: Stanford defeated Indiana 96-64 on Sunday. Stanford came in as the #15 team in the AP Top 25 and is now ranked #6.
RECAP: #15 Stanford WBB humiliates #9 Indiana
On Cal Poly: The Mustangs are struggling. Their record indicates as much. They do have a 65-55 victory at Idaho, but they also have losses at #24 Washington State, San Jose State, and Cal. The Washington State loss was by 17 points, the San Jose State loss was by five points, and the Cal loss was by 14 points, so they’ve not gotten destroyed in any of their losses. Tonight might end up being a different story, though.
The top scorer for Cal Poly is senior forward Natalia Ackerman, who is averaging 12.0 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. She is the only Mustangs player scoring in double figures on average, though junior point guard Annika Shah (9.0 points) and freshman guard/forward Mary Carter (8.8 points) are knocking on the door.
The Mustangs average 60.5 points per game on 42.2% shooting from the field, 40.3% from 3-point range, and 76.3% shooting from the foul line. They also average 38.3 rebounds, 9.0 assists, 6.3 steals, 4.8 blocks, and 23.0 turnovers per game for a +6.8 rebound margin and a -8.2 turnover margin. Their opponents average 67.0 points per game on 37.6% from the field, 35.4% from 3-point range, and 75.3% from the foul line.
Keys to the game: For Stanford, the first thing they need to do is assert their will inside. Kiki Iriafen and Cameron Brink are dominating inside right now. Cal Poly doesn’t have an answer for them, so Stanford really needs to do all they can to pound the rock inside and win in the paint.
The second thing Stanford needs to do is force turnovers. Cal Poly really struggles in this area. If Stanford speeds them up and forces them to turn the ball over, they should win with ease.
Finally, Stanford should look to get a balanced scoring attack. The more people they can get going, the better. In games where they are heavily favored like this, it’s best to get as many people as possible going so that in the bigger games, they’re more ready when/if their name is called.
Prediction: These blowout games are always tough to predict. I’ll roll with Stanford by a final score of 90-42.
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