On Wednesday, #15 Stanford women’s basketball defeated Hawaii 87-40 in their regular season opener at Maples Pavilion. Stanford junior forward Kiki Iriafen led the way for the Cardinal with 23 points and 13 rebounds while freshman forward Nunu Agara had 18 points and six rebounds. Hawaii junior center Brooklyn Rewers was the top performer for the Rainbow Wahine with eight points and three rebounds. Stanford improves to 1-0 on the season while Hawaii falls to 0-1.
BOX SCORE: Hawaii at Stanford-Wednesday, November 8th
AUDIO: Stanford WBB Press Conference | Hawaii
VIDEO: Stanford WBB Press Conference | Hawaii
“Well thank you all for being here, it's great to see everyone,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said after the game. “We're really excited to get the season going. We've been working very hard in the offseason and kind of what you saw today from Kiki and Nunu is things I've been watching every day in practice. Kiki has been just a woman out there just taking the ball to the basket, scoring, playing great defense, rebounding, and you know, she kind of, she really only played about half the game. Hawaii is an excellent team. They were a tournament team last year and I think that this just, I think just really has to be a good message to our team that we're playing really well and we're going to continue this.
“Nunu, it was really exciting, I know that this is not something I should say, but you don't look like a freshman out there. You're just a basketball player and you know, you had so many great plays. It's really exciting how you play, so I kind of just feel like the baloney in the middle of the sandwich here with two great players. They work really hard out there, they’re team leaders. I'm just so proud of how we started and we're just going to continue it on Sunday.”
This one was one-way traffic for the Cardinal from the opening tip. With 6:09 to go in the 1st quarter, Stanford led 10-2 as Kiki Iriafen was up to 6 points and 2 rebounds on 3-3 shooting from the field. She was in the zone.
Stanford would continue to keep their foot on the gas, leading 24-12 at the end of the 1st quarter. Kiki Iriafen and Cameron Brink were each up to eight points and four rebounds for the Cardinal. Stanford was shooting 8-8 from the foul line.
With 4:01 to go in the half, Iriafen was up to 10 points and six rebounds. She continued to be on a roll. It was becoming clear that this would be her night. She was scoring really well around the basket and knocking down some midrange shots. She was looking the best she has ever looked.
“Yeah I think this year I've been very confident,” Iriafen said. “My coaches have been pouring into me something that Tara and I talked about, is like trying to get a double-double every single game. So I've been very intentional about that. But honestly not even thinking about that so much, but more so like trying to go out there, dominate, be a leader for my team, do what I can for my team, but just going out there and playing.”
At halftime, Stanford led 46-22. Iriafen was up to 17 points and nine rebounds, one shy of a double-double. She was shooting 7-10 from the field and 3-3 from the foul line. It was quite the opening night for her. Hawaii had no way of containing her and on offense, Hawaii couldn’t establish any flow.
With 4:47 to go in the 3rd quarter, Stanford led 58-25. Iriafen was the only player in double figures with 21 points and 12 rebounds. Stanford was out-rebounding Hawaii 38-14.
At the end of the 3rd quarter, Stanford was in front 66-30. Iriafen was up to 23 points and 13 rebounds, which would be her total for the night. Elena Bosgana was up to 10 points and eight rebounds. All was going Stanford’s way.
While Iriafen sat out the 4th quarter, Agara came in and played all 10 minutes, scoring 12 of her 18 points while also grabbing four of her six rebounds. As a result of Agara’s spark, Stanford finished the game strong, walking out with an 87-40 final score.
“I think as a team we're doing amazing,” Iriafen said. “We're gelling together really well, it’s super early in the season and we're doing incredible things and I think it's just going to continue to go up from there.”
While it can be easy for Stanford to take this kind of result for granted, they should still feel great about how this game went. Especially with who stepped up. Stanford has been hoping for Iriafen to blossom and this game was evidence of that happening.
And then to see a freshman like Agara play as well as she did is fantastic, too. Agara ended up having the highest point total for a Stanford freshman in a season opener since Candice Wiggins scored 24 points at Utah in 2004.
“Yeah I was definitely nervous,” Agara said. “I was committed here since my junior year so I've been waiting for this forever. I used to watch it on TV and be like oh, I’m coming in like two years, and just to be out there with my teammates it's just amazing. Amazing. Like the energy that they have is, I've never experienced anything like that. So, just coming out there and being with my sisters, my older sisters is great.”
The most impressive stat of the night to me was Stanford going 19-20 at the foul line. They work hard on foul shooting and it certainly paid off in this game. That’s truly a remarkable feat to shoot that well at the foul line.
“Well we have this thing in practice where we make twelve in a row every day in practice,” VanDerveer said of their foul shooting. “And everybody makes it and you know I just think that you know we have very good shooters on our team. I mean, Courtney is an excellent shooter. Nunu and Kiki both shoot threes. They haven't busted them out yet, but they will by the end of season. I think we have really really good shooters on our team and that's just you know at the free throw line you wanna make them pay for fouling you.”
Up next for Stanford is a home game against #9 Indiana on Sunday. That will tip off at 2:00 PM PT on ESPN and Varsity Network radio.
“You know what's the I think the most important thing about this game is not necessarily the individual performances, but just the excitement that everyone has for everyone else,” VanDerveer said. “You know that's a team, you know people are not playing individual basketball, they're playing together, they're excited for each other, they're cheering for each other and we're going to need everyone. I thought Stavi went in at the end of the game and did really well. We need, you know we have twelve great players that are playing for each other and that's what will take us a long way.”
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