On Tuesday, #2 Stanford women’s basketball fell to #1 South Carolina on the road by a final score of 65-61. South Carolina junior forward Aliyah Boston was the top scorer for the Gamecocks with 18 points and 11 rebounds while senior guard Destanni Henderson was the number two scorer with 17 points and 7 assists in her return from a three-game absence. Stanford senior guard Lexie Hull was the top performer for the Cardinal with 17 points and 7 rebounds. South Carolina improves to 12-0 overall while Stanford falls to 8-3.

“I’m really proud of how our team competed,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said after the game. “I think it was a great game, very competitive game. When it comes to last possession, it could have gone either way…I thought our team competed really well…Our team really stepped up…We just didn’t take care of the ball well enough. I think that was our biggest problem…We have to figure out how to put four quarters together. We have played a great first quarter, played a good second quarter, our third quarter really stunk.

“I thought our defense was pretty good. We gave up some baskets that we shouldn’t. But Boston is very tough in there. We got hurt on the o-boards. We gotta be more aggressive. I think different people will learn from this. We’ll get better. It’s good to play now instead of this being your NCAA game and be done. We can learn and get better.”

Stanford got out to an early 12-11 lead with 4:47 to go in the 1st quarter. Lexie Hull already had 7 points on 3-5 shooting from the field and 1-1 shooting from 3-point range. Stanford was shooting 5-8 from the field while South Carolina was shooting 4-14 (28.6%).

At the end of the 1st quarter, Stanford would lead 21-13. Lexie Hull was up to 14 points on 6-10 shooting from the field and 2-3 shooting from 3-point range. She was in the zone.

With 4:30 to go in the 2nd quarter, Stanford led 34-18. Hull’s 14 points were leading the Cardinal. Stanford was really coming out guns blazing from deep, shooting 6-11 from 3-point range. Hannah Jump was up to 6 points on 2-4 shooting from 3-point range.

At halftime, Stanford led 42-28. Lexie Hull’s 14 points was still leading the Cardinal. Just an all-around dominant first half performance from Stanford. Aliyah Boston’s 10 points was leading South Carolina.

Similar to the Tennessee game, the 3rd quarter was not kind to Stanford. With 4:27 to go in the 3rd, Stanford was now up by just seven points, 47-40. The Gamecocks were on a 12-2 run over the last 4:14. Stanford needed to respond and maintain a lead entering the 4th quarter.

South Carolina continued to climb their way back into the game as Stanford now led by just two points (49-47) with 1:45 to go in the 3rd quarter. Boston (13 points) and Henderson (10 points) were leading the comeback. Stanford was now on the verge of seeing their lead go away.

At the end of the 3rd quarter, South Carolina led 50-49. Aliyah Boston (13 points & 9 rebounds) was nearly at a double-double for the Gamecocks. South Carolina dominated the 3rd quarter 22-7. Now it was time to see if Stanford could respond.

With 6:15 to go, the game was tied up 54-54. Haley Jones headed to the bench for Stanford to get treatment. She wouldn’t be out for too long as Francesca Belibi came in to provide relief. Stanford would actually retake the lead to go up 56-54 with 4:51 to go as Belibi was up to 12 points while Lexie Hull was up to 17 points. As for South Carolina, Aliyah Boston was now up to 15 points of her own.

“She’s a hard guard,” South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley said. “Because she can score at so many levels and she doesn’t stop moving at all. We were able to pressure up front. We were able to deny entry passes. If you allow them to make those high post entry passes, Lexie is good at reading what she needs to do and where she needs to go next. We took that way. She’s an integral part of their offense and when we did that, she couldn’t be the Lexie Hull that they needed her to be.”

The game continued to be tight as South Carolina led 61-60 with 41.1 to go. The Gamecocks had the ball, looking to put the nail in the coffin. Stanford needed to get a stop.

Stanford would get the stop they needed and had possession following a tie up off a rebound. With 24.7 to go, they were still down 61-60, but this time had a chance to take the lead following a timeout. Cameron Brink would attempt a shot that was rather difficult in the post. A bit of a fadeaway and it did not drop. South Carolina got the ball back and with 16.2 to go, it was now looking grim for the Cardinal.

Stanford would get one more chance down 63-60 with 4.9 to go. But that possession didn’t go Stanford’s way as Brink went to the foul line and went 1-2. South Carolina got the ball back and made both of their foul shots to walk out with a 65-61 victory. Coming back from 18 points down, this marks the biggest comeback in the history of the Gamecocks’ program.

For Stanford this is a disappointing loss mainly because they had that 18 point lead and didn’t finish the job. They could have sent a real message to the rest of the country and let this opportunity slip through their fingers. At the same time, they have to feel good about how they played for much of the game and considering that they were on the road away from their home crowd, they can’t be too disappointed with the outcome.

“This is a great road trip,” VanDerveer said. “These are NCAA teams. Obviously South Carolina is ranked #1 and deservedly so. I thought our team really stepped up to the challenge and we’ll grow from this.”

“I think something we can take from this trip is playing well in all four quarters,” Lexie Hull added. “Just really focusing at the start of each quarter to get going.”

As for South Carolina, I wouldn’t quite call this a must-win game for them, but it’s in that neighborhood when you consider what their goals are. They’re the number one team in the nation with the defending national champions coming to town. Just like Kevin McCallister in Home Alone, they had to defend their house and they did. It wasn’t the prettiest of wins in a lot of ways, but if you’re them, you’ll take it.

Up next for Stanford is a road game at Washington on New Year’s Eve. That game will tipoff at 7:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Washington and Varsity Network radio.

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