On Sunday, #2 Stanford women’s basketball fell to #5 USC in the Pac-12 tournament title game by a final score of 74-61. USC graduate student forward McKenzie Forbes led the way for the Trojans with 26 points and five rebounds while graduate student forward Kayla Padilla had 13 points and four rebounds. Stanford senior forward Cameron Brink was the top performer for the Cardinal with 19 points, 10 rebounds, and six blocks.
BOX SCORE: Stanford vs. USC-Sunday, March 10th
VIDEO: Stanford Postgame Press Conference | Pac-12 Championship Game
“First I’d like to congratulate USC,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said after the game. “I thought they played a very aggressive game and McKenzie Forbes had a great game. But I also want to congratulate Stanford Cardinal and the three women that I’m sitting with up here. I’m very proud of how hard they played. I don’t think, we didn’t do a lot of the things that we wanted to do, but I thought Elena number one played great defense on Juju. [She] worked really really hard at that and just was really focused and she had some help obviously from other people, but I think that’s something that we’re really proud of.
“They had some people make some shots early that don’t have necessarily the shooters that, they haven’t had the numbers all season long but they knocked down some shots and that was a little problem for us. For us, I think that we have to execute offensively better. We didn’t always get the shots that we wanted. More than anything probably, we have to rebound better. But Cam and Kiki are warriors in there. They battled, they worked really hard, and I’m very proud of them and we’re going to get ready for the NCAA tournament.”
As had been a theme for Stanford all tournament long, they got off to a slow start. At the end of the 1st quarter, Stanford trailed by five points as USC led 22-17. McKenzie Forbes was already up to 10 points for USC while Cameron Brink and Kiki Iriafen each had six points for Stanford. Juju Watkins hadn’t yet scored for the Trojans after previously scoring 51 points in her last game against Stanford.
With 4:35 to go in the 2nd quarter, USC led 29-24. Watkins still hadn’t scored, but others were stepping up. Brink and Iriafen were now up to eight points for the Cardinal while Forbes’ 10 points still led the Trojans.
At halftime, USC led 40-31. Forbes was up to 14 points after a nice floater to end the half. Kayla Williams and Kayla Padilla each had eight points. As for Stanford, Brink was leading the charge with her 13 points, five rebounds, and two blocks. Stanford once again was in a hole at the break for the third straight game.
“We’re capable of playing better and I’m just going to say that we’re counting on a lot of young players that I thought stepped up beautifully,” VanDerveer said when asked about trailing again at halftime. “Elena’s game. She didn’t play in the tournament really much last year when she came to this tournament and really made a difference. Kiki was young. Is a young player. I thought she had a great tournament. Obviously Cam, we’re getting blood off her jersey the whole time when she’s coming over to the bench. She really battles out there. And I was very proud of Chloe and how Chloe came in and worked really hard defensively and made some really big plays for us. Today was their day and it wasn’t that we were so bad, I thought they were very good.”
USC would lead 46-37 with 5:00 to go in the 3rd quarter. Stanford was trying to make a dent and get back into the game but USC was doing a good job of fending them off.
At the end of the 3rd quarter, USC still led by nine points as it was 53-44. Forbes was having a fantastic afternoon for USC with 19 points and five rebounds. Brink was leading Stanford with 15 points, nine rebounds, and four blocks. USC was dominating the glass by 15+ rebounds. Stanford needed to step it up inside.
“We were in a weird defense,” Brink said of their rebounding issues. “So, I think we tried our best and they just had a really good game. So yeah, props to them. They’re a great team.”
USC would actually expand their lead in the 4th quarter, leading 63-50 with 6:24 to go. Forbes was continuing to have the hot hand for USC as she was up to 24 points after a huge transition three.
With 2:12 to go, USC led 67-57. Stanford was trying to make a late push, but it was too little too late. Barring a total collapse by USC, this game was in the books. The final scored ended up being a 74-61 victory for USC as they did not collapse and instead went on to out-score Stanford 21-17 in the 4th quarter.
“Well of course, we want to win the game,” Iriafen said. “But I think throughout the game we never wavered. We never gave in or thought we were going to lose. Until the buzzer sounded we thought we had a chance of winning the game so I think we were just very resilient no matter what the score was.”
While Stanford did a great job of containing Juju Watkins (9 points), they didn’t do much else well. Their rebounding or lack thereof was especially troubling as USC won the rebounding battle 48-28. That cannot happen. And then on top of that, they didn’t do a good job defending Forbes. While she’s not as highly acclaimed as Watkins, Forbes is a former McDonald’s All-American and extremely talented. Stanford did not do a good job of making adjustments against her at halftime.
As for USC, this is a huge win for them. They are hoping to get a number one seed in the NCAA tournament and perhaps this will push them over the top. Head coach Lindsay Gottlieb has done a great job with her team all season long and has her team playing their best basketball in March. Don’t be surprised to see the Trojans make a deep run in the NCAA tournament. They’re legitimately dangerous.
Up next for Stanford is the NCAA tournament. The big question right now is whether or not Stanford will get a number one seed or if they’ll get dropped down to a two. I’m not a bracketologist, so I can’t really say how that will shake out. The only thing I can say is if Stanford had defeated USC, they would almost certainly get a number one seed. Now there’s going to be some drama going into Selection Sunday regarding their seed. Selection Sunday will be this coming Sunday, March 17th at 5:00 PM PT/8:00 PM ET on ESPN.
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