On Wednesday, #2 Stanford women’s basketball defeated Santa Clara 82-69. Hannah Jump led the way for the Cardinal with 19 points on 6-12 shooting from the field, 4-8 shooting from 3-point range, and 3-3 shooting from the foul line while Kiki Iriafen had 16 points and 6 rebounds. Olivia Pollerd was the top performer for Santa Clara with 19 points on 7-13 shooting from the field and 5-11 shooting from 3-point range. Stanford improves to 9-1 overall while Santa Clara falls to 5-4.
“I think Santa Clara played really well and this is a great game for us to play,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said after the game. “We didn’t defend the 3-point line as well as we needed to and they got thirteen threes, but our team took care of the basketball. We didn’t turn it over, which was good. We had twice as many assists as turnovers. We went inside really well to Cam; I thought Kiki had a really big game. I thought Fran came off the bench and gave us great minutes going five for eight. Had a couple steals, rebounding, and she set monster screens. And that was something that we really focused on.
“Talana is getting better and better, run our offense, and I think you knocked down a three, too. But, I think there’s things we can learn and things we can do better. So we’ll have to play better against Gonzaga.”
The game was tight early on as Stanford led 15-10 with 3:57 to go in the 1st quarter. Kiki Iriafen was going to work with 8 points while Cameron Brink had a nice triple from straight out.
At the end of the 1st quarter, it was a 20-19 lead for Stanford. Iriafen was leading the Cardinal with 11 points and 3 rebounds. Haley Jones had a reverse layup to make it 20-19 before the quarter ended. Santa Clara was hanging tough as Olivia Pollerd and Lexie Pritchard each had 5 points.
With 6:45 to go in the 2nd quarter, it was a 31-22 lead for Stanford. The Cardinal were on a 7-0 run over the last 1:23. They were starting to pull away. At least so it seemed.
At halftime, it was a 40-29 lead for Stanford. Iriafen was leading the Cardinal with 11 points and 3 rebounds. Jump was up to 9 points, getting a key 4-point play. Pollerd was leading Santa Clara with 7 points. Stanford was up, but Santa Clara was battling.
“I think that when you have a player such as a good shooter as Hannah Jump, setting screens for her is really key,” VanDerveer said. “So, Kiki did it, Fran did it, and Talana finds people. She’s always got her head up making really good passes.”
The 3rd quarter would be a real battle as Stanford only outscored Santa Clara by two points (24-22). Francesca Belibi was the top scorer for Stanford in the quarter with 5 points. She finished with 12 points in total, bringing a real energy off the bench. At the end of the quarter, it was a 64-51 lead for Stanford. Jump and Iriafen each had 14 points. Santa Clara was hanging tough, but Stanford was in control.
“I was real excited for her,” VanDerveer said of Belibi. “Fran listens, she’s very intelligent, she understood what our team needed, and she came out and did it. She was president of the screen club and then Haley set some nice screens, we have to run our offense better. We’re running a different offense, a new offense, and people have to understand what to do and move the ball better and she helped us do that. Had some really nice plays.”
“Tara and our coaching staff has really been talking a lot about screening, setting good screens,” Belibi added. “We did a lot in practice about going fast to screen and slowing down when you’re getting the screen. And so, for us bigs it’s been a lot of like telling the guards to wait for us and so I just knew that I was going to go in there to try to screen and rebound and I was placed in a position to screen and rebound and I made it happen. So, I dunno. It worked out.”
With 5:15 to go in the game, it was a 71-60 lead for Stanford. Jump was up to 17 points after another 3-pointer. She was 4-8 from deep. Without her shooting, this would have been a really tight game.
In the end, Stanford walked out with an 82-69 victory. I had Stanford winning by 25 points, so hats off to Santa Clara for making this a real contest. Especially with the game being at Maples. They battled hard, made shots, and forced Stanford to play a full four quarters to win. Santa Clara showed they are a legit team and should do very well in the WCC if they can stay healthy.
“I think they’re a very talented team,” VanDerveer said of Santa Clara. “I think they’re gonna do really well in their conference and it was a great game for us.”
A big key for Stanford winning this game was containing Santa Clara’s leading scorer Tess Heal. Heal came in averaging over 17 points per game and Stanford held her to 6 points on 3-11 shooting from the field. That more than anything made the difference for Stanford.
“Tess is a really talented freshman point guard,” VanDerveer said. “She’s very competitive. I don’t know. My idea was put size on her and so, she’s used to going in there with a little guard on her and I know you [Talana] wanted to guard her, but she’s used to going in with a little guard on her. She goes over people and so with Haley on her or Elena, it was harder for her to, and we were switching with our bigs and Haley could switch onto a big pretty easily and so could Elena. So when they switched onto someone. Like, a big is on her again. So Fran was on her. She scored a couple early. One over Cam, one over Ashten, right in the first quarter. But then after that, people I think kinda got more aggressive and just said alright we’re taking this away. We’re not letting her do what she likes to do.”
Up next for Stanford is a home game against #23 Gonzaga. That will be on Sunday at 12:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Bay Area and Varsity Network radio.
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