On Wednesday, #2 Stanford women’s basketball defeated Oregon State 82-59 at Maples Pavilion. It was a 2:00 PM tip-off, but that didn’t seem to bother Stanford as they cruised to a 23-point victory.
Stanford junior guard Hannah Jump was the top scorer for the Cardinal with 19 points on 5-12 shooting from 3-point range while junior forward Francesca Belibi finished with 16 points and 5 rebounds. Redshirt senior forward Ellie Mack led the way for the Beavers with 13 points and 5 rebounds, scoring 11 of those points in the 1st quarter. Stanford improves to 19-3 overall and 10-0 in the Pac-12 while Oregon State falls to 11-8 overall and 4-5 in the Pac-12.
“Well, I think that Oregon State, they have a very very nice team,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said after the game. “It’s a great win for our team. They won two of the four quarters and we had to really play well and that’s good. I’m excited for our team. It’s great having Hannah back. She’s kinda my security blanket out there. I love how she plays hard at both ends of the floor, knocked down her shots, and loved having Fran out there. I thought Fran had a great game, finished really well, passes with Cam were great. They just kinda have a real good chemistry. We had a good team effort. One, two, three, four people, five people in double figures. Kiki came in and gave us great minutes. I love that. We’re gonna need this. The Pac-12 tournament is three games in four days. We’re playing three games in what? Five days. So, we gotta just build on it and I’m just really excited how we stepped up.”
Stanford led 14-9 with 3:53 to go in the 1st quarter. Sophomore forward Cameron Brink scored Stanford’s first six points, getting in a nice rhythm early. All things were going Stanford’s way. However, Stanford didn’t anticipate Mack going wild over the remaining minutes of the quarter, scoring 11 points in the final 3:37. As a result of Mack turning it up to eleven, Oregon State led 25-22 at the end of the quarter.
Stanford would soon crank things up to eleven on their end as well, going on a 12-2 run to start the 2nd quarter, giving themselves a 34-27 lead with 4:37 to go until halftime. Brink (10 points) and Jump (8 points) were coming alive. After a prolific stretch to end the 1st quarter, Mack was being held scoreless and that seemed to really make a difference.
At halftime, Stanford would lead 46-34. Jump (11 points), Brink (10 points & 3 assists), and Belibi (10 points & 3 rebounds) were leading the Cardinal. Mack (11 points) was still the top scorer for the Beavers but was held scoreless in the 2nd quarter.
To Oregon State’s credit, they didn’t go down without a fight. With 4:45 to go in the 3rd quarter, Stanford had a 52-41 lead as Oregon State was outscoring them 7-6 in the quarter so far. Stanford was shooting a hideous 1-10 from the field in the quarter up to this point. Following the timeout, Belibi would go to the line and make both foul shots, making it a 54-41 lead for Stanford.
Stanford soon would once again turn on the jets, leading 58-41 with 3:21 to go in the 3rd quarter. Oregon State called for time. Belibi was up to 14 points for Stanford, leading all scorers. Unfortunately for Oregon State, their timeout did not yield the desired effects as Stanford led 64-43 with 1:19 to go in the 3rd. Junior guard Haley Jones was up to 8 points, getting a couple of quick buckets while Belibi was now up to 16 points.
At the end of the 3rd quarter, Stanford led 67-43. Stanford outscored Oregon State 21-9 in the 3rd quarter after outscoring them 24-9 in the 2nd. Outside of the 1st quarter and Ellie Mack’s 11 point explosion, this one was all Stanford.
With 4:57 to go in the game, Stanford led 80-53 as this game continued to be a blowout. Freshman forward Kiki Iriafen was up to 8 points, scoring all of her 10 points in the 4th quarter, something that has been a recent trend for her.
In the end, Stanford walked out with an 82-59 victory. The game would have been even more of a blowout had Mack not had the performance she had in the 1st quarter. All in all, this was a pretty dominant win for Stanford as expected.
When looking at the stats, the biggest factor in this game was turnovers. Stanford turned the ball over just six times while Oregon State turned the ball over 17 times. By playing a clean game throughout, Stanford was able to weather the storm that was brought on by Mack with little trouble.
“Our free throws were excellent, taking care of the ball was excellent,” VanDerveer said. “I thought when we were subbing a lot, I had some really different combinations out there, I’m like ooh, how did I do that? But, I think that people really played hard for each other out there and our young people, it’s a great situation when people like Kiki and Ellen are watching [people like] Hannah Jump and Fran. They’re leading the way. They’re being great team leaders. So, we had a lot of people out there and they know they gotta take care of the ball if they want to play.
"It was great having Haley back. I thought she had some really nice [plays], that backdoor pass that she had. She’s really working hard, she had three assists, one turnover. A lot of people, positive assist to turnover. They know it’s important, so they’re listening.”
For Hannah Jump, this was her second game back from COVID isolation. For her to put up 19 points so soon in her return speaks to her dedication to staying focused and ready. She knew she would be back soon. It was just a matter of staying as sharp as possible.
“For me it was just getting back in the gym, getting shots up,” Jump said. “Getting back to my regular routine and I did that all this week and just made sure I was ready for today…I was stuck in my room, so I was in isolation. I was able to get some bands from our athletic trainer and just do some jump rope and do what I can to stay active. I zoomed into one practice, got back in the mental grind of the scouting report and things like that and so just doing some little things. So once I got out, I’d be ready.”
Big picture-wise this win was obviously important for Stanford in that they’re in the driver’s seat for a number one seed in the NCAA tournament as the #2 ranked team in the nation. Any loss could cost them a number one seed. Even in games that they are supposed to win, they’re still big wins in the sense that it keeps them in position to get a number one seed. While Stanford is well aware of those ramifications, they don’t talk about it much. Their focus is simply on getting better and becoming the best that they can be.
“I don’t think we talk about it much at all,” VanDerveer said. “I mean, we know that Oregon State is trying to get a tournament bid. So we know they’re going to bring their A-game. But everyone does against us. So will Utah, so will Colorado, so will going back to Oregon or Oregon State next week. We’re just about improving, playing, like having a picture of what we want the game to look like and playing it that way. We’re going to push the ball; we’re going to move the ball. Having six turnovers is just fantastic. Getting on the glass, rebounding. We kinda know what we need to do and people are buying in. It’s real exciting.”
Up next for Stanford is a home game on Friday against Utah. That game will tip-off at 7:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Mountain and Varsity Network radio.
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