On the eve of National Signing Day, #2 Stanford women’s basketball defeated #21 Creighton on The Farm by a final score of 72-59. Stanford freshman guard Talana Lepolo was the top scorer for the Cardinal with a career-high 17 points on 6-13 shooting from the field and 5-11 shooting from 3-point range while junior forward Cameron Brink had another stat-sheet stuffing performance with 14 points, 16 rebounds, and 2 blocks. Senior guard/forward Haley Jones had one of her best performances of the year, finishing with 16 points, 4 rebounds, and 8 assists. As for Creighton, guard Lauren Jensen was the top scorer of the night with 18 points. Stanford improves to 12-1 overall while Creighton falls to 8-3 overall (2-1 Big East).
“I’m glad Talana packed her 3-ball tonight,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said after the game. “That was really exciting to see her knock down that shot and a great pass, was that to Haley that time? Those two play really well together. Creighton first of all is I think an excellent excellent team. They’re a really hard team for bigs who aren’t used to being out and defending threes and all the screens and I thought our bigs did really well. Cam and Kiki started us off, our first quarter was awesome, and I really wanted to work on our deeper rotation and then we kinda struggled a little bit.
“We bogged down a little bit in the second quarter. But I think that will be valuable game time that people can learn from and understand what we need to do. But Haley having eight assists and one turnover, I’m really excited about that. Talana, was that her career high? No turnovers is great and just, it was kind of a, little bit of a roller coaster game. We played really well and then we struggled and we played really well again, but total team effort and led by the two on my right and my left.”
Stanford got off to a strong start, leading 15-7 with 4:40 to go in the 1st quarter. Lepolo was really heating up with 9 points on 3-4 shooting from the field and 3-3 shooting from 3-point range. Creighton was sagging off of her and daring her to shoot and she accepted the dare, making the Blue Jays pay.
“One hundred percent, I think that was the whole scouting report was to leave me,” Lepolo said of Creighton sagging off. “I mean, the other four starters are prolific scorers. So, it’s only smart to try and double in on them. But, it did leave me open and I just kind of took that opportunity to take the open shot that was there.”
“Yeah, I see T staying and working every single day and so I think we all have the confidence in her to shoot it,” Jones said of Lepolo. “And so, on the first skip, I passed it and I said shoot the ball! And she did and I think I skipped it to you two more times and I said shoot the damn ball! And she did! I was proud of T for shooting it today and I think that’s what we want from her every game and I think all that does is if we’re all knocking down our outside shot and then it just makes it easier for Cam and Kiki on the inside, it makes it easier to get more cuts to the rim, more driving lanes. So, it’s a good omen going into Pac-12.”
Stanford would continue their stellar play, leading 27-10 at the end of the 1st quarter. Cameron Brink found Elena Bosgana for a 3-pointer to beat the buzzer. Stanford was shooting 11-18 from the field and 5-8 from 3-point range.
With 4:56 to go in the 2nd quarter, Stanford was up 33-21. Haley Jones was up to 9 points and 7 assists on 4-5 shooting from the field. Creighton was starting to settle in, outscoring Stanford 11-6 in the quarter.
At halftime, Stanford led 44-30. Lepolo (11 points) and Jones (10 points & 7 assists) were leading the way for the Cardinal. Emma Ronsiek (8 points & 2 assists) was pacing the Blue Jays. Creighton did a solid job in the 2nd quarter, winning the quarter 20-17. The problem for them was they were still down by 14 points.
Stanford got off to a solid start in the 3rd quarter, extending their lead 53-36 with 4:10 to go in the quarter. Lepolo (14 points & 2 rebounds) and Jones (12 points, 2 rebounds, & 8 assists) continued to lead the way for the Cardinal.
At the end of the 3rd quarter, Stanford led 58-38. Jones was now leading all scorers with 16 points. She was really coming alive. Stanford was starting pull away, outscoring Creighton 14-8 in the 3rd.
With 6:42 to go, it was a 65-49 lead for Stanford. Creighton was creeping back a bit, outscoring Stanford 11-7 in the 4th. Stanford just needed to shut the door on the Blue Jays for good and not allow them to come back.
Stanford led 68-56 with 4:02 to go. To Creighton’s credit, they were not going away, outscoring the Cardinal 18-10 in the quarter. Jensen was now leading them with 16 points. Stanford still looked likely to win, but the Blue Jays were not going down without a fight.
Over the next four minutes, Stanford would close the door for good, winning 72-59. Creighton did a good job of making things more competitive down the stretch, but they got down by too much in the 1st quarter. It’s just really hard to come back from that kind of hole.
“I think a lot of it has already been covered in that Talana, they basically said you gotta knock down shots and she did,” VanDerveer said of the key to their strong start. “They left her, they doubled in on Cam or tripled in on Cam, they focused totally on Hannah Jump and Cam inside and basically said other people have to beat us and Talana said alright, I’m gonna step up and knock down some shots. And she rose to the occasion and she’s a big time player, she D’d it up really well. One of the players that’s really good for them, she was on 15 a lot, she ended up with 18, but she worked for every point that she got. And a lot of people were switching all the time so it wasn’t obviously just on Talana, but their leading scorer ended up with 9, she’s averaging like 17 or 18.
“So, I think our defense in the first quarter really set the tone and then probably I’d just, I was really anxious to try to get some people some minutes that hadn’t played maybe in the Tennessee game, give them an opportunity and maybe we just lost our focus a little bit and I have to do a better job of making sure we keep our rotation where they’re not making the mistakes that we made.”
For Stanford, this is a nice win. Creighton came in as a ranked team and eager to pull off the upset. Stanford basically shut the door in the 1st quarter though they let the Blue Jays back in a bit. Lepolo’s shooting was fantastic and really took the Blue Jays by surprise. They were hoping Lepolo would have an off night shooting and instead Lepolo took advantage of the way they were defending her.
“Tonight was T’s night,” VanDerveer said of Lepolo. “And the pass that Talana had to Haley was fantastic. That was real exciting. But I think we can learn from this game and get better. They are an excellent team. They’re an NCAA tournament team and a ranked team and very tough team to guard.”
Up next for Stanford is a game against Bay Area rival Cal. That will tipoff on Friday at 12:00 PM PT on The Farm. The game will air on Pac-12 Networks and Varsity Network radio.
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