On Sunday, #3 Stanford women’s basketball fell to #25 Texas by a final score of 61-56. Texas freshman guard Rori Harmon led the way for the Longhorns with 21 points and 5 rebounds while junior guard Aliyah Matharu finished with 17 points and 2 steals. Stanford senior guard Lexie Hull was the top performer for the Cardinal with 16 points, 11 rebounds, and 2 steals while junior guard Haley Jones finished with 15 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists. Texas improves to 2-0 on the season while Stanford falls to 1-1.

“We knew that this was going to be a very tough game for us,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said after the game. “We made it a little tougher on ourselves than we had to. They challenge you with ball handling and obviously losing Kiana, this was throwing our young or inexperienced point guards into the deep end of the pool. I think it just really got everyone’s attention really quickly this is how it’s going to be. We have to execute a lot better, we have to defend a lot better. If the game is about offense, we need to hit our free throws, be more consistent at the free throw line. We really struggled 4-27 from 3-point line. We made 10 or more threes down the stretch to win the national championship and obviously we have to finish better.

“I think more than anything, our team is very different when you are asking people to play a different position and our lack of experience at our point guard was on full display and we just have a lot of work to do. But I have a lot of confidence. I thought Lacie worked really hard, Haley did a really good job of getting the ball up and then we need to do a better job of getting into our offense. I thought Anna worked hard out there, but none of them are really comfortable in this environment. It kinda exacerbated some of the problems of just not being able to play without thinking about it.

“Lexie made some really big plays for us. Obviously Ashten hit a couple baskets for us. But just overall, it was disappointing and we want to do better.”

The game got off to a slow start as Stanford led 6-3 with 4:00 to go in the 1st quarter. Neither team was in a good groove offensively as Stanford was shooting 2-7 from the field while Texas was shooting 1-8.

At the end of the 1st quarter, the game was tied 10-10. Harmon was up to 8 points on 3-5 shooting from the field, keeping the Longhorns in the game. Stanford needed to find a way to contain her. Lexie Hull was already well on her way to a double-double with 4 points and 5 rebounds. She was bringing energy early. Neither team was shooting well from the field as Stanford was shooting 3-13 (23.1%) while Texas was shooting 4-16 (25.0%).

Stanford would lead 15-14 with 4:36 to go in the 2nd quarter. Cameron Brink was up to 5 points for the Cardinal while Texas hadn’t scored in the last 2:15 with 4 turnovers in the last 3:50.

At halftime, the game was tied 25-25. Jones was pacing the Cardinal with 7 points and 4 rebounds while Harmon was going wild for the Longhorns with 14 points on 6-10 shooting from the field. Stanford had to contain her.

With 7:36 to go in the 3rd quarter, Stanford led 29-27. Cameron Brink just picked up a foul, but there was a review to see if there may have been a grab or a push from one of the Texas players. The game continued to be scrappy and chippy.

Stanford would then go on a 6-0 run, sparked by good defense. Brink was fired up and making her presence known in the paint with 7 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 blocks. 35-29 Stanford was up with 5:17 to go in the 3rd quarter.

At the end of the 3rd quarter, Stanford led 40-35. Lexie Hull was near her double-double with 11 points and 9 rebounds. The game remained tight.

Texas did a great job of responding in the 4th quarter to lead 46-44 with 4:41 to go. Harmon was now up to 18 points for the Longhorns while Hull had 13 points and 9 rebounds for the Cardinal. It was crunch time as both teams were playing good defense.

With 2:53 to go, Texas was now up 51-44 following a 3-pointer from Matharu. The Longhorns were on a 12-0 run, on the verge of pulling off a major upset on a special day for the Cardinal.

With 21.3 to go, Stanford called for time off a defensive rebound, trailing 57-51. They were going to need some help and luck if they were going to pull it out.

Out of the time out, Ashten Prechtel nailed a huge 3-pointer for the Cardinal to make it a 57-54 game with 17.8 to go, though the clock got reset to 16.8. On the next play, Harmon would get fouled and make both foul shots, making it a 59-54 lead for Texas with 16.2 to go. It was now a game of free throws.

Prechtel would attempt another 3-pointer and not have it fall. However, Stanford was able to force a tie ball and get another crack at it with 9.2 to go.

Haley Jones would get fouled and go to the line and make both foul shots, making it a 59-56 game with 4.2 to go. On the next Texas possession, Aliyah Matharu would get fouled and go to the foul line where she would make both foul shots, making it a 61-56 final score.

Following the game, Stanford had their ring ceremony honoring the 2021 national championship team. Kiana Williams shared remarks via remote as she is currently in Australia and unable to be there in person. It was truly an emotional day for Stanford and the fact that they lost makes it all the more complicated of a day. Obviously they wanted to celebrate their national championship, but the air was sucked out of Maples Pavilion a bit due to the loss.

Touching first on the game itself, Texas deserves a lot of credit. They came in with a game plan to play an aggressive style of defense that put a lot of pressure on Stanford and it paid off. On top of that, they hit big shots. They weren’t afraid of the big stage and they delivered.

As for Stanford, this is a loss that they can definitely learn from and not a loss that should make them hit the panic button. They do need to take better care of the ball as 20 turnovers is way too much and then 4-27 (14.8%) shooting from 3-point range is just bad. They can’t shoot like that an expect to beat a team like Texas. The biggest bummer in truth is that they lost on the day they celebrated their national championship, but perhaps the emotions of the day played a larger role than they let on.

“Still going into the 4th quarter, we were up,” VanDerveer said. “I just think that, not just the turnovers, but then just that we weren’t gritty enough down the stretch in the 4th quarter. I can think of three threes where it was just boom, we’re right there and they’re scoring. We have to be more competitive and grittier defensively. And obviously taking care of the ball would be helpful, too.

“I think the full court defense, the pressure just kinda got us out of whack. I don’t know, maybe you can ask Haley and Lexie. But, they’re used to having Kiana out there just getting the ball up the court initiating and running our offense. You have people doing it that aren’t used to doing that job. I use a football analogy: Great running back and now is playing quarterback and we need a lot of work with those people that are doing that.”

At this point, all that Stanford can do is get back to work, which is exactly what VanDerveer told Hull and Jones as she walked out of the media room following their press conference. It’s November, not March and still a long season ahead of them.

“I’m not in any way giving up on our team,” VanDerveer said. “I just think that this is, a lot of teams schedule early, easy games. And this was not an easy game. Especially considering the situation that our team was in with everyone back except for one person and I think people on our team they’re going to learn from this and they’ll get better.”

“I think just coming off of that game, obviously losing is not fun,” Lexie Hull added. “But I think that there’s a lot that we can learn from it and especially knowing that areas of our game that need to improve are definitely areas that we saw and exposed today. And so I think just moving forward, in practice we’re going to need to be more aggressive on defense because that’s what we need to work on. I think that our team is so deep that we’re able to do that in practice and I’m excited to see us improve in this type of environment. I think moving forward I think we can definitely learn a lot from this and I think later on in the season, we’ll look back on this game as a blessing in disguise as much as we don’t like it right now.”

Up next for Stanford will be a home game on Tuesday against Portland at 7:00 PM PT. That game will air on Pac-12 Bay Area and Varsity Network radio.