On Sunday, #6 Stanford women’s basketball escaped with an 82-79 overtime victory against Duke on The Farm. Stanford senior forward Cameron Brink (29 points, 11 rebounds, & 6 blocks) and junior forward Kiki Iriafen (27 points & 9 rebounds) led the way for the Cardinal while Duke sophomore guard Ashlon Jackson was the top performer for the Blue Devils with 22 points. Both Brink and Iriafen had career-highs in scoring. Brink was named Pac-12 Player of the Week and a USBWA National Player of the Week. Stanford improves to 4-0 overall while Duke falls to 3-2.

VIDEO: Stanford WBB Postgame Press Conference | Duke

BOX SCORE: Duke at Stanford-Sunday, November 19th

“First, I wanna compliment Duke on playing a great game,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said after the game. “They were very physical, I think really, they gave us all we could ask for and more. What a great early season game to be playing them and for them to come out here. Just want to compliment them and their staff. Great preparation and obviously the game could have gone either way.

“But, I think we really showed some real toughness, Cam and Kiki were battling in there, scoring, they’re really tough on the block. Both went nine-for-sixteen, which is a really good percentage. Both did a great job from the free throw line. Cam got a double-double, which is great and Kiki was right there. So, our, kind of the backbone of our team is the person on my right, the person on my left, along with I thought Hannah Jump playing forty four minutes and forty seconds, she’s a warrior.

“Big plays down the stretch. Brooke hit a huge basket, Chloe made a great, kinda forced a great turnover, Elena with an o-board; I thought Nunu really helped us. Just her defense, her physicality, so I think we can grow from this game and I’m really excited.”

Stanford jumped out to a hot start, leading 7-0 with 8:29 to go in the 1st quarter. Iriafen had four points inside while Brink had a 3-pointer. After a layup by Talana Lepolo, another layup from Iriafen, and a triple from Hannah Jump, the Cardinal were up 14-2 with 6:45 to go in the quarter. Duke would then wake up a bit as they played Stanford close to even the rest of the quarter, making it a 30-17 lead for the Cardinal at the end. Duke guard Taina Mair was leading the Blue Devils with 6 points while Iriafen was leading the Cardinal with 12 points.

In the 2nd quarter, Duke started to chip away at Stanford’s lead. Following a second chance 3-pointer by Mair and a 3-pointer by Oluchi Okananwa, Duke now only trailed by 10 points (38-28) with 2:44 to go until halftime. Duke would get even closer before halftime as Mair made a step back jumper with seven seconds left in the half. This made it a 43-35 lead for Stanford at halftime.

In the 3rd quarter, Duke continued to trim away at Stanford’s lead. Initially, it looked like Stanford might pull away after four quick points from Iriafen to give them a 47-35 lead, but Duke responded. Camilla Emsbo had a bucket in the paint to make it 47-37 and after Iriafen made a pair of free throws to make it a 49-40 lead for Stanford, Jackson made a huge triple to make it 49-43 with 4:58 to go in the 3rd quarter.

From there, Duke would actually find a way to take the lead, going up 55-53 at the end of the 3rd quarter. The Blue Devils had clawed their way back into this game. The Cardinal needed to respond.

With 4:50 to go in the 4th quarter, Stanford led 62-59 as they had retaken the lead. Jump was up to 15 points for the Cardinal on 5-9 shooting from 3-point range while Iriafen had 23 points and seven rebounds. Jackson was leading Duke with 16 points.

With 1:34 to go, Duke led 69-66. Stanford had the ball. To Duke’s credit, they had been making some clutch threes. Then, Brooke Demetre responded with a three to tie it up 69-69. It was her only made bucket of the night, but it was a big one.

“That was huge,” VanDerveer said of Demetre’s bucket. “I don’t know that Brooke feels that she has been playing that well so far, but that was a huge confidence builder for her and for us. But we know she can do that. We’ve seen her do that. Brooke’s rebounding was good. Her defense was good. She knows what we’re doing out there. She talks. So she helps us organize the floor and run our offense and she did a great job.”

Duke then answered inside to make it 71-69 with 39.1 to go. Stanford now looked for a way to respond. And respond they did as Brink got fouled and went to the foul line where she made both foul shots. It was now tied 71-71 with 21.8 to go. Duke would then miss the go-ahead bucket while Stanford rebounded the ball with 1.8 seconds left.

Stanford would call for time and draw up a play to get the ball inside to Brink. Brink would not make the shot inside after she appeared to get fouled. But as is the case, refs are very reluctant to make foul calls in those moments, so Stanford really can’t complain about not getting that call.

In overtime, Stanford would hang on to win 82-79. Foul shooting was huge in overtime. Brink made some clutch foul shots down the stretch while Elena Bosgana had a huge offensive rebound, got fouled, and went 1-2 at the line. Jackson would attempt a last second triple for Duke to force double overtime but missed.

It wasn’t the prettiest of games for Stanford, but they’ll take it. Their foul shooting was phenomenal. As a team, they went 23-28 at the line while the top performer was Brink, who shot a perfect 10-10. When you have a big like Brink who can knock down her foul pitches, that’s a game changer. Inside, Brink and Iriafen were dominant all game long, making it tough for Duke to hang with them. You combine that with strong 3-point shooting and the foul shooting mentioned above, it’s no surprise they came out on top.

“I think we’re such a young team and it’s only November,” Brink said. “So if we lost, you know, like Tara said, Duke’s a great team. It could have gone either way. We wouldn’t let that get us down. It’s November. There’s so much more time to play, but I think getting a game like this, overtime game under our belts is really important. Shows us that we can fight and we can fight through stuff like that.”

As for Duke, this game didn’t go the way they wanted, but they have a lot of positives to take from this one. They went on the road against one of the best teams in the country and nearly came out on top, forcing overtime after trailing by double digits. This is a game they can take a lot of confidence from.

“It was just a gritty game,” Duke head coach Kara Lawson said. “We battled. We battled and battled. Just really proud of my group. Just to hang in there and go toe-to-toe, they’re a really good team. I think they’re one of the best teams in the country. I haven’t seen many better than them.

“Obviously, formidable front court. Was a challenge for us. But, I told our group like four games in eight days for us, three different cities. On the road against a top-five team. If they’re not top five, they should be. And you know, it goes down one possession here, one possession there, maybe it’s a different outcome. So, going into this little break for us, encouraged and just thankful for the experience that my young players got.”

“A lot,” Ashlon Jackson said of how much confidence this game gives them. “Obviously we’re coming off a loss from Davidson. But, it just shows us who we actually are. The team that lost to Davidson, that wasn’t us. The team that lost to Stanford tonight, ok, we got a lot of building to do, but it gave us a lot of confidence and I’m sure that whenever we play another big team like that, it’ll be a different story.”

Up next for Stanford is a trip to Las Vegas for the Ball Dawgs Classic. Up first will be Belmont on Wednesday at 1:30 PM PT. That will air on FloHoops and Varsity Network radio.

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