Recap: #7 Stanford WBB bounces back against Portland

On Tuesday, #7 Stanford women’s basketball defeated Portland 77-55. Stanford junior guard Haley Jones led the way for the Cardinal with 17 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists, giving her a triple-double for the night while sophomore forward Cameron Brink was the top scorer with 21 points. Jones’ triple-double was the first one at Stanford in almost 20 years. Stanford senior guard Lexie Hull also scored her 1,000th career point in this game, finishing with 7 points for the night. Forward Alex Fowler was the top scorer for Portland with 13 points and 8 rebounds. Stanford improves to 2-1 on the season while Portland falls to 2-1.

“Obviously, a much better outcome for us tonight,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said after the game. “I think that our team was really disappointed on Sunday. We knew we're a lot better than we showed. And I just want to compliment Portland. They have a very very experienced and aggressive team. That was a great win for our team and I thought for the most part, we did things really well. Haley really got it going, Cam really got it going, a triple-double is awesome, I loved her rebounding, 10 assists. We took care of the ball better; we can do an even better job than we did.

“If there was one blemish it would be our free throws. We’re a much better free throw shooting team than we saw. But, we got on the o-boards. 18 o-boards is great. Field goal percentage was good and people were really moving the ball and we had to work very hard defensively. So, great job by Cam and Haley and we just gotta keep it going.”

Stanford got off to a strong start in this game, leading 11-2 with 4:51 to go in the 1st quarter. Cameron Brink led the way with 5 points on 2-3 shooting from the field. Stanford was shooting 5-11 from the field while Portland was 1-3 from the field with 5 turnovers.

At the end of the 1st quarter, Stanford led 20-11. Cameron Brink (5 points), Brooke Demetre (5 points), and Haley Jones (4 points) were leading the way for the Cardinal. Portland closed the quarter on a 7-0 run. Something that I’m sure Tara VanDerveer wasn’t happy about.

Stanford then got out on a 12-0 run to lead 32-11 with 5:47 to go in the 2nd quarter. Stanford was holding Portland to 4-13 (30.8%) shooting from the field and 1-7 shooting from deep. Brink (9 points) and Jones (8 points) led the Cardinal.

Stanford would go on to lead 43-24 at halftime. Brink (10 points) and Jones (10 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists) were pacing the Cardinal. Haylee Andrews was leading the Pilots with 7 points and 2 rebounds.

Rather than giving up, Portland continued to battle, making it a 51-38 game with 4:51 to go in the 3rd quarter. A couple of turnovers and offensive fouls by Stanford allowed them to creep back in. Portland was outscoring Stanford 14-8 in the quarter so far as Fowler was up to 9 points.

“Well they went back door, got some easy layups,” VanDerveer said of what Portland did in the second half. “They posted people up. They were very physical and aggressive. Kiki missed a couple shots down the stretch in that third quarter. We didn’t defend as well as we needed to. They beat us in that third quarter and we gotta come out and I don’t know if our team relaxed at halftime. We did some really nice things, but we talked about not being complacent. So, just hopefully we can learn from it and come out and have the third quarter be our quarter.”

Towards the end of the quarter, Stanford started to find their groove again, though Portland’s pressure had been effective. Stanford was up 61-46 at the end of the 3rd quarter. Brink was balling out with 19 points on 6-9 shooting from the field while Jones was up to 13 points, 9 rebounds, and 8 assists. It was during this stretch that Hull scored her 1,000th career point.

“Well, she’s a warrior, I love how hard she plays,” VanDerveer said of Hull. “She has amnesia. She misses a shot, doesn’t bother her, she just keeps playing. She’s all about the next play. A thousand points she got tonight? Congratulations to Lexie. Again, I think she could have made a couple of her free throws. She attacks the basket real well. Kinda missed some shots that she could make, but she’s a real special player and we’re really excited that she’s having such a great year.”

Also, at the very end of the quarter, Haley Jones got called for a travel as she was attempting a half-court shot that went in. Jones was bummed out that the shot got waived off but took some solace in knowing that it was the right call.

“The half-court shot for some reason, I knew it was going to go in,” Jones said. “I said Lacie let’s go give and go and it surprised me when it in and I think I just got too excited. I was like oh replay it, it wasn’t a travel. And then Agnes was like, nah, you definitely traveled. So, yeah, I was like ah, I guess. Whatever. It was a cool shot.”

Stanford would go up 68-51 with 4:40 to go. Brooke Demetre was up to 11 points for the Cardinal on 5-6 shooting. She had been very effective.

Right before the game ended Stanford freshman forward Kiki Iriafen had her Shaqtin’-A-Fool moment. It looked like she tried to dunk the ball or something after getting a steal. It was a good thing Stanford won because otherwise that would have been a lot worse. VanDerveer said she will make sure to talk to Iriafen about just finishing the layup and not getting too fancy. Despite her silly moment on the floor, Iriafen had a good night otherwise with 9 points and 2 rebounds, bringing a lot of energy and effort on both ends of the floor.

“We haven’t talked about it yet, but I didn’t like it,” VanDerveer said of Iriafen’s play at the end of the game. “I mean, make the layup. Good thing we were up by that much. But, what Kiki, what she’s gotta understand is that she’s trying to build my trust in her. She didn’t. We will talk about. Just go ahead and make the layup. Get the two points.”

In the end, Stanford walked out with a 77-55 win. The first half went about as well as they could ask and the second half, while a little dicey, never seriously got into question. Stanford was looking to get back in the win column after Sunday’s disappointing loss to Texas and they did just that.

“I would say the focus was taking care of the basketball,” VanDerveer said of what the focus was coming into tonight’s game. “So, we weren’t turning the ball over as much. It was on rebounding and it was on playing better defense. This team is very physical, they’re very aggressive. I also want to compliment Lacie. Five assists, one turnover, she had the ball in her hands a lot, four steals, Lexie with six steals. I thought it was really a great team effort and they’re different people that came in. Like Brooke Demetre gave us a big boost going five for six. I thought she did really well. Kiki came in, some of the freshmen getting some really valuable minutes against very experienced players.”

Up next for Stanford will be a road game on Sunday at Gonzaga. That game will tipoff at 1:00 PM PT on SWX and Varsity Network radio.