On Friday, #9 Stanford women’s basketball defeated Cal by a final score of 78-51. Stanford point guard Talana Lepolo led the way for the Cardinal with a career-high 20 points and six assists on 6-10 shooting from 3-point range while forward Kiki Iriafen had 16 points and 10 rebounds. Lepolo is the first Stanford player with six made threes and six assists in a game since Jeanette Pohlen did it in February of 2010. Cal guard Ioanna Krimili was the lone Golden Bear in double figures with 12 points. Stanford improves to 11-1 overall and 1-0 in the Pac-12 while Cal falls to 10-3 overall and 0-1 in the Pac-12.
BOX SCORE: Stanford at Cal-Friday, December 29th
“Well I think that first of all, I wanna just say I think Cal has really improved and I think Charmin is doing a great job with putting their team together,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said after the game. “Obviously Krimili will be, when she’s healthy and playing, she’s really tough out there. But today belonged to Talana and Kiki. Inside outside.
“The thing I’m really excited about, first of all, Talana is a fabulous defender and she worked really hard defensively guarding McIntosh who is a terrific player or guarding Krimili who is a terrific player. And I’m looking at McIntosh had five points and Krimili ended up with twelve, but probably only four of them when Talana, I don’t even know if she scored when you [talking to Lepolo] were on her. Might have been other people on her, but her defense was fabulous.
“Kiki is a warrior out there. She was playing really hard, got in deep, scored really well for us on the block, can hit the face up shot, rebounded, had a double-double; Kiki is a double-double machine. And so you know with these two, playing the way they’re playing, I thought it was awesome.
“And I think the thing about Talana that maybe teams wanna, they have to pick their poison. You all heard that, but Talana is calling Bird (Erica McCall) to rebound for her before the bus left. So, our bus left at 10:30…Like at 8:00 getting her shots up. She knew this was coming. She was ready and I’m really proud of her for putting in that extra work and the confidence that step up and make shots. I was hoping she’d have 25, but we’ll take 20. I thought she really played really really well. A great great game.
“So, obviously other people helped. Brooke hitting that half-court shot was nice. I thought Nunu making her free throws. I think we need to a better job rebounding. But I thought our defense was really good and they’re a good team. And I’m excited that they’re playing well because then when people come here, they can’t just focus on us. They gotta worry about both of us and Cal.”
Stanford got off to a solid start, leading 11-6 with 5:01 to go in the 1st quarter. Cameron Brink was up to seven points, setting the tone early. Cal needed to respond. After both teams traded baskets, Cal went on a 7-0 run to tie it up 15-15 with 2:50 to go in the quarter. Brooke Demetre then went on a 5-0 run all by herself to give Stanford a 20-15 lead at the end of the quarter. She made a jumper to make it 17-15 before nailing a 3-pointer from Jimmer range to beat the buzzer. The Cardinal had momentum back on their side.
Stanford would maintain their lead slightly as they were up 29-23 with 3:30 to go in the 2nd quarter. Iriafen was up to six points for Stanford while Krimili had eight points for Cal.
At halftime, Stanford led 37-27. Lepolo was up to eight points and four assists while Iriafen had eight points and seven rebounds. Both players were doing a great job of pacing the Cardinal. Lepolo had a huge 3-pointer before halftime. She was starting to feel it from deep.
Stanford put Cal away in the 3rd quarter, outscoring them 17-6. Lepolo was up to 14 points and four assists on 4-8 shooting from 3-point range. Cal was letting her take those shots and she was knocking them down. As a result, Stanford led 54-33 at the end of the 3rd quarter.
Stanford continued to dominate, leading 70-41 with 5:25 to go. Lepolo was up to 20 points and six assists. Iriafen nearly had her double-double as she had 14 points and nine rebounds. This one was one-way traffic for the Cardinal.
“I think I was very fortunate to shoot very well, but I think I’m even more fortunate to have a staff and players that have so much confidence in me,” Lepolo said. “I think that their belief in me is, it’s much more important than, it’s a lot more encouraging than if I just let it fly and they’re telling me not to shoot it.”
“I love it,” Iriafen said of watching Lepolo make her threes. “I think it causes the other team as Tara said to pick their poison. Do they want to still keep packing it in and let Talana get her shot off which we love or guard Talana and then when they guard her, I’m wide open again or go one-on-one. So I think the biggest thing for me, I was able to get most of my baskets in transition getting deep. Talana found me really well. I missed a few of my jumpers that I make usually, so just continue to work on my shot. But yeah, so it’s very helpful when everybody is able to hit their shots.”
In the end, Stanford won by a final score of 78-51. It was a game for the first half, but in the second half Stanford pulled away with ease. Lepolo and Iriafen were both fantastic in this one while Brink set the tone early, finishing with 13 points, seven rebounds, and two blocks in limited minutes due to foul trouble.
“We have each other’s back,” Iriafen said of her relationship with Brink. “So even when I’m in foul trouble Cameron knows it’s her time to step up. Vice versa. There is no pressure. My teammates know how to find me. I’m very confident in all my teammates. Nunu and Brooke coming in, helping with the post. So there was no pressure, but I did know there is like more of an intensity to score and be more aggressive and I really wasn’t able to shoot a lot today. So, being more like a facilitator and focusing on that and getting my teammates open shots.”
To speak quickly on Cal, this loss stings for them. There’s no shame in losing to Stanford, but to get totally dominated is another matter. They have to look at themselves in the mirror a bit and ask themselves why they got outplayed so thoroughly. Especially since they were at home and came in with a strong record.
“That was a tough one obviously,” Cal head coach Charmin Smith said after the game. “Wish we would have played better. But I still think this is a really talented group and we just gotta keep our heads up and move on…We’ll learn from this and get ready for Washingtons.”
As for Stanford, they should feel really good about this one. They had a tough time squeaking out a win at Cal last year. To not just win this game but win going away is a testament to the kind of team they are becoming. Everyone is bought in and doing a great job of executing the game plan. Great all-around afternoon for the Cardinal.
“I’m really excited for our team,” VanDerveer said. “They have worked so hard. Like Bird scouting this team and they were locked in. This is not an easy place to play. And I’m really proud of how hard our team played.”
Up next for Stanford is a home game against Morgan State on Sunday at 6:00 PM PT on Stanford Live Stream and Varsity Network radio.
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