On Sunday, No. 2 Stanford women’s basketball defeated No. 7 Iowa State 87-81 in overtime in the second round of the NCAA tournament. As a result, the Cardinal reach the Sweet Sixteen in Portland, Oregon. Stanford junior forward Kiki Iriafen led the way for the Cardinal with a career-high 41 points, 16 rebounds, four assists, and three blocks while fifth year guard Hannah Jump (15 points) also scored in double figures. Iowa State senior guard Emily Ryan led the way for the Cyclones with a career-high 36 points, nine rebounds, and four assists.
BOX SCORE: Iowa State at Stanford-Sunday, March 24th
VIDEO: Stanford WBB NCAA Tournament Postgame Press Conference | Iowa State
“Kiki Iriafen, whoa. What a great game,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said after the game. “Before I just go off on that, I just want to compliment Iowa State, Coach Fennelly and their staff. They have a terrific team and it did not seem like they could miss tonight. If they were open they were really knocking down shots.
“You know, we gave up too many threes, but then we hit some down the stretch that we needed. But, again, they're really a terrific team, and we had to work really hard to get this victory for Stanford.
“I’m really, really proud of our team and how far we've come in a year, and Kiki, I just -- my hat's off to you how hard you played. You're an absolute warrior. Playing defense against great post players, Brown, Crooks, and I just -- I'm like we have our own 40 point scorer.
"That was an awesome, awesome performance. Hannah played 45 minutes. Stayed with things. Was a great leader for us. Talana making big shots. Brooke making big shots. You know, obviously Cam struggled, but when she was out there she had some nice plays for us, rebounded, Kiki with a double double.
“I thought a really big thing for us that was really helpful was Nunu's defense on No. 11. She really stepped up. We had some freshmen play well for us too. Everyone's basket was important. Try hitting a shot. Nunu doing what she did. I'm just really excited for our team and really proud of our team and staff.”
Stanford led 10-8 with 4:32 to go in the 1st quarter. Kiki Iriafen was up to eight points already for the Cardinal. She was doing work inside and from the midrange, doing a great job of knocking down any look she could get.
“I think it's been the whole summer honestly,” Iriafen said of working on her midrange game. “People know me for being a driver, so when people started taking that away and taking charges, I had to kind of buy-in to my jump shot a little bit. I think I love it a little bit too much now. That is something that just honed in on that and not being very predictable.”
Iowa State soon went on a 12-0 run to lead 20-13 with 44.0 to go in the 1st quarter. Emily Ryan and Addy Brown each had six points for the Cyclones. Stanford called for time, hoping to get momentum back on their side.
At the end of the 1st quarter, Iowa State led 23-16. Ryan was up to nine points for Iowa State while Iriafen had 12 points for Stanford. Stanford needed to find a way to respond in the 2nd quarter.
With 4:54 to go in the 2nd quarter, Iowa State led 25-23. Stanford had responded nicely as Hannah Jump had a huge 3-pointer off a loose ball. That seemed to fire the Cardinal up.
At halftime, Iowa State led 33-31. Ryan was up to 15 points and four rebounds for the Cyclones while Iriafen was up to 16 points and seven rebounds for the Cardinal. At this point last year against Ole Miss in the second round of the tourney, Stanford was down by nine at halftime. Being down by two was not nearly as big of a hole, but they were still down.
Iowa State led 44-42 with 4:55 to go in the 3rd quarter. Ryan continued to ball out for the Cyclones with 17 points and six rebounds while Iriafen was continuing to do the same for the Cardinal with 20 points and eight rebounds. Cameron Brink had three fouls for Stanford. They needed to find a way to keep her on the floor and out of foul trouble.
At the end of the 3rd quarter, it was tied 50-50. Iriafen weas up to 24 points and 10 rebounds for Stanford while Ryan was up to 21 points and six rebounds for Iowa State. It was truly an amazing battle between the two of them. Iowa State had a + 6 rebound advantage while Stanford had a +5 turnover advantage.
Stanford jumped out to a 5-0 run in the 4th quarter to lead 55-50 with 8:31 to go. Iriafen was up to 26 points and 11 rebounds for the Cardinal after a huge bucket that gave them the lead. Jump was up to 11 points after a 3-pointer off an Iowa State turnover. The Cyclones called for time.
Iowa State would respond as it was tied 57-57 with 6:04 to go. Iowa State had responded nicely. It had been a back and forth contest all night. Every time Stanford threw a punch, Iowa State found a great counterpunch to respond. It was pretty amazing to watch.
With 1:18 to go, Cameron Brink had fouled out for Stanford. She finished with eight points, eight rebounds, and five blocks. While she didn’t have a great offensive performance, she rebounded well and also did a great job containing Iowa State forward Audi Crooks, holding her to 10 points on 3-21 shooting from the field after she had 40 points on 18-20 shooting from the field against Maryland in the first round. Brink’s defense inside was huge for the Cardinal and she definitely made her presence felt on that end.
As for what the score was at this juncture, Stanford led 66-64. Iriafen had a huge block inside while Brooke Demetre had a clutch 3-pointer for the Cardinal. Iowa State called for time, hoping to respond.
Iowa State was able to respond as Addy Brown hit a huge layup to even up the game. With 11.5 to go, it was tied 66-66. Stanford had the ball after Iriafen had her third block of the night, rejecting Crooks inside. Iriafen’s defense and rebounding was coming up as big as her offense.
Iriafen would get the final shot of regulation but couldn’t get it to fall. As a result, it would go into overtime tied 66-66.
In overtime, it was a back and forth affair as both teams kept trading baskets. Jump made a pull up jumper for the first basket to give the Cardinal a 68-66 lead and then Ryan responded with a 3-pointer before Iriafen answered back with a three-point play to make it a 71-69 lead for the Cardinal. Brown then made a 3-pointer to make it a 72-71 lead for Iowa State before Talana Lepolo answered for Stanford with a corner three to make it 74-72 with 3:00 to go in overtime. It was crazy.
Fast forwarding to 18.4 to go in overtime, Stanford led 83-81 while Iowa State had the ball. Demetre and Brown had traded threes. It was truly going down to the wire.
Iowa State was unable to tie up the game as Demetre got fouled and went to the foul line where she went 2-2. The Cardinal were now up 85-81 with 11.7 to go. Iowa State had the ball, but time was running out.
Iowa State would then turn the ball over after which Iriafen got fouled and made both of her foul shots to make it 87-81, which ended up being the final score. Stanford was able to hang on and advance to the Sweet Sixteen, avoiding a repeat of last year’s second round exit.
“Yeah, I think last year that game really taught us to just take it one game at a time,” Jump said reflecting on last year’s second round exit to Ole Miss. “You know, we came in today prepared. I think we just didn't want to go home. We wanted to get out of here and go to Portland. That's been our motto all week, to be honest.
“We fought hard. As much as I love Maples, I didn't want my season to end here tonight. It was emotional for me to be here and play in front of this crowd one more time. They've been incredible, and tonight they were super loud and I think that was very helpful for us especially down the stretch. Yeah, just wanted to get out of here.”
This game was truly an instant classic. One of the best college basketball games I’ve seen live. Both Iriafen and Ryan were trading baskets all night, each finding a way to respond when one of them scored or made a big play. It’s unfortunate there had to be a losing team. Both teams played like winners.
In the end, the difference was Iriafen was a bit better than Ryan and then Iriafen got a bit more help from her teammates. Brooke Demetre hit a couple of key threes as did Talana Lepolo and then Hannah Jump hit several big shots throughout the night. It was a team effort for Stanford to pull this one out and everyone did their part.
“Yeah, Tara calls Brooke Steady Eddie and she's always ready,” Iriafen said of Demetre. “You can always count on Brooke. She is just always, always ready since our freshmen year, regardless of how the game is going for her or how we are doing. Like you can rely on her to be the energy to be someone that can get a bucket for us.
“Defensively, offensively she did everything she needed to do. She hit tough, tough shots and got key rebounds. Brooke kind of does it all and doesn't always get the praise she deserves. But we definitely would not have won this game without Brooke's contributions tonight.”
“I call her Big Shot Brooke,” VanDerveer said of Demetre. “You know, she hit some big, big shots for us. It was really exciting. She was very poised. You know, just she was open and she is a confident player so really excited to go see her make those shots.”
Going back to Iriafen though, what a performance. She was simply spectacular. Her midrange game was on fire, she was scoring around the basket, making her free throws, getting blocks on defense, and was dominant on the glass. This was without question the best performance of her career as she became the first Cardinal to score 40+ points in a game since Nneka Ogwumike in the 2011-12 season against Tennessee.
“She's a warrior out there,” VanDerveer said of Iriafen. “Look where she was -- look how much she's improved. It's incredible. To me, she's most improved player and she gave an All-American performance tonight. I'm really proud of her. But it was a total team effort. People were like looking for her, getting her the ball. Very unselfish basketball and I love it.”
After winning this heart-pounding thriller, Stanford gets to relax for a couple of days before hitting the road to Portland for the Sweet Sixteen to face either No. 3 NC State or No. 6 Tennessee on Friday, March 29th. Tipoff time TBD.
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