On Thursday, Stanford women’s basketball defeated Cal State Los Angeles 91-70 in their exhibition. Stanford sophomore forward Nunu Agara led the way for the Cardinal with 25 points, 13 rebounds, five assists, and two blocks while Elena Bosgana (11 points), Jzaniya Harriel (11 points), Chloe Clardy (11 points), Courtney Ogden (10 points), and Brooke Demetre (10 points) scored in double figures.
BOX SCORE: Cal State Los Angeles at Stanford-Wednesday, October 30th
VIDEO: Stanford WBB Postgame Press Conference: Cal State LA
“First, I’d just like to compliment Cal State LA on a great game,” Stanford head coach Kate Paye said after the game. “They played last night at Arizona and they played them very tough and they flew in this morning and their flight was delayed and they had to change their shootaround time, but they still showed up and they played very, very well. Very well. I mean, they shot the lights out and we know that they are a very experienced team and they’re a division two NCAA tournament team and they had our team’s total attention. So you know, I don’t think this was a fluke.
“The best news for us is number one, nobody got hurt and number two is it’s great to play great competition in an exhibition game. We saw a lot of things that we’re really excited about. Obviously, Nunu had a fantastic game, is really showcasing how much she’s improved since her freshman year, and we saw that from a lot of different players on the team, but it certainly gives us as coaches a lot to work on. Our team is comfortable with that.The saying we have around here is it’s not about the start of the race, it’s about the finish, and we’re all about improving and certainly a lot of things that we can improve on starting with our defense.”
With point guards Shay Ijiwoye and Talana Lepolo both out, Stanford rolled with a starting lineup of Elena Bosgana, Brooke Demetre, Jzaniya Harriel, Tess Heal, and Nunu Agara. Heal and Harriel handled the primary point guard duties for the night along with Chloe Clardy.
At the end of the 1st quarter, Stanford led 21-14 as Agara was up to six points and three rebounds for Stanford. The Golden Eagles were playing the Cardinal tough and doing a good job of making shots.
At halftime, Stanford led 48-36. Agara was leading the way for the Cardinal with her 15 points and six rebounds. Bosgana was up to nine points. Stanford closed the half on a 13-3 run, finally gaining a little separation.
At the end of the 3rd quarter, Stanford led 73-56. Agara now had her double-double as she had 23 points and 10 rebounds. She was really balling out.
In the end, Stanford would walk out with a 91-70 victory. Cal State Los Angeles played tough and made Stanford work. That’s the whole point of these exhibitions. Stanford wanted to play somebody who would push them a bit and they got exactly what they wanted.
The biggest takeaway from this game is the performance of Nunu Agara. While it’s just one game, she does look like somebody prime to become the feature player for this Stanford team. She had no qualms with getting a lot of touches and having the offense run through her. While her points, rebounds, and blocks were all fantastic, getting five assists really stands out to me. That shows she’s unselfish and willing to play within the team concept of the game.
“We’re extremely excited about how well Nunu is doing,” Paye said of Agara. “This has been coming. Usually the big jump you see between four players is between their freshmen and their sophomore years and really this is just kind of the tip of the iceberg for Nunu. But we’re seeing huge improvement from everybody and we’re gonna count on that and more. There’s a lot of things that Nunu wants to work on and do better. This is not the end all, be all.
“We have very talented players on our roster and they’re extremely excited about the tremendous opportunity on our team. Obviously, we graduated three captains, our three leading scorers who were real focal points of a lot of things we did offensively and defensively and I think Nunu’s night tonight, our players are hungry. They’re extremely competitive and they see tremendous opportunity whether it’s Nunu, Courtney, Brooke.
“I mean, I can just go all right down the line. Something we talk about is we’re all on the same boat together. This is a new role, a new responsibility, a new opportunity for all of us, and we’re really excited about it, but I thought Nunu was fantastic tonight.”
“I just take it as it goes, one day at a time,” Agara said. “I’ve seen what we had and Kate always said I’m up for bigger and better and stepping up and so, I just did it for my teammates. They’re looking out. They’re looking for me to step up. So yeah, it’s all about them.”
Secondly, Stanford’s defense does need to improve. Especially on the perimeter. Stanford needs to do a better job of fighting through ball screens and rotating. That’s why the Golden Eagles were able to shoot 11-26 from 3-point range. One has to give the Golden Eagles credit for knocking those shots down, but still. Kate Paye is aware of that and I’m sure that will be something she emphasizes in practice over the weekend.
“Oh, we need to tighten up on people, they were kind of shooting in our face,” Paye admitted. “We made an adjustment kind of in how we were playing screens midway through the second quarter, maybe we could have done that sooner. Just be more aggressive. Just be more aggressive on the ball and their players got hot and that will happen. We know that we are going to get everybody’s A-plus game every night. Not because of me and not because of Nunu or anybody else, but because it’s Stanford and that’s just how it is. We have a young team so to speak and this is a great lesson and it will really help us.”
The final thing that stood out to me is the importance of point guard play. While Stanford navigated the absence of Talana Lepolo and Shay Ijiwoye fine for this one, it’s clear that they really need those two healthy if they want to have quality point guard play. Both on offense and on defense. Ijiwoye should bring a much-needed presence on defense, which as I posted above appears to be an area that they need to focus on. Fortunately for Stanford, it sounds like those two should be back for the start of the regular season.
“We’re expecting both of them back and we’re very excited,” Paye said of Ijiwoye and Lepolo. “Obviously Talana is a starting point guard for us for two years and has tremendous experience and is one of our best defenders, so we certainly could have used her defense tonight. Shay is really a unique guard for us. She’s extremely quick, she can go right by people, and she’s very pesky defensively.
“We have a lot of guard depth and that is maybe something a little bit different than the past couple of years we were maybe kind of more forward heavy. So I felt very excited about what I saw from Tess out there, she’s an experienced player, but she’s learning a whole new system and she’s doing a terrific job. Chloe Clardy had some great minutes at point guard, Jzaniya was out there at the point. We have different people who can handle, Nunu brought the ball up, Courtney brought the ball up, so I’m really excited about our guard play.”
On that note, Stanford will open up their regular season at home on Monday, November 4th against Le Moyne at 7:00 PM PT on ACCNX.
CardinalSportsReport.com on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, & X (Twitter): @StanfordRivals
Ben Parker on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, & X (Twitter): @slamdunk406
Email: slamdunk406@yahoo.com
