On Sunday, Stanford women’s basketball fell to No. 21 NC State at home by a final score of 81-67. NC State guard Saniya Rivers led the way for the Wolfpack with 17 points and 11 rebounds while guard Aziaha James was the number two scorer with 15 points and five rebounds. Stanford guard Chloe Clardy was the top performer for the Cardinal with 17 points and five rebounds. NC State improves to 12-4 overall and 4-1 in the ACC while Stanford falls to 9-7 overall and 1-4 in the ACC.
VIDEO: Stanford WBB Postgame Press Conference: NC State
BOX SCORE: NC State at Stanford-Sunday, January 12th
“Thank you everybody for coming. NC State, compliments to them,” Stanford head coach Kate Paye said after the game. “They’re a very good team. Their guards are exceptional. Those are future pros, no doubt. It’s not like we were surprised by that, obviously we played them last year. I thought our team competed and stuck with things. Kinda, first quarter and fourth quarter were great. Second and third, not so much.
“But I thought people stuck with things. Very excited for Chloe to get her offense going a little bit. I thought she got her three going, attacked the basket really well. It wasn’t maybe necessarily Brooke’s best day, but she stuck with it. This is what it is. This is high level ACC basketball. It’s extremely competitive and I think our team has made a lot of progress. Nobody likes the outcome of this, but we don’t have any time to hang our heads. We just have to learn from it and we’re hitting the road, play at Wake and Duke. That’s just how it goes.”
Stanford got off to a strong start in this game, leading 18-12 at the end of the 1st quarter. Shay Ijiwoye was up to six points for the Cardinal as the starting point guard while Chloe Clardy was up to five points. Stanford had five blocks in the quarter, playing terrific defense all while holding NC State to 5-19 (26.3%) shooting from the field.
“I’m really pleased with the progress that Shay Ijiwoye is making,” Paye said. “That’s a big responsibility out there. Being a young guard and playing against these type of athletic teams that are in passing lanes and going for steals all the time. So, we’ll continue to work on it and value the basketball and work harder to take care of it.”
The 2nd quarter would be a totally different story as NC State outscored Stanford 22-10, giving them a 34-28 lead at halftime. After scoring just three points in the 1st quarter, Saniya Rivers was up to 10 points for the Wolfpack, starting to find her groove. Stanford shot an abysmal 4-14 (28.6%) from the field while NC State shot 9-15 (60.0%). The Wolfpack clearly had the momentum going into the break, even after a layup by Stanford guard Elena Bosgana beat the buzzer.
In the 3rd quarter, NC State outscored Stanford 34-15, giving them a 68-43 lead with one quarter to go. Rivers was up to 15 points for the Wolfpack while Zoe Brooks was up to 12 points after not scoring at all in the first half due to foul trouble. She shot 5-7 from the field in the 3rd quarter and gave Stanford a ton of trouble.
The 4th quarter was much better for Stanford as they outscored NC State 24-13. Clardy started to come alive, scoring eight of her 17 points in the 4th quarter while Bosgana scored six of her 14 points. However, it was too little too late in the end as NC State walked out with a comfortable victory by a final score of 81-67.
For Stanford, this is overall a disappointing result given they were coming off a win over a quality Florida State game on Thursday. After a strong 1st quarter, they got destroyed in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. That has to feel pretty deflating. That said, Stanford can take some comfort in knowing that they didn’t give up and that they responded well in the 4th quarter. That’s something that they can take from this game as a positive as they look ahead to next week.
“Right. I think we’ve seen it before,” Clardy said of their strong ending to the game. “And like you said, we’re gonna take that confidence and I think we just have to continue to have that the whole game. Throughout the whole game. Not just at the end.”
On that note, Stanford will return to action on Thursday, January 16th at Wake Forest. Tipoff is set for 3:00 PM PT on ACCNX.
“I know it’s gonna be competitive, I know it’s gonna be challenging,” Paye said of the upcoming road trip to Wake Forest and Duke. “There are athletic guards in this league and we knew that and we’re learning on the fly with it. I think just handling the ball, taking care of the ball against both teams will be extremely important, and playing with confidence. Every game is challenging and when you go on the road, it’s extremely challenging. But our team is up for it.
“Our strengths that, when we talk and we get together, we know there’s a lot of things that we want to do better. Our team stays together, our team is extremely unselfish, and our team is coachable. As a coach you gotta love that. It doesn’t mean it’s always gonna be easy or that you like the outcomes of some games, but we’re gonna lean in on those three things and we’re gonna to work and work as hard as we can to improve and on the road and we’re focused.”
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