On Thursday, Stanford women’s basketball defeated Washington State by a final score of 94-65. Stanford senior guard Elena Bosgana (19 points & 5 rebounds) and sophomore forward Nunu Agara (18 points & 8 rebounds) led the way for the Cardinal while Washington State sophomore guard Eleonora Villa was the top scorer for the Cougars with 19 points. Stanford improves to 2-0 overall while Washington State falls to 1-1. Stanford is also now 75-0 all-time against Washington State.
VIDEO: Stanford WBB Postgame Press Conference: Washington State
BOX SCORE: Washington State at Stanford-Thursday, November 7th
“That was a great team win,” Stanford head coach Kate Paye said after the game. “Obviously we know Washington State really well. Tremendous respect for Kamie and their coaching staff and their team. They’re a great team. I think they’re a team that is very similar to us and it felt kind of like a really big early season game to be playing that kind of quality opponent. I thought our team really rose to the occasion.”
Stanford rolled with a starting five of Talana Lepolo, Elena Bosgana, Brooke Demetre, Jzaniya Harriel, and Nunu Agara and got off to a solid start. Stanford led 13-10 with 4:07 to go in the 1st quarter. Stanford was shooting 6-13 from the field while Washington State was shooting 4-5.
Stanford would lead 21-15 at the end of the 1st quarter. Bosgana was leading the way for the Cardinal with five points while Villa was up to seven points for the Cougars.
Stanford would lead 29-23 with 4:22 to go in the 2nd quarter as both teams were tied in the quarter. Lepolo, Bosgana, Agara, and Demetre each had five points for Stanford, so there was good scoring distribution for the Cardinal.
At halftime, Stanford led 42-31. Tess Heal was leading the Cardinal with nine points and two rebounds on 3-3 shooting from 3-point range while Elena Bosgana had eight points. Tara Wallack (11 points) and Eleonora Villa (10 points) were leading Washington State.
Stanford would lead 54-46 with 3:18 to go in the 3rd quarter. Agara was leading Stanford with 14 points while Villa was leading Washington State with 17 points. The Cougars were hanging around.
Agara would hit a 3-pointer to beat the buzzer to end the 3rd quarter. She was up to 18 points as the Cardinal led 69-48.
“Nothing, I was just yelling Chloe! Chloe!” Agara said of her buzzer beater. “I just hit a shot and that felt good to go in though.”
“I knew it was going in,” Bosgana chimed in. “I knew it was going in.”
With 3:53 to go in the game, Stanford led 86-55. Bosgana (19 points) and Agara (18 points) were leading the way for the Cardinal as they were on a 9-0 run. At this point, it was clear Stanford was going to win this one rather handily. They were doing a good job with their defensive pressure as they had ten steals for the game.
“I think it’s just our activity,” Agara said of their steals. “Coach has just been saying get handsy, get scrappy, so that’s just a testament to what she’s been saying.”
“I think that is, that’s the identity of our team that we’re working on,” Paye added. “Maybe defensively in the past, we’ve been really big and just kind of been able to rely on Cameron Brink to block shots, our team knows that we can be a great defensive team, but we’re gonna have to do it a little differently and we have really versatile players and we can switch a lot. We have some nice quick guards. I think Jzaniya’s defense is great, Chloe’s defense is great, Shay got in there at the end. She’s a really great defensive guard. So, we’re gonna really build on this and we are gonna be scrappy and tough and physical and aggressive.”
In the end, the final score would be 94-65. Washington State played Stanford well, but in that 3rd quarter, Stanford really gained separation, outscoring them 27-17. It was an all-around good team win for the Cardinal as they got good scoring distribution and did a nice job of playing quality defense down the stretch.
“That is a great win for our team. It’s a great team win,” Paye said. “We had a lot of different people step up. Obviously Nunu and Elena had great games, but I thought it was great to have Tess back on the floor, you can see what she can do going four-for-four from three and just her toughness and her competitiveness. I thought this was a huge game for Chloe Clardy to show how much she’s improved handling at the one, attacking the basket, getting her shot going, so it’s just a really exciting team win and we know it’s going to be different people on different nights and our team is totally fine with that. We just are all about Stanford.
“This is what we’ve been talking about kind of maybe since we started in the summer. We have a lot of different weapons. A lot of players who are very competitive. They have a lot of pride. They’re really excited about the opportunity to step up. We don’t really care about outside narratives. We’re just focused on ourselves and I thought our team got really competitive especially in the second half.
“I could tell it really meant something to people and I think that starts with Elena and it’s different when you’re a senior and I could feel from Elena tonight that playing hard, she was scrappy, she was attacking the basket, talking to her teammates, bringing emotion to the floor, that it meant something to her. And obviously Jzaniya and Brooke as well and Nunu and the rest of their teammates really feed off that.”
Through two games, Stanford’s 3-point shooting has been their main strength. After making 18 threes in their opener, they made 14 threes against Washington State. It’s going to be interesting to see if they can keep this up, but so far, the Cardinal look like an elite shooting team from the perimeter, which is amazing considering Hannah Jump is now graduated.
Up next for Stanford is a home game against Gonzaga on Sunday at 12:00 PM PT on ESPN2. Stanford will unveil Tara VanDerveer Court, making it a special day for the program.
“This is awesome,” Paye said of the naming of the court. “This is gonna be a really special day event and a special day. There’s no other way it could be. That is Tara VanDerveer Court and we’re all really fortunate to be a part of such a special day. And I’ve said this before, but if I know Tara, which I do, she’ll be most focused on us playing well against Gonzaga and that’s the best way that we can honor her on special day and Gonzaga is an excellent team and an excellent program. We have tremendous respect for Lisa Fortier, she’s a great coach, she’s a great friend. They have a great staff. They have a system to be successful. They have some new faces, they return Yvonne Ejim, who’s a fantastic player, so we have our work cut out us and maybe we’ll enjoy this for the rest of the night, but we’ll get right back it tomorrow.”
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