During a week that showed the volatility of the Pac-12 conference, Stanford managed to avoid any bad surprises by sweeping the mountain schools. The Cardinal shook off a shaky offensive performance against Colorado to blitz Utah with a 31-point first quarter, and cruised to an 87-61 win.
In the Friday matchup with Colorado the stingy defense of the Buffaloes held the Cardinal to nine points in the first quarter. Stanford reached that number in two minutes of game time Sunday afternoon, and the Cardinal didn’t let up until the first buzzer sounded with the score 31-9 Stanford.
“That’s a great team win for us,” said head coach Tara VanDerveer. “I thought we came out of the gates really fast. We got out running. We had a lot of different contributions, Alanna (Smith) stepped up big. We had four people in double figures and we did it by committee. I was excited about the bench and how we finished strong with Alexa (Romano), Shannon (Coffee), Nadia (Fingall) and Anna Wilson.”
Utah head coach Lynne Roberts called the Utes “zombies” on the court compared to how well they played when they won their fourth conference game Friday at Cal. The Golden Bears lost 64-59 to Colorado Sunday, pushing Lindsay Gottlieb’s crew to the edge of the tournament bubble and possibly into a must-win situation going forward.
Roberts lauded Stanford’s ability to execute a gameplan and do it with toughness.
“They punched us in the mouth in the first quarter and we didn’t respond very well,” she said.
Stanford forced 22 turnovers and got 23 points off of the takeaways. The Cardinal also grabbed 20 offensive rebounds and had 29 second-chance points, which often had Roberts appearing exasperated on the sideline.
“That’s inexcusable,” Roberts said. “We gave up two rebounds on free throws. That’s four-on-two. There are no excuses. Stanford wanted to beat us more than we wanted to beat them.”
A number of Cardinal landed solid body blows. The first quarter started with two threes from Karlie Samuelson and another by Briana Roberson.
Smith has become a super-sub for the Cardinal and often comes in for Kaylee Johnson, who starts to set the tone as the superior rebounder and defender. Johnson finished with six rebounds, five on offense, and two blocks.
Smith offers a more versatile offensive skill set and she scored 16 points with post moves, a three-pointer and also went 5-of-5 from the free throw line. Smith had five rebounds, two steals and a blocked shot as the Australian sophomore continues her positive developmental arc.
“Every game it’s someone different,” Smith said about the team’s fast start. “We don’t rely on one person to score for us. I think when someone is doing really well we look to capitalize on that. Regardless of who it is we try to get them the ball.”
Smith’s performance helped picked up McCall, who struggled to find her shooting touch for the third straight game. While McCall works to end her offensive funk, the team still won decisively.
“I think for our team it’s good to win when she struggles offensively,” VanDerveer said. “But she continues to play hard. She worked hard on defense and she is supportive of her teammates. A lot of players when things don’t go their way they have a pity party for themselves and they drag the whole team down.”
Stanford’s production predictably dipped in the second quarter and slowly revved back up in the third when Samuelson and Smith led the way. The bench finished the game well, with threes from Romano and Coffee drawing cheers and jumps of joy from the bench.
Stanford heads into the rivalry week against Cal looking to avoid an upset to the wildly unpredictable Golden Bears. Two wins over Cal would set up a dramatic final road trip to the Oregon schools.
The Ducks finished a sweep of the LA schools with a 73-50 rout of USC, two days after the Trojans defeated No. 9 Oregon State. The Beavers bounced back to beat No. 15 UCLA 68-61, giving the Bruins consecutive losses.
