No. 3 Stanford women’s basketball (1-1) returns to the Farm this week after a two-game road trip to the East Coast last weekend.
After taking care of business at Boston College on Saturday, the Card was tripped up by No. 1 Connecticut on Monday, losing 76-57. The early season game was meant to be a starting point in gauging the team’s potential and areas of growth for head coach Tara VanDerveer. With multiple upperclassmen coming back from preseason injuries and a bevy of new players on the court this year, taking on Connecticut so early in the season was a test for the Cardinal women and despite the double-digit loss the team learned a lot to go forward with.
“I think this [Connecticut loss] kind of let our team know we’re 20 points away,” VanDerveer said. “How do you make that up? We gave up too many [offensive rebounds] for baskets. We sent them to the free-throw line for no reason. We need to do little things correctly and focus on that for the rest of the season.”
The biggest lesson to be taken away is that Stanford — just like last year — cannot rely on only two players to produce the majority of its scoring. In the loss, junior point guard Amber Orrange tied her career high in scoring with 22 points, and senior forward Chiney Ogwumike had 16 points and 13 rebounds — a modest double-double for the national player of the year candidate.
Although all 13 available players on the roster saw court action, no other Cardinal player scored in double digits or asserted herself offensively — an eerily familiar issue that the Card suffered from last season.
Stanford will try to make adjustments for its upcoming games this weekend in hopes of getting more players to score and grabbing offensive boards and being more aggressive under the basket.
The Card will first take on Cal Poly in its regular-season home opener this Friday. In Cal Poly’s opening two losses, senior Jonae Irvin averaged 21 points, four rebounds and four steals. In addition, Molly Schlemer averaged 15 points and 11 rebounds in the losses. Schlemer was last year’s Big West Conference player of the year.
On Sunday, UC-Davis will travel to Maples Pavilion for a second matchup in as many years with the Card. Last year, Stanford held the Aggies to just 38 points in the game. Ogwumike tied her then-career-high in scoring with 27 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. Davis’s leading scorer in that game, Sydnee Fipps (14 points), returns as a junior this year.
The Aggies are coming off losses to Pacific and USC. Fipps has led the way with 16.5 points per game to go with six rebounds per game. She will need a lot more help on the offensive end, however, if the Aggies wish to score more than the 38 points they scraped together in last year’s meeting.
In other women’s basketball news, VanDerveer announced yesterday the signing of Brittany McPhee, Kaylee Johnson and Taylor Rooks to National Letters of Intent for the 2014-15 season.
“This is a very talented, very exciting group of young women that will be coming to Stanford next year,” VanDerveer said. “Brittany, Kaylee and Taylor bring a variety of talents as well as a lot of energy that will fit right into our program. I am very pleased to have them join the Stanford family.”
The Card will return focus to this season on Friday at Maples Pavilion against Cal Poly at 7 p.m. and Sunday against UC-Davis at 2 p.m.
Contact Ashley Westhem at awesthem ‘at’ stanford.edu.