No. 3 Stanford women’s basketball (3-1) beat UC-Davis for the eighth consecutive time Sunday afternoon. Since losing to Connecticut in the second game of the season, the Card has handily beaten its two opponents, rolling Cal Poly on Friday and then taking care of business against the Aggies with a 66-48 victory.
Leading all scorers was senior forward and National Player of the Year candidate Chiney Ogwumike. She had 28 points and 15 rebounds, recording her fourth double-double in as many games. In addition, the Cardinal’s offensive leader shot 13-for-22 from the field and did it all on the court: picking off two Aggie passes — one for a coast-to-coast layup — dishing out two assists and blocking three shots.
“We’ve been spoiled with Chiney,” said head coach Tara VanDerveer. “We need more help and more people doing it. We need to see what we can do to help her…We have a lot of young players on a steep learning curve who, frankly, don’t know what they are doing. Those are the players who, in five months, will help us more.”
Those young players, five freshmen (four of whom are available to play), have been granted plenty of playing time in the past two games in order to gain the experience necessary for the team to continue to improve and advance through the season.
Freshmen Lili Thompson and Erica McCall started the game, with freshmen Karlie Samuelson and Kailee Johnson coming off the bench shortly after. Samuelson had a game of career highs as she put up eight points to go with six assists, four rebounds and 33 minutes of play.
“[Samuelson] did a great job defensively [against Aggies’ top scorer Sydee Fipps], and we can play her at the 2 or 3,” said VanDerveer. “Whoever gets the job done, I don’t know who it is — we need more help.”
“I was trying to take away [Fipps’s] shot and drive,” Samuelson said. “When she drove, I had a lot of help from my team. When she drove to the basket, Chiney was always there to help.”
To start the game, Davis kept the game competitive, tying the Card at 6-6. But an 11-0 run put the Cardinal up for good, as it was able to capitalize on all 11 Aggie turnovers in the first half. Stanford led 34-20 going into halftime.
The Card dominated the second half as it continued to dominate the boards and beat Davis in the paint (34-12). Stanford grabbed 49 rebounds, the fourth consecutive game in which the team has had more than 40. In addition, over the past four games, the Card has held all of its opponents to under 40-percent shooting from the field.
In addition to the stellar performance by Ogwumike, junior point guard Amber Orrange had 10 points, four assists and four rebounds. Fifth-year senior Mikaela Ruef finished with eight points and eight rebounds. Although 11 players saw court action, only two scored in double digits, and the drop off from there was marked. This lack of even scoring across the roster worries VanDerveer for when the Card gets further into preseason play and eventually enters its Pac-12 schedule.
The Card has a week to try to incorporate players into the offense and work on more balanced scoring before it travels to Austin, Texas, to take on the Texas Longhorns Saturday at 10:30 a.m.
Contact Ashley Westhem at awesthem ‘at’ stanford.edu.