Juniors Amber Orrange, Taylor Greenfield and Bonnie Samuelson combined for 11 of 12 three-pointers in the No. 4 Stanford women’s basketball team’s 86-54 victory over Fresno State on Saturday night.
Coming off the heels of a huge win over then-No. 3 ranked Tennessee (now dropped to No. 5), the Cardinal (11-1) was ready to close out non-conference play with a decisive victory. Last year the Card played the Bulldogs in its first regular season game and beat them by only a mere 11 points. This time around was a completely different story, with four players scoring in double digits.
EspnW’s player of the week, senior forward Chiney Ogwumike, had 20 points in the Cardinal’s win along with 10 rebounds for her eighth double-double of the season. Greenfield finished with 18 points, Orrange with 15 and Samuelson with 14. Mikaela Ruef added the final three to Stanford’s season-high 12 three-pointers game, along with five points, seven rebounds and a career-best eight assists.
The Bulldogs managed to keep the first half relatively close, maintaining early leads at 7-5 and 14-13 until the Card and only trailed by four with 10 minutes to play in the first half.
With a 26-2 Cardinal run to start the second half, however, Stanford increased its 12-point halftime advantage to a solid 36-point lead. The Card hit six 3-pointers to kick off its 26-2 run, shooting an impressive 8-15 from behind the arc during the second half.
“I thought Amber played really well for us, as well as Chiney. Mikaela Ruef [had a good game] and Taylor and Bonnie hit some really big shots,” head coach Tara VanDerveer told GoStanford.com. “It was good to have different people playing and in the game getting experience.”
The Card will begin Pac-12 play and its campaign for a 14th consecutive Pac-12 conference championship on Friday at home against Oregon at 6pm.
Contact Ashley Westhem at awesthem ‘at’ stanford.edu.