No. 14 Stanford women’s basketball (4-3) finished its Play4Kay campaign in Las Vegas last week with two wins and one loss in overtime. The Cardinal got started with a pair of wins against Kent State (4-3) 79-54 and Belmont (5-2) 74-53 before losing 94-82 for the second time this season to No. 9 Ohio State (7-1) on Saturday.
Despite losing to OSU, the Cardinal showed that even only two weeks into the regular season, they are a better team than they were when the year started. While OSU had outscored Stanford 85-64 in the season opener, on Saturday, the game looked worlds apart, as Stanford was leading for most of the contest.
Junior forward Alana Smith had two double-doubles for Stanford against Belmont and OSU, while tallying 33 points in the Cardinal’s final weekend game. Sophomore DiJonai Carrington had another game with over 20 points against Kent State, and fellow classmate Anna Wilson put up 21 points against the Buckeyes.
The biggest story of the weekend for the Cardinal was its rematch against OSU. They started the game strong as they outscored the Buckeyes 19-13 in the first and earned a nine-point lead after three periods. Smith and Wilson led the charge, and their efforts were rewarded by all-tournament teams nominations.
While Stanford had been outrebounded 61 to 41 in its previous clash with OSU, Smith’s 16 rebounds helped the Cardinal grab more boards this time around. The team finished the game with 45 rebounds to the Buckeyes’ 39.
OSU star guard Kelsey Mitchell, who became the NCAA all-time leader for three-pointers one night earlier, was stopped by Stanford’s perimeter defense in the first half. She missed her six shot attempts in the first half, including three from long distance, and had to wait until the 8:49 mark of the third quarter to make her first bucket.
Despite the string start, OSU outlasted Stanford down the stretch as the Buckeyes outscored the Cardinal 27-18 in the final quarter to force overtime before going on a 13-0 run in the extra period to get the win. Asia Doss spurred OSU, scoring the Buckeyes’ first seven points in overtime while finishing with 15 points.
Stanford started its three-game stretch with a 79-54 win over Kent State on Thursday. During the game, four Cardinal players, sophomore Nadia Fingall (11), junior Marta Sniezek (10), Smith (15) and Carrington (24), scored in double digits as the team shot a combined 56 percent from the field.
Eight-of-eight from inside the arc, Carrington led the Cardinal to victory as she added 10 rebounds to her career-high 24 points in order to record her second double-double of the season. Smith almost matched Carrington’s double-double as she tallied eight boards. Sniezek also had a career night where she scored all of her 10 points in the first quarter, grabbed eight rebounds as well and distributed seven assists for the Cardinal.
Despite being held up by an offensive Kent State team in the first quarter, Stanford used a 24-0 run that spanned half of the second quarter to build a large lead that it was able to hold. The Cardinal went on another run after the Golden Flashes halved the lead, as they outscored Kent State 22-8 in the final quarter. The team’s runs were spurred by 40 points in the paint and eight three-pointers.
The following day against Belmont, the Cardinal used stellar defense in the second half to reach victory. While Belmont scored 16 points in the first quarter of the game, Stanford held the Bruins to 16 total points in the second half while scoring 37 over that span. With the score tied at 37 at halftime, the teams traded baskets in the third until the Cardinal denied the Bruins any points from 5:45 in the third period to 7:18 in the fourth.
Smith scored 23 and grabbed 11 boards for a double-double, and junior Alexa Romano was the only other Cardinal with more than 10 points as she scored 11. At the guard spot, Sniezek had once again seven assists while only recording one turnover.
Stanford returns to action on Wednesday as the team travels to face San Francisco.
Contact Alexandre Bucquet at bucquet ‘at’ stanford.edu.