Following a 97-71 victory over San Francisco, the Stanford women’s basketball team (2-0, 0-0 Pac-12) will host Northern Colorado (0-2, 0-0 Big Sky) on Thursday at home. This will be the first ever meeting between the two schools.
The Cardinal have started off their season winning their first two games by double digit margins. In the game against the Dons, held at the newly opened Chase Center in San Francisco, Stanford was aided by a big third quarter in which it started off on a 7-0 run and scored a total of 31 points on 63.2% shooting to lead it to a 97-71 victory. Sophomore guard Lexie Hull was on fire from the field, scoring 27 points on 10-of-12 shooting, including 5-of-7 from three-point range. She also had eight rebounds, three assists and a block.
“There’s been a lot of good things from our 2-0 start,” said head coach Tara VanDerveer. “Being successful helps our confidence. It allows me to play a lot of different players and look at a lot of different combinations. It’s like putting a puzzle together; we’re trying to figure out how the pieces fit together.”
Freshman forward Ashten Pretchel has excelled thus far. She has shot at least 50.0% from the field in both games and has been a rebound machine for the team, leading the squad with 17 total boards. Another flourishing freshman is forward Francesca Belibi, who dropped a double-double in her first collegiate game with 15 rebounds and 12 points.
“We have a lot of mentorship by our returners. Our freshmen are very talented and they are going to help us a lot,” said VanDerveer.
Northern Colorado has struggled to start the season, losing its first two games. The team lost their opener to San Francisco and fell in their most recent game by double-digit points to Colorado State, 75-58.
Junior guard Alexis Chapman is leading the charge for Northern Colorado. She leads the team in points scored on 40.6% shooting, having dropped 15 and 23 points in the first two games.
“We are preparing for Northern Colorado the same way we prepared for team USA,” VanDerveer said.
Tipoff is set for 7:00 p.m. tonight at Maples Pavilion.
Contact Gerzain Gutierrez at gerzain ‘at’ stanford.edu.