On Friday night, No. 3 Stanford women’s basketball (23-3, 12-2 Pac-12) overwhelmed Cal (15-11, 5-9 Pac-12) with a 84-49 victory at Maples Pavilion. This win completes the season sweep of the Golden Bears, extending the Cardinal’s win-streak in the cross-Bay rivalry to 11 and keeping them atop the Pac-12 heading into the last few weeks of the regular season.
Stanford was firing on all cylinders, dominating Cal at both ends of the floor. Despite a neck-and-neck 15-14 lead going into the first media timeout, Stanford’s defense went into high gear mid-way through the first quarter, where the Cardinal went on a 16-0 run that saw the Golden Bears shut out for nearly 10 minutes.
“A big focus of ours has been being more aggressive on defense. You see that through deflections, steals, and the shots that they’re taking as well,” said graduate guard Hannah Jump.
The aggression was evident, as the Cardinal only gave up five points in the second quarter while also holding Cal’s leading scorer, graduate guard Ioanna Krimili, to just two points on the night. After the game, Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer credited junior guard Elena Bosgana for her efforts guarding her former Greek youth national teammate.
“Elena really got us going, I thought she really locked in defensively,” said VanDerveer. “[Krimili] is a great player and very capable, and Elena played great defense on her.”
“I was locked-in on guarding Krimili, we knew she’s a great player, so I was trying to earn my minutes on defense,” emphasized Bosgana.
On the other end of the floor, Stanford shared the scoring load. Early in the first quarter, it was Jump who led the scoring for the Cardinal. Although she’s Stanford’s career leader in three-pointers made, she only shot one three-pointer on the night — instead getting the majority of her 14 points from around the rim.
“Teams are playing me a certain way, and I’ve got to adapt. Whether it’s being face-guarded, or backdoor cutting, or getting to the rim a bit more. [I’m] just trying to do what I can to help us out,” Jump explained.
Stanford had four other players score in double digits. Junior forward Kiki Iriafen led the team with 23 points to go along with 11 rebounds, securing her 12th double-double of the season. Senior forward Cameron Brink had 14 points and 4 blocks, while Bosgana had 12 points, including two and-ones, and junior forward Brooke Demetre had 11.
“There’s no one that didn’t help us tonight,” VanDerveer said. “It’s great that we could go 10-deep and go [double-digit] minutes for everyone.”
At halftime, Stanford was in control of the game with a 40-21 lead. During the third quarter, where the Cardinal scored 30 points and led by as much as 40, the game slipped out of reach for Cal.
“We out rebounded them, we took care of the ball … very unselfish basketball, and I loved it. It was very exciting,” VanDerveer said.
Looking ahead, the Cardinal will host the Arizona teams next weekend before taking a road trip to face the Oregon teams to close out the regular season.
“We’ve got four games left, we’ve got a tough road and we’ve got to play well,” VanDerveer said.
Stanford’s next matchup is against Arizona (13-12, 5-8 Pac-12) on Friday at Maples. Tip off is set for 7 p.m. PT.