After absolutely demolishing their cross-bay rival Cal Berkeley last Saturday (75-50), No. 11 Stanford women’s basketball (18-3, 8-2 PAC-12) looks to use their home-court advantage tonight against No. 7 Oregon State (19-3, 9-1 Pac-12) at Maples Pavilion at 6 p.m. Stanford seeks to extend its 21-0 home-game winning streak, the longest active streak in the nation.
As Stanford snapped its 11-game winning streak on Jan. 27 against Utah and dropped its meeting with Cal on Jan. 31, the Cardinal lost two consecutive conference games for the first time since 2015. The Cardinal, however, avenged their narrow 81-80 loss to Cal (14-7, 5-5 Pac-12) with a win over the Golden Bears just two days later on Saturday. The Cardinal scored the game’s first 10 points as junior Dijonai Carrington, who has averaged 16.3 points and 9.2 rebounds in the last 13 games, brought it home.
Senior Alanna Smith led the score boards. Smith is currently one of two players in the country averaging 20.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 2.0 blocks per game. Senior Shannon Coffee perked Stanford’s defensive energy with her towering blocks and picks, sending the Bears into hot water. The combination of their offensive and defensive prowess ultimately decided the game in the Cardinal’s favor (75-50) with Stanford leading the entirety of the game.
Stanford’s next opponent, Oregon State, is 135-26 since the start of the 2014-15 season, which is the seventh-best record in the nation over that span, trailing only University of Connecticut, Notre Dame, Baylor, Maryland, South Carolina and Louisville. The Beavers are damming up defensively for a stretch of five games in which they face ranked opponents (No. 17 Utah, No. 11 Stanford, and No. 3 Oregon twice). In addition to leading the nation in three-point percentage, after hitting at least eight three-pointers in 14 of their last 18 games, the Beavers currently match Baylor and UConn as the only teams ranked in the top 10 nationally in both field goal percentage and field goal percentage defense.
Beating the Cardinal in their most recent match up in Maples Pavilion on Jan. 8, 2017, which ended Stanford’s 29-0 home winning streak over the Beavers from 2001-2015, Oregon State has split their last six meetings evenly with Stanford, with the four most recent games decided by a total of 14 points.
With a 56-9 all-time and 29-1 home record against the Beavers, the Cardinal looks to fire up a phenomenal winning streak in their eighth consecutive meeting with both teams ranked in the top 25. With all balls in the air, the Cardinal must be(aver) their best as they may be biting off more than they can chew with the Beavers tonight at Maples Pavillion at 6 p.m.
Contact Asia Zhang at asiaz ‘at’ stanford.edu.