WBB: Stanford 78 Arizona 48 - Printable Version

WBB: Stanford 78 Arizona 48 - Printable Version

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WBB: Stanford 78 Arizona 48 - 81alum - 01-13-2019

Preview:

Fresh off an impressive and challenging win over ASU, we travel to the league's perennial doormat, Arizona. Except they are no one's doormat any more. Coach Adia Barnes has had 2 1/2 years to recruit and coach her team into a vastly improved group. Prior to that, she helped coach Kelsey Plum at Washington, and thus she has been involved in a number of victories over Tara. Even before her arrival, we lost at Arizona in 2015--breaking a very long win streak. This year, Massey ranks 13-2 Arizona at 36--ahead of Cal, UCLA, and USC--and while the strength of opposition has not really been strong, they have been winning by a 19.5 point margin. Oh--they also knocked off ASU with suffocating defense.

Arizona is led statistically by Aari McDonald who is averaging 26 ppg. She is a 5'7" redshirt sophomore guard who followed Adia Barnes from Washington where as a freshman she played behind Plum and made the Pac 12 all-freshman team. She is hitting 47% of her shots and they are not mostly from three point range, where she shoots 31%. Arizona has started the same 5 in all 15 of their games so far. Starting guard Lucia Alonso is hitting 39% of her treys and has a 2:1 assist/turnover ratio. Cate Reese, a 6'2" freshman from the Ogumike's home town of Cypress Texas is their second leading scorer at 12 points and 8 rebounds per game.

Overview:

A well rounded offensive effort and an even better defensive effort crushed Arizona. A 19-0 run to end the first half expanded a comfortable lead to a chasm.

Character of the game:

Arizona played reasonable defense at times, but we played a nearly perfect offensive first half. That phenomenal 19 point run to close out the half started with two treys, a jumper, and another trey by Carrington--so she single handedly contributed 11 of the 19. Williams hit a trey, then Smith, then Jerome a layup on a fast break feed from Lacie. Just like that the much vaunted Arizona team looked like the Arizona team of yesteryear. We went into the half up 44-16. Quite amazing that we held the nation's top scorer to 9 points in the half and the rest of her team to 7. Arizona had 4 points in the 2nd quarter

Our offense slowed a little in the 3rd quarter, but we still held Arizona to 11 points and expanded the lead. The fourth quarter saw extended playing time for Coffee, Wilson, Lexie, and even Brewer and Moschkau. The bench was not able to win the 4th quarter but it was a great opportunity to rest our overworked starters and see Lexie get the rust off.

Performances:

Defensively, we kept McDonald to 17 points which is well under her average--but more important we shut down the team around her. Alanna got most of her career record 7 blocks on McDonald, who was 6/22. No other wildcat got double digits. Their outstanding freshman forward Reese, for example, was 1/9.

Offensively, the big three all did exceptionally well. Smith with 20, Carrington with 19, Williams with 13. Williams was 3/3 from three point range--it was good to see her return to her early season form.

Williams also was awesome at point, with 7 assists to 0 turnovers.

Alanna had 14 rebounds and those 7 blocks--all in the first half--coming three blocks short of a triple double.

I was most excited, though, to see Lexie shake off the rust and play a very good game. She played 14 minutes and scored 8 points, including 2/2 from three point range and 5 rebounds. She did accumulate 4 fouls in those 14 minutes--mostly trying to stop McDonald--so let's hope that is a bit of rust coming off and not a trend.

As a team we shot 44% and 42% from 3, including 13 made treys. Arizona was held to 27%. We were 9/10 on freethrows which is a trend we are overjoyed to continue. We had 30 points in the paint to their 18. My favorite stat of all: 22 bench points to their 4.

Conclusion:

We've got ourselves a very good team this year, and the rehabilitation of Lexie just made it better. The announcers again said that Tara hopes to get Maya back "very soon." I hope they are right. The next four games, while dangerous, are the "soft" part of our schedule, but after that it is a juggernaut of six games that will make or break our Pac 12 season--with 2 games against Cal, the two Oregon schools, and the road trip to LA all in a row. We will need Dodson before then.

But for today, there are nothing but smiles for an outstanding team performance, and so many positive signs for our future.

RE: WBB: Stanford @ Arizona 11am Sunday (today) - Spike - 01-13-2019

We’re in Tucson, getting set to cheer on the Cardinal.
Anyone else down here for the game?

RE: WBB: Stanford @ Arizona 11am Sunday (today) - mbdude - 01-13-2019

McDonald is very quick - I don't think we have anyone who can stay if front of her. Lot of potential for foul trouble on her drives to the basket. I think we'll play quite a bit of zone defense today

RE: WBB: Stanford @ Arizona 11am Sunday (today) - BobK - 01-13-2019

Have to protect Smith and Smith has to be very careful.

Cal gave up the threes to McDonald and she was like 5 of 8.

Still another player from Cal’s backyard that got away

RE: WBB: Stanford @ Arizona 11am Sunday (today) - qwerty49 - 01-13-2019

(01-13-2019, 09:50 AM)BobK Wrote: Have to protect Smith and Smith has to be very careful.

Cal gave up the threes to McDonald and she was like 5 of 8.

Still another player from Cal’s backyard that got away

Smith had some great blocks but the one careless foul I saw was reaching out with one hand to try to contest a layup. I think that was foul #4 which cost her time in the 4Q.

Fingal’s injury has really changed the complexion of this season. Let’s hope Dodson can come back at 100% soon.

RE: WBB: Stanford @ Arizona 11am Sunday (today) - TheFarm07 - 01-13-2019

We lead 21-12 after one quarter, even though we are shooting 31% as we are missing easy open shots.

Alanna was forced to the bench with an early foul off of an illegal screen apparently, but Kiana is 3/5 for 7 pts. Lexie picked up 2 fouls after draining a corner three.

We are limiting Arizona to under 30% and even though their star player McDonald has 7 pts, she is 3/9 and 0/4 from long range

RE: WBB: Stanford @ Arizona 11am Sunday (today) - M T - 01-13-2019

After 1Q, we've got a decent lead, but no domination 21-12. We looked good early and then got stone cold. Aari has 6pts in 1Q, about half her team points.

Wow. Stanford held Arizona to 4 points in the 2nd quarter.
Blocking & rebounding are dominating.

RE: WBB: Stanford @ Arizona 11am Sunday (today) - mbdude - 01-13-2019

19 - 0 run last 5:48. 7 blocks for Alanna. 15 pts for Dijonai
Great defense on McDonald by the Hulls and Wilson

RE: WBB: Stanford @ Arizona 11am Sunday (today) - TheFarm07 - 01-13-2019

We are leading 44-16, as both our offense and defense is clicking on all cylinders

We limited Arizona to 4 points in the quarter as the Wildcats' shooting has gone ice cold, they are shooting under 20% and in single digits from long range. McDonald has 9 pts on 4/14 shooting.

Meanwhile, after a slow first few minutes of the quarter, we scored 13 points in the last 3-4 minutes of the half, as we are doing our best Warriors impression as Carrington, Williams and Smith are hitting long range 3-pointers with seeming ease. They are all already into double figures and Alanna and Carrington are only a couple rebounds away each from getting a double-double. Coupled with a nifty pass to Jerome for the easy layup, our offensive flow to end the half was impeccable.

Our rebounding is also much better than in Tempe as Arizona only has 5 offensive rebounds

Hopefully, we'll keep this up in the second half

(01-13-2019, 12:52 PM)mbdude Wrote: 19 - 0 run last 5:48. 7 blocks for Alanna. 15 pts for Dijonai
Great defense on McDonald by the Hulls and Wilson

Alanna only needs 1 rebound and 3 blocks for a triple-double. That would be awesome, though every time she gets a block, I'm afraid of a whistle called against her. Fortunately, she only has 1 personal foul so far

RE: WBB: Stanford @ Arizona 11am Sunday (today) - M T - 01-13-2019

(01-13-2019, 12:53 PM)TheFarm07 Wrote: Meanwhile, after a slow first few minutes of the quarter, we scored 13 points in the last 3-4 minutes of the half, as we are doing our best Warriors impression as Carrington, Williams and Smith are hitting long range 3-pointers with seeming ease. They are all already into double figures and Alanna and Carrington are only a couple rebounds away each from getting a double-double.

Alanna is 1 rebound and 3 blocks from a triple double

RE: WBB: Stanford @ Arizona 11am Sunday (today) - BobK - 01-13-2019

We are awesome. That’s about a perfect half.
Hoping for the triple double and of course Smith and Carrington almost double doubles in the first half

Impressed by Brown which I love

RE: WBB: Stanford @ Arizona 11am Sunday (today) - M T - 01-13-2019

Off topic here a little, but did you notice that Amy Tucker is a finalist for WBB HoF. (I only saw that as the game started, although the article is 3 days old.)

RE: WBB: Stanford @ Arizona 11am Sunday (today) - jonnyss - 01-13-2019

alanna has 7 blocks. dijonai has 11 rebounds and 15 points with 3 threes and an amazing acrobatic drive. lacie is defending the nation’s top scorer really well. kiana is hitting 3’s from 6 feet behind the arc.

RE: WBB: Stanford @ Arizona 11am Sunday (today) - BobK - 01-13-2019

27-0 run

Yes on Amy. So deserved

Wilson was guarding McDonald when she was in

RE: WBB: Stanford @ Arizona 11am Sunday (today) - TheFarm07 - 01-13-2019

We lead 62-27 after three quarters; we started the second half with a 8-0 with a couple threes and an easy fast break layup

Our defense continues to excel as McDonald only has 10 points on 4/18 shooting and scoreless from long range.

With such a big lead, I think the fourth will be relatively quiet as both teams seem to have started emptying their bench.

Nice to see Estella Moschkau get some playing time

We cruised to a 78-48 lead as the fourth was mainly a formality, though Arizona's 10-0 run wasn't fun to watch.

However I was encouraged by Jenna Brown not only attempting long range jumpers but making a three late in the game. Hopefully that will encourage her to take more jump shots and diversify her game going forward

Our scout defense was superb as McDonald was held to 17 points with 7 of them in the fourth when we had our reserves in. We made her work for those points as she was 6/22 and 0/6 from long range. No other Wildcat was in double figures and we held them to 26% shooting

Our rebounding was great as well, holding a 46-32 edge

Offensively, our big three led the way with Alanna's 20 pt/14 rebound/7 block game and DiJonai was close behind with a 19 pt/8 rebound game

Kiana was very efficient as though she only had 13 pts, she was 5/7 including 3/3 from long range.

Our bench had 22 pts, which is great after being held scoreless last weekend. Jenna had 9 pts and Lexie had 8 pts and 5 rebounds on 3/5 shooting, it looks like she's gaining her scoring touch back, though her 4 fouls need to be cleaned up

We stepped up and met the Arizona challenge extremely well. We did not underestimate an improved team and came to play right from the get-go

Next, is the Washington schools next weekend

RE: WBB: Stanford 78 Arizona 48 - 81alum - 01-13-2019

Very good observations, Farm. It was heartening to see Lexie playing well, free throws going down, Kiana 3/3 from three point range, and a whole host of other positive signs.

My write-up is done at the top.

RE: WBB: Stanford 78 Arizona 48 - qwerty49 - 01-13-2019

Great defense, especially by Wilson on McDonald.

Smith was a tiger out there and played a tremendous game.

The Hulls are so solid and add so much versatility to our rotation.

Rebounding was awesome. And it’s always great when the 3s are falling.

LOL late in the game I was wondering if we had ever had 2 games in a row perfect at the line. Just then Brewer missed our only free throw right after the announcer jinxed her by mentioning she had been perfect this season.

RE: WBB: Stanford 78 Arizona 48 - BosCard - 01-13-2019

Part of the much improved free throw shooting is Alanna Smith just being much better this year. She shot only 53% from the line last year and improved to 75% this year. But the recent improvement shouldn't be that much of a surprise since Maya and Nadia aren't playing. We certainly would like them to play for rebounding/defense/low-post moves BUT it does help our free throw percentage since they are 50% and 52% free throw shooters. Without them we have Smith, Williams, Carrington, Hull and Hull taking free throws and they shoot at 75%, 72%, 72%, 100% and 100%.

RE: WBB: Stanford 78 Arizona 48 - mbdude - 01-13-2019

7 blocks in game 2nd most in Stanford history

RE: WBB: Stanford 78 Arizona 48 - 2006alum - 01-13-2019

DVR'd and not sure when I'll get a chance to watch, but very encouraging to hear how well we played! Stoked that Lexie and Brown are playing their way into the players they were hyped to be as recruits!

BTW, Smith is on her way to an A-A kind of season: in conference play she's averaging a double-double, 4.5 blocks per game, a 3:2 blocks:fouls ratio, and >.900 from the line. And she's on pace to average the highest ppg (19.7 on the season) of any Cardinal since Chiney in 13-14. I can't remember the last time we've had such a complete player - neither Jayne nor the Ogwumikes were solid outside shooters, and Candice was never a blocking and rebounding machine.

And I'll say it again: it's also a testament to Tara's prescience in switching to the Princeton. This team has really come into their own running this offense, and Smith's versatility would never have been as pronounced under the old triangle offense. I am really in awe of Tara's chessmaster-like ability to see three moves (and seasons) ahead of everybody else. Jones is the epitome of a positionless, Princeton-style player, and both Prechtell and Brink are apparently extraordinarily versatile for bigs. I really really hope Tara will get one more championship before she mic drops. She 'deserves' it under every definition of that word.