WBB: Stanford 82 Utah 49 - Printable Version

WBB: Stanford 82 Utah 49 - Printable Version

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WBB: Stanford 82 Utah 49 - 81alum - 01-25-2020

Preview:

Utah comes to us 10-8, and on a three game winning streak, having defeated USC, Colorado, and Cal. Massey has them at 68 and RPI is 106, which is a little better than Washington State and Washington. Utah has beaten BYU but its best victories are its last three. It was buried by Oregon and Oregon State and UCLA. It looks to be the quintessential middle of the pack Pac 12 team.Lest we get complacent, Utah beat us last year in Utah, 75-68, for the first time in its program history. That win is featured on Utah websites as one of the greatest accomplishments by their program. Erika Bean and Megan Huff have since graduated, but the Utah players will not feel as intimidated coming in as they might have in previous years. And those two have been replaced by freshmen whose stats are in fact better than the departed seniors.

Utah is led in scoring by freshman guard Bryanna Maxwell, a 6' guard who has shot 51 threes at a 43% rate.

Their second leading scorer is also a freshman, Lola Pendande, a 6'4" freshman forward from Spain who is shooting 62% and leading her team in rebounds.

5'11" Gylten Dru is their sophomore point guard, with a 2:1 assist to turnover ratio and she shoots treys at 36%.

Utah has 3 other three point shooters with significant baskets who are shooting 44%, 43%, and 40%. Clearly, defending the perimeter is going to be a challenge for us, and boxing out Pendande who seems to clean up and put back missed shots will also be critical.Utah is even younger than we are--they have some superb very young talent and will no doubt be a growing threat in the years ahead. But we need to win on Sunday, and register a little payback for one of our most disappointing losses in years.

Overview:

Stanford worked very hard to shut down the perimeter, which was where Utah lives or dies, and while we were not entirely successful in the first half, we were good enough. Meanwhile, Belibi had a break out offensive performance to go with Jump hitting three treys in a row (after missing three treys in a row!) to help us claim an insurmountable lead.

Flow of the game:

By the end of the first quarter we were up 21-12, and something in the vicinity of that 9 point lead persisted until halftime. We might have had a much bigger lead except we started 1/10 from three point range. We knew going in that our defensive emphasis would have to be on guarding the perimeter to keep their 4 40%+ sharpshooters from going crazy. They did hit 3/7, but we kept the number of long range attempts down, so the defense was somewhat successful.

Utah hung with us in the early 3rd quarter, shrinking our lead to 6. With 4 minutes left in the quarter Jump subbed in, and she missed three treys in a row on three possessions in a row. But it was like calibrating artillery, once she zeroed in on the target, they started to go in. The next three swooshed and we finished the 3rd quarter up 17, 55-38.

The fourth quarter was a lot of fun for Stanford and not much fun for Utah: we outscored them 27:11. Tara was able to play the complete bench, and Brewer got minutes for the first time this season. We coasted home as Brown largely directed our fourth quarter and zipped in a couple of assists.

Performances:

Many positive performances to note. As a team, we dominated in many categories. The most remarkable was turnovers. We had only 5 for the entire game--they had 16. We had 24 assists on 35 made baskets. We had 14 offensive rebounds to their 5. With those turnover and rebounding numbers we were not going to lose. Nevertheless, our defense was so-so in the first half but improved markedly in the second.

Individually, we had 5 players in double digit scoring. The most notable performance, though, was Belibi's. Belibi played only 18 minutes, and scored 20 points on 9/11 shooting, and also snagged a team leading 8 rebounds. Certainly her best offensive performance of her career.

I won't remark on every player, but here are a few highlights. Anna Wilson had 5 assists and 6 rebounds in 23 minutes. Jenna Brown had 2 assists and took it the basket for a couple of field goals in her 15 minutes. Prechtel continued to acquit herself well with 11 points and a terrific stat line in 23 minutes, including blocks, assists, and steals.

I continue to be concerned about Williams. She was 2/8 with 2 assists. It is good that Wilson and Brown could relieve her--I wonder whether Williams has just be beaten up and worn out a bit.

Conclusion:

We are seeing what Tara and the team can accomplish in a depleted state, and this looked quite good. The trip coming up to Washington and WSU is dangerous, and we will need contributions from our freshmen like we got today to return home successfully. In the long run, we can only hope against hope that one or more of the four key players who are out with injuries will be able to return this season to help us. I suspect that the more of our veterans who can return to help us, the further we will go in the Pac 12 and the NCAAs once tournament time begins.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. Utah Sunday 12 noon - BostonCard - 01-25-2020

Thanks for the preview. Small typo. You wrote “Colorado” in place of Utah in one spot.

BC

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. Utah Sunday 12 noon - 81alum - 01-25-2020

(01-25-2020, 11:26 AM)BostonCard Wrote: Thanks for the preview. Small typo. You wrote “Colorado” in place of Utah in one spot.

BC

Thanks! Fixed.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. Utah Sunday 12 noon - Snorlax94 - 01-25-2020

Looking forward to this game, thanks for the preview. My older son and I will be there, Go Cardinal!

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. Utah Sunday 12 noon - 81alum - 01-26-2020

Chalk talk. No changes.

30th anniversary reunion of the 1990 national championship team. Almost all the players and coaches in attendance.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. Utah Sunday 12 noon - mbdude - 01-26-2020

Prechtel to locker room, hit in mouth??

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. Utah Sunday 12 noon - BigEasyCard - 01-26-2020

Cardinal lead 31-22 at half.

Stats page still shows CU logo but Utah player names.

Geaux Cardinal!

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. Utah Sunday 12 noon - BostonCard - 01-26-2020

(01-25-2020, 06:33 PM)Snorlax94 Wrote: Looking forward to this game, thanks for the preview. My older son and I will be there, Go Cardinal!

Here with my youngest daughter. She was excited to go on the court for the conga line at the quarter and has been into it much more than I expected. We can’t buy a three point shot (1/10 shooting) but our defense has been exceptional and we’ve force 12 turnovers. Not the cleanest of games, but we are clearly the better team so far. Lots of minutes for Anna Wilson, which was nice to see.

BC

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. Utah Sunday 12 noon - BobK - 01-26-2020

Need to make threes and pull away.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. Utah Sunday 12 noon - BostonCard - 01-26-2020

(01-26-2020, 02:05 PM)BobK Wrote: Need to make threes and pull away.

Jump and Fingall we’re listening.

BC

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. Utah Sunday 12 noon - BobK - 01-26-2020

That’s making threes. Keep firing Hannah

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. Utah Sunday 12 noon - Snorlax94 - 01-26-2020

That was fun!

It was my first WBB game and my third third M/W BB game.

Is Maples always that crowded for WBB games or was there something special? It seemed more full than the men’s games I’ve gone to. And I swear the fans were more fired up. The entire lots near sunken diamond were full (maybe there was another event), so I had to circle back and to my surprise the garage still had many spots.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. Utah Sunday 12 noon - BostonCard - 01-26-2020

(01-26-2020, 02:19 PM)BobK Wrote: That’s making threes. Keep firing Hannah

Yeah it seemed like towards the end of the third quarter with a comfortable lead, the team consciously decided to start shooting threes until they dropped. After a couple more misses, I think jump finally drained one and the place went crazy. And that opened the floodgates and we wound up shooting about 30% from three after opening 1/10.

BC

By the way, nice game for the freshmen, collectively. Belibi had 20, Jump had 14, and Prechtel had 11.

BC

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. Utah Sunday 12 noon - martyup - 01-26-2020

I was pretty worried about this game after the slugfest with Colorado. Utah beat Colorado easily. This starting lineup is really solid. Brown is a star. Williams is back in form. Fingall is a rock. And, tonight Belibi put it all together.

RE: WBB: Stanford 82 Utah 49 - 81alum - 01-26-2020

My write up is completed at the top, complete with all the extra spacing that I can't seem to stop.

I think both the team and the fans needed a game like this. Belibi had a great game, Brown is getting more meaningful minutes, and Brewer got her first minutes of the season.

The behind-the-bench introduced almost the entire 1990 national championship team that returned for its 30th reunion. Loads of fun.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. Utah Sunday 12 noon - 2006alum - 01-26-2020

(01-26-2020, 03:39 PM)BostonCard Wrote: By the way, nice game for the freshmen, collectively. Belibi had 20, Jump had 14, and Prechtel had 11.

I was going to say - do you think this is the first time ever that Stanford's had a box score points column led by three freshman? I really can't ever remember that before. One, maybe, but three?!

Really fun game. Loved seeing Brown get serious minutes and make the most of them. I still want to see her trying to take jump shots, but with her confidence on the rise I'm hopeful she'll start trying them again.

Also, Prechtel is excellent - soft hands, great instinct for the ball, and really terrific shot blocker. Between her and Belibi, it feels like this is the first time since the Ogwumike era that we can rely on multiple posts to carry our offense and abuse opposing posts in the paint.

BTW: am I crazy, or has Belibi's back-to-basket moves flourished dramatically in the last few games? I recall in early fall games that she rarely tried that and it often didn't work, but tonight I was getting flashbacks of the Ogwumikes having their way with scoring down low.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. Utah Sunday 12 noon - 81alum - 01-26-2020

(01-26-2020, 05:09 PM)2006alum Wrote: BTW: am I crazy, or has Belibi's back-to-basket moves flourished dramatically in the last few games? I recall in early fall games that she rarely tried that and it often didn't work, but tonight I was getting flashbacks of the Ogwumikes having their way with scoring down low.

I think she is doing much better. But she still scores more easily when driving from elbow, rather than receiving the ball with her back to the basket. Today she was guarded primarily by another freshman, so that may have evened things up a bit and given her more chances.

Next year I expect we will see both Prechtel and Belibi on the floor together at the same time, and it could prove to be a great offensive combo. With Prechtel's jumpshot, she could sit at the elbow and play the high low game with Belibi's jumping ability at the low post.

RE: WBB: Stanford 82 Utah 49 - mbdude - 01-26-2020

Belibi scored mostly on pick and rolls, maybe 1 or 2 back to the basket moves. She was more decisive with the ball in her hands this game however

RE: WBB: Stanford 82 Utah 49 - crackpot - 01-26-2020

(01-26-2020, 04:43 PM)81alum Wrote: My write up is completed at the top, complete with all the extra spacing that I can't seem to stop.

The extra spaces make it easier for me to read, so no complaints here!

RE: WBB: Stanford 82 Utah 49 - BosCard - 01-26-2020

With Belibi being the leading scorer this game, now all four freshmen have had that honor this season. And in total, 8 different players have led our team in scoring this year and we haven't even reached the halfway mark of the conference season. And I'm sure it would have been 9 players if Carrington wasn't injured. I take this as a good sign, namely that we have a lot of different players who can contribute to the offense on any given night. This is in stark contrast to last year when only 5 players lead the team in scoring (Smith, Williams, Carrington, Dodson and Fingall). And Dodson and Fingall only did that once. Smith led the team in scoring 19.5 times (the 0.5 is when she tied with someone else for that honor). Part of our trouble last year was we were so reliant on Smith's scoring that teams would drive at her and try and get her in foul trouble to take her out of the game.

Here's another fun exercise, imagine last year's team and think what would happen if the top 3 scorers (Smith, Williams and Carrington) were off the court either due to foul trouble or injury. We would basically just never score. This year if our top 4 scorers are out (Lexie, Williams, Jones and Carrington) we could still field a team of Prechtel, Fingall, Jump, Lacie and Wilson which could do enough offensively to keep us in a lot of games.