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 And those two have been replaced by freshmen whose stats are in fact better than the departed seniors.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.
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.