The game turned on Tara's defensive adjustments.
Arizona's most effective, consistent player on offense is Jade Loville, the transfer from Boise State/Arizona State who has given us fits in previous encounters. She is their only really good three point threat and also can slash--a three level scorer. Arizona does play very aggressive defense, and provided they don't get called for 11 more fouls than their opponent (they did) they believe that Loville can put them over the top in a low scoring game.
Lepolo started on Loville. I thought Lepolo defended her as perfectly as a player can--she stayed with her reasonably well and got a hand in her face when Loville was shooting. However, Loville sank a couple of shots right in Lepolo's face. When the star player is hitting shots even when well defended, something has to change.
Tara next sent Nivar after Loville. At the chalktalk, Kate pointedly said that she cannot comment on player health--which is a different tune than other chalk talks where coaches have made such comments. Emma-Nnopu was the logical player to defend Loville, but she did not play in the game, meaning she was not cleared to play. So Nivar was up next. Loville went around Nivar, and like Lepolo, Loville sank one right in Nivar's face, with a hand up.
Third player to defend Loville was Iriafen. And it mostly worked! I have heard Tara and the assistants say this before when they used to use Chiney on the perimeter to defend shorter, speedier guards--sometimes a longer player can really bother a shooter. For example, Lexie and Lacie were long defenders even if they were not exactly speedy. So Tara puts a post on Loville! Iriafen was tall enough to really bother Loville's shot.
Fourth player on Loville was Belibi, and this worked very well. Between Iriafen and Belibi, Loville wound up going 1/9 the rest of the way after hitting 3 shots in the first quarter. We found a way to neutralize her, and given Arizona's otherwise pedestrian offense, the game was won.
My biggest takeaway:
We can play defense! This was by far our best quality defensive game of the season. ASU scored 12 more points on us than the more vaunted Arizona team. As much as Arizona is famed for its defense, Stanford can play defense too, and it showed.
In terms of individual performances, it was a somewhat ugly game but Jones and Belibi do stand out. Jones with 5 baskets and 8 free throws, to go with a whopping 16 rebounds and 5 assists--hard to beat that, except the 7 turnovers. Arizona was clearly keying on getting turnovers from her, and they did.
Belibi was an offensive rebounding monster, with 5 O-board in only 17 minutes. Remember, she is not as tall as either of Arizona's forwards, and it looked like she was on a pogo stick going up to wrest those away, and often put them back.
Brink and Jump were not as efficient as usual, but they did enough. 7 players got double digit minutes, but 3 were 35+ so we still do not have as deep a rotation as might be expected.
Overall, a convincing win against an excellent team. Best of all, all those early season worries-- 1) do we have a point guard, 2) will Brink ever control her fouls, and 3) why is Jones in a slump --have all be satisfactorily answered.
Arizona's most effective, consistent player on offense is Jade Loville, the transfer from Boise State/Arizona State who has given us fits in previous encounters. She is their only really good three point threat and also can slash--a three level scorer. Arizona does play very aggressive defense, and provided they don't get called for 11 more fouls than their opponent (they did) they believe that Loville can put them over the top in a low scoring game.
Lepolo started on Loville. I thought Lepolo defended her as perfectly as a player can--she stayed with her reasonably well and got a hand in her face when Loville was shooting. However, Loville sank a couple of shots right in Lepolo's face. When the star player is hitting shots even when well defended, something has to change.
Tara next sent Nivar after Loville. At the chalktalk, Kate pointedly said that she cannot comment on player health--which is a different tune than other chalk talks where coaches have made such comments. Emma-Nnopu was the logical player to defend Loville, but she did not play in the game, meaning she was not cleared to play. So Nivar was up next. Loville went around Nivar, and like Lepolo, Loville sank one right in Nivar's face, with a hand up.
Third player to defend Loville was Iriafen. And it mostly worked! I have heard Tara and the assistants say this before when they used to use Chiney on the perimeter to defend shorter, speedier guards--sometimes a longer player can really bother a shooter. For example, Lexie and Lacie were long defenders even if they were not exactly speedy. So Tara puts a post on Loville! Iriafen was tall enough to really bother Loville's shot.
Fourth player on Loville was Belibi, and this worked very well. Between Iriafen and Belibi, Loville wound up going 1/9 the rest of the way after hitting 3 shots in the first quarter. We found a way to neutralize her, and given Arizona's otherwise pedestrian offense, the game was won.
My biggest takeaway:
We can play defense! This was by far our best quality defensive game of the season. ASU scored 12 more points on us than the more vaunted Arizona team. As much as Arizona is famed for its defense, Stanford can play defense too, and it showed.
In terms of individual performances, it was a somewhat ugly game but Jones and Belibi do stand out. Jones with 5 baskets and 8 free throws, to go with a whopping 16 rebounds and 5 assists--hard to beat that, except the 7 turnovers. Arizona was clearly keying on getting turnovers from her, and they did.
Belibi was an offensive rebounding monster, with 5 O-board in only 17 minutes. Remember, she is not as tall as either of Arizona's forwards, and it looked like she was on a pogo stick going up to wrest those away, and often put them back.
Brink and Jump were not as efficient as usual, but they did enough. 7 players got double digit minutes, but 3 were 35+ so we still do not have as deep a rotation as might be expected.
Overall, a convincing win against an excellent team. Best of all, all those early season worries-- 1) do we have a point guard, 2) will Brink ever control her fouls, and 3) why is Jones in a slump --have all be satisfactorily answered.