Erica McCall leads No. 11 Stanford in 73-30 payback win over Chattanooga
PALO ALTO, Calif. – No. 11 Stanford (10-2) routed Chattanooga 73-30 Monday night in a payback win led by junior forward Erica McCall. Last season, in the first-ever meeting between the two programs, the Mocs got the best of the Cardinal at home in Tennessee. For McCall, winning the second game in the series was significant.
“This was a personal game for me,” said McCall, who finished with 18 points, eight rebounds and four blocks. “I had one of my worst games last season at Chattanooga. It was in the back of my mind. I just wanted to come out strong and aggressive. I think the starting five set the tone for that and the bench came in really strong. I think we played a really strong game. We were aggressive from the get go and that really helped us dominate throughout the whole game.”
Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer was also adamant about making sure her team did not lose to the Mocs.
“We didn’t play well there, they have a lot of the same players and we have a lot of the same players. I think we improved. That’s good to see.”
Chattanooga (8-5) was without the player who led the team in the win last season, junior guard Chelsey Shumpert. She suffered a knee injury in November and is out for the rest of the season.
Stanford raced out to a 7-0 lead. It took the Mocs three and a half minutes to score. The visitors shot 25 percent from the field (4-of-16) in the first quarter to Stanford’s 42.1 percent (8-of-19). Throughout the game, the field goal percentage for each team did not change much as the Mocs had trouble scoring in the face of Stanford’s defensive pressure.
Stanford outscored the Mocs 21-9 in the first quarter and 19-9 in the second to go into the half with a 40-18 lead. A key to the Cardinal success was game prep according to McCall.
“We really paid attention to the scouting report,” she said. “Shout out to [assistant coach] Tempie Brown, she did a really good job on that one.”
Stanford also performed better at the free throw line than in their last contest, a win over a team coached by McCall’s dad, Cal State Bakersfield. The Cardinal improved from shooting 39.4 percent at the free throw line to 61.5 percent.
For Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer, the poor free throw shooting was an anomaly. However, even though the Cardinal came away with a 43-point margin of victory over Chattanooga, she was not pleased with her team’s overall field goal percentage (42.9 percent).
“We’re a really good free throw shooting team. We didn’t shoot well today period. I’m not going to make excuses for it but sometimes you don’t and you’ve got to do other things which we did. We rebounded, we were more aggressive, we took care of the ball. We only had nine turnovers.”
Chattanooga had 21 turnovers. Stanford scored 27 points from those turnovers. The Cardinal bench contributed 21 points. In contrast, the Mocs only got nine points from their reserves. Both teams shot poorly from three -point land: Chattanooga was 5-of-24 (20.8 percent) while Stanford was 6-of-19 (31.6 percent)
Junior guards Briana Roberson and Karlie Samuelson were also in double figures for Stanford. Roberson finished with 11 points, five rebounds and three assists. Samuelson contributed 10 points, three rebounds and four assists.
No Chattanooga players were in double figures. Senior guard Alicia Payne led the Mocs with nine points and seven rebounds.
Chattanooga has one non-conference game left, a home contest against Harvard on January 4.
Stanford begins its Pac-12 slate with two games on the road: Arizona on January 2 at 2 p.m. PT and Arizona State on January 4 at 5 p.m. PT. Both games will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Network.
“We’re ready for conference,” said VanDerveer when asked about conference play. “Bring on Arizona!”
Notes
- Former Stanford star and Indiana Fever player Jeanette Pohlen was in attendance at the game.
- The Mocs didn’t score more than nine points in any quarter and were dominated in the paint, 41-10.
- Stanford had 22-0 run over the third and fourth quarters over the course of approximately nine minutes.
- The Mocs were ranked 10th in the nation for blocked shots with 6.0 per game. They were held to just one block.
- 21 turnovers matches most by UTC this season. The Mocs had 21 in 59-57 loss at Tennessee.
- The Mocs’ 21.1 field goal percentage is lowest this season.
