No. 6 Stanford crushes Arizona State, 80-41, extends longest Pac-12 winning streak
Stanford dominates Arizona State
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With a dominant effort on both ends of the floor, No 6. Stanford (20-2, 17-2 Pac-12) cruised past Arizona State 80-41 Friday night at Maples Pavilion. ASU (10-8, 5-8) had no answers for the Cardinal as Stanford led from wire to wire and shot 58% from the floor overall while the Sun Devils were stagnant on offense at 25%.
Tonight’s game was a turnaround from the last time the teams met when Stanford started hot in Tempe but had to hold off ASU down the stretch as the Sun Devils overcame a 17-point deficit to get within four in the third quarter.
“We won four quarters which we’re really excited about,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said about her team’s overall effort. All 12 active players saw minutes.
“I thought we shot the ball pretty well,” VanDerveer continued. “We were able to play everyone.”
Friday evening at Stanford, it took nearly a minute for anyone to score. Stanford’s freshman forward Cameron Brink did the honors with a layup, getting fouled in the process and then made a free throw.
From then on, it continued to be all Stanford as the team completed an 11-0 run before the Sun Devils had a chance to earn a point, a free throw from sophomore forward Eboni Walker.
At the end of the first ten minutes, Stanford led 19-7 after shooting a blistering 80% (8-10) from the floor.
The Cardinal picked up the momentum with a trey from sophomore guard Hanna Jump to start the second quarter, followed by a layup from Brink and a jumper from sophomore guard Haley Jones, giving her team a 19-point lead early in the period, 26-7.
Later in the period, after a 9-0 run and a 40-16 advantage, the Cardinal made some substitutions giving freshmen Agnes Emma-Nnopu and Jana Van Gytenbeek a chance to get off the bench and contribute. At the half, the Cardinal had a massive 40-18 lead.
Cardinal senior guard Kiana Williams led all scorers entering the break with 13 points after going 5-of-6 from the field. In the first half, Stanford shot 70% from the floor in the first 20 minutes, making 16-of-23 shots compared to a paltry 21% by ASU. On the boards, the Cardinal outrebounded the Sun Devils 20-9.
That 22-point advantage did not decrease in the third as Stanford scored 20 points while holding ASU to just 7. At the end of the quarter, four home team players were in double figures, led by Williams with 18. With one frame left to play, the Cardinal were in control 60-25.
Arizona State picked up the offensive pace in the last quarter, but with a 35-point deficit at the outset of the period, the 16 points the Sun Devils scored were just a few drops in the bucket.
The Cardinal received significant contributions from the bench with 32 points from reserves compared to 19 by ASU. Van Gytenbeek added seven points off the bench. Sophomore forwards Ashten Prechtel and Fran Belibi corralled the bulk of the team’s rebounds, Prechtel with 11 and Belibi with 10.
VanDerveer awarded the reserves with minutes, noting the effort of Emma-Nnopu over the season and the extra work she puts in working out with associate head coach Kate Paye.
“She’s been working extra every day in practice,” VanDerveer said. “I love how hard she plays.”
In addition to Williams, the other players in double figures included Jump (season-high 17 points), junior guard Lexie Hull (12 points, 7 rebounds), and Jones (11 points).
In general, Stanford has let themselves get in sticky situations late in the game after amassing significant leads as they did with the previous contest against ASU. VanDerveer addressed that issue and the differences between the two games against the Sun Devils this season.
“We’ve been working really hard to play four quarters, to really challenge our team to win four quarters, not have a one good quarter, and then you know get bored or go to sleep or lose focus.”
She also added: “We need people to be really focused the whole game.”
Walker led ASU with 11 points while junior guard Taya Hanson added 10.
Stanford has the Pac-12’s longest win streak at nine. The Cardinal is a top-four seed in the conference tournament, giving the team a bye. The team stays home to host another tough Southwest program, No. 10 Arizona, in a Monday evening contest that will be televised on ESPN2 at 6 p.m. PT.
“This is a really good team win for us,” VanDerveer said of Friday night before looking ahead. “I thought our defense played very well. And now we can focus on getting ready for Arizona.”
ASU heads across the Bay to face Cal on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. PT.
- Stanford is 66-16 in its all-time series with the Sun Devils and has won seven straight contests.
- No team has shot over 41.8 percent against the Cardinal in 21 games this season for the first time since 2013-14, including eight opponents shooting 29 percent or worse.
- Stanford is No. 1 in the NET and checked in as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA’s first bracket reveal.
- Tara VanDerveer became the winningest coach in women’s basketball history on Dec. 15, 2020, passing Pat Summitt with her 1,099th win. She now has 1,114 career victories.
- Kiana Williams is now second in career 3-pointers in Stanford program history.
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