Stanford 76, UCLA 65: Cardinal take down No. 11 Bruins.
“Unranked Stanford” sounds so bizarre, like “sugarfree cotton candy” or “snowy Tahiti.” It does not roll off the tongue easily.
The rest of the Pac-12 and the nation probably will not get accustomed to saying it. The Cardinal didn’t look anything like an “also getting votes” team in Friday night’s conference opener against No. 11 UCLA.
Playing as an unranked team for the first time since 2001, Stanford led wire to wire and beat the Bruins 76-65 at Maples Pavilion, helping Cardinal players understand why head coach Tara VanDerveer punished them with five Top 25 nonconference opponents.
“If we hadn’t played that tough a schedule, we lose this game,” VanDerveer said as she sat to the left of the player who did the most to ensure a win.
Senior Brittany McPhee, in her second game back from an ankle injury that cost her nine games, scored half of her gamehigh 26 points in the fourth quarter, starting with a Harlem Globetrotters trick shot.
Stanford led by a bucket less than one minute into the period when McPhee, facing her bench, beat the buzzer with a hook shot over her head from beyond the free-throw line that hit the backboard and dropped in.
So began a 9-0 run that helped Stanford (7-6) pull away from the Bruins (9-3).
Asked how much time she spends practicing that shot, McPhee said, “I would say none. I’m used to doing that 2 feet from the basket, not 20.”
McPhee’s first game back was the Cardinal’s 83-71 loss to No. 7 Tennessee on Dec. 21 that knocked them out of the Top 25 for the first time in 313 weeks. Her senior leadership and experience are clearly important to a team that lost three starters from last season’s Final Four squad.
“This girl, she doesn’t like to lose,” VanDerveer said. “I won’t play her in tiddlywinks. She’ll break your little fingers off. She’s just competitive. That trickles down to other people.”
That includes junior Alanna Smith, who had 14 points for Stanford. Nadia Fingall added 10 points and six rebounds while also frustrating UCLA inside. Kiana Williams hit four late free throws to help seal it.
Stanford had ranked last in the conference in shooting percentage, at 39, but outshot UCLA 52 percent to 31 percent. Jordin Canada, one of UCLA’s scoring leaders, had 20 points but needed 28 shots to do it. Stanford held the Bruins’ other key player, Monique Billings, to 13 points.
The Cardinal also outrebounded UCLA 48-33 and won despite 20 turnovers, which VanDerveer understands her team needs to fix before it faces UCLA at Pauley Pavilion next month.