Doubledigit win sends Stanford women to NCAA Elite Eight.
After Stanford topped Oklahoma State by 11 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Tuesday night, head coach Tara VanDerveer said her team thought it had played its “C” game.
What the Cardinal did to Missouri State in the Sweet 16 on Sunday afternoon in San Antonio surely must have represented Stanford’s “A” game, right?
Stanford overwhelmed a team that had won its previous 19 games and was the No. 5 seed in the Alamo Region. The Cardinal cruised 8962, advancing to the Elite Eight for the 21st time.
VanDerveer still wouldn’t hand out a top grade.
“For our overall team, I would say a ‘B,’ ” VanDerveer said in her postgame Zoom news conference, “but I thought we had an absolute ‘A’ game from Anna Wilson. An ‘A’ for Anna. I thought she really came to play.”
A fifthyear senior guard, Wilson went 5for6 from the floor en route to 13 points, grabbed six rebounds and was the prime reason Stanford held Brice Calip, the Missouri Valley Conference’s Player of the Year, to nine points on 3for10 shooting.
Wilson also wouldn’t deem Stanford’s performance as its best.
“I still don’t think we’re playing our best basketball yet,” the sister of Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson said. “We’re playing really well. We’re clicking in a lot of different ways … but I think that each player has a lot more to give to the team. I
have more to give to the team.”
Stanford (282), the top overall seed, extended its winning streak to 17 games.
On Tuesday, there will be a CardinalsCardinal matchup in the Alamo Region final. Louisville, the 2 seed, got 29 points from Dana Evans to put away sixthseeded Oregon 6042.
Two years ago, Stanford outlasted Missouri State 5546 in the Sweet 16 as each team shot 25% from the floor. VanDerveer had described that game as like getting a root canal.
On Sunday, Stanford upped its fieldgoal percentage to 46.5 (33for71), but the Lady Bears (233) still shot 31.3% (20for64).
“This game was fun,” VanDerveer said. “It was really fun to see people get out in transition. We made it an uptempo game. I like that . ... Are there things we could have done better? Yes, but ... it was not a root canal, for sure.”
In addition to Wilson, Stanford’s other doublefigure scorers were Hannah Jump (17 points), Kiana Williams (16) and Haley Jones (11, with eight rebounds and five assists).
The Cardinal went 15for32 from beyond the arc. Stanford has hit 43 3pointers in three NCAA Tournament games.
Missouri State’s Abby Hipp made the game’s first basket, and that 20 deficit marked the first time Stanford had trailed since its Pac12 semifinal win over Oregon State on March 5.
The Cardinal didn’t trail for long. A turnaround jumper by Cameron Brink and a layup by Lexie Hull made it 42, Cardinal. Stanford led the rest of the afternoon.
The half ended on a shining example of Stanford’s wellrun offense. The Cardinal took possession with 27 seconds remaining. Stanford smartly ran down the clock, then Ashten Prechtel — at the top of the key — found Jump wide open in the lane. Jump converted the layup just before the buzzer.
After the game, Wilson was asked if she and her teammates feel pressure to get VanDerveer her third national title and first since 1992.
“This is an opportunity for us to do something really special,” Wilson said. “Pressure is people who are struggling for this past year in regular life, (with) COVID and all of the other viruses that are in our world.
“I think for us, it’s really an opportunity to go out there and just finish our season the way that we expect to finish it.”
Briefly: Stanford sophomore Fran Belibi, who dunked in games at Cal and at UCLA in December, had a breakaway early in the fourth quarter, but settled for a layup. … Brink racked up five blocks, giving her 75 this season. Already the program record holder for blocks in a season by a freshman, Brink trails only Alanna Smith (78 in 201819) and Jayne Appel (84 in 200708) on the program’s list for blocks in a season.