Stanford women in Final Four after big comeback win.
Down big at half, Stanford rallies for dramatic win
Stanford didn’t look like the top seed in the NCAA field during the first half of its Elite Eight game against Louisville in San Antonio on Tuesday night.
Heck, it didn’t look at all like Stanford.
“I didn’t recognize the people in the jerseys in the first half,” head coach Tara VanDerveer said at the outset of her postgame Zoom news conference.
Those people then put together one of the most dramatic, astounding comebacks in program history. The Cardinal, down 3826 at halftime and trailing by 14 early in the third quarter, dominated the final 16 minutes to prevail 7863 and earn the program’s
14th trip to the Final Four.
“I’d say she ripped into us a little bit” at halftime, forward Ashten Prechtel said of VanDerveer. “Basically, the message coming out of halftime was that we needed to compete in the second half if we wanted to be in this game.
“I think we took that to heart.”
No one took it more to heart than Prechtel. The 6foot5 sophomore didn’t play a minute in the opening half. All she did in the second half was score a seasonhigh 16 points and hit all six of her fieldgoal attempts, three from beyond the arc.
VanDerveer said Prechtel “has been doing great things for us all year, but she really picked a great time to shine.”
The Cardinal will face South Carolina in a national semifinal at 3 p.m. PDT Friday. The Gamecocks (264), the top seed in the Hemisfair Region, overpowered Texas 6234 on Tuesday.
Stanford (292), which extended its winning streak to 18 games, was down by a dozen with a little less than six minutes left in the third period before it went on a 130 blitz.
Haley Jones began the stretch with a follow shot. Kiana Williams converted a layup. Another follow by Jones preceded a Jones assist for a Prechtel layup, leading to a Louisville timeout. Suddenly, Stanford was down only four.
Soon thereafter, the Cardinal led. Prechtel drained a 3 before Williams dropped home a floater in the lane. Stanford was up 4645 with just more than two minutes left in the quarter.
Louisville (264) led 5048 after three quarters.
That was its last lead. Prechtel opened the fourth quarter with a 3, igniting a 100 run that Williams capped with another trey.
It was 5850 Stanford, and Louisville got no closer than six the rest of the way.
Lexie Hull had a teamhigh 21 points for Stanford. Williams, who was 1for12 from the floor at one point, finished 6for20 and had 14 points. Jones had 10 points and 10 rebounds.
A sequence near the end of the second quarter captured Louisville’s dominance in the first half.
With about a halfminute
to go, Ahlana Smith stole a careless pass from Jones and streaked for a layup that put the Cardinals in front 3826.
On the ensuing possession, Williams drove down the left side of the lane and got to the hoop but missed the layup attempt. That made her 1for11 in the first half.
The Cardinal came into Tuesday leading the nation in defensive fieldgoal percentage (32.6) and had not allowed a team to shoot better than 41.8% in a game this season.
Louisville shot 51.6% (16for31) in the first half. It dipped to 30.3 (10for33) in the second half and was 40.6 (26for64) for the game.
“This team really showed in the second half what they’re made of, and I’m so proud — and I told them so after the game,” VanDerveer said. “I just love how we competed.”
Briefly: Stanford freshman Cameron Brink had four blocks, giving her 79 for the season. Only Jayne Appel, with 84 in 200708, has more blocks in a season in program history. Brink was bothered by a leg problem, a big reason Prechtel played so much in the second half. … AllAmerica guard Dana Evans had a gamehigh 24 points for Louisville . ... Former Cal guard Kianna Smith had eight points — all in the first half — for Louisville. She went 0for6 from the floor in the second half.