Taking pages from Aggies’ playbook

Hall of Famer Tara VanDerveer has been a head coach for 39 years, 33 of them at Stanford. Yet, she admits she’s still learning.

Over the past year and a half, she invited UC Davis head coach Jennifer Gross and her staff to come to the Farm to teach her and her staff the Princeton offense. They came three times.

“They run it as well as anybody,” VanDerveer said. “They are incredible people and tremendous coaches. I learned from the best.”

The Aggies coaches helped VanDerveer retool her offense and put in so much effort that, at one point, she got them hotel rooms in San Francisco so they could go to a Giants game.

Their efforts helped Stanford only too well. In the season opener, the bigger No. 7 Cardinal dominated the Aggies on the boards and crushed the two-time Big West Conference champions 71-43 Wednesday night at Maples Pavilion.

“I almost felt like I was playing my sister,” VanDerveer said. Her sister, Heidi, is head coach at UC San Diego.

Before the game, the Stanford coach told Gross, “If we play well, that’s a credit to you.”

It wasn’t a work of art by the Cardinal. They made just 6 of 24 shots from three-point range and committed 21 turnovers. But they outrebounded UC Davis 50-25, picking up 12 offensive boards, and limited the Aggies to 23 percent shooting.

Senior forward Alanna Smith scored 10 of her 16 points in the second half after being limited to seven minutes in the first half because of foul trouble. Kiana Williams scored all 14 of her points in the first half.

Freshman Lexie Hull had 11 points, 11 rebounds and four steals in her debut.

“I don’t even think of her as a freshman,” VanDerveer said. “She’s a player.”

The two-time Gatorade player of the year in Washington state didn’t seem at all nervous. “It’s just fun to play on a team that everybody gives a full effort all the time,” she said. Although just 6-feet and slender, she said, “I definitely love to crash the boards.”

Said Smith, “If Lexie is playing like this now, I can’t wait to see how she’s playing at the end of the season.”

Maya Dodson, a 6-3 sophomore, had 10 points, six rebounds and three blocks.

Santa Rosa High alum Morgan Bertsch led UC Davis with 16 points, and Castro Valley High alum Nina Bessolo had 11. Bertsch provided the bulk of the Aggies’ offense in the first half, scoring 12 points.

The Aggies were coming off one of the best seasons in program history. They went 28-7 and won their second straight Big West title. In a preseason poll this year, they were picked to win it again.