Women’s basketball:
Stanford trounces 7th-ranked Beavers
Statistically, the Stanford women weren’t supposed to be able to defend the 3-point shot very well. But statistics sometimes lie shamelessly.
Before Friday, the Cardinal ranked ninth in the Pac-12 in that department, allowing opponents to hit 34 percent from distance.
Yet the Cardinal almost completely shut down Oregon State’s vaunted 3-point shooting attack and the No. 11 Cardinal rolled to a 61-44 victory over the No. 7 Beavers at Maples Pavilion.
Oregon State came into the game with the nation’s top 3-point shooting team at 43 percent, but Stanford limited the Beavers to four makes in 21 tries (19 percent). Three of the triples came after Stanford had the game well in hand.
“We were hanging our hat on our defense today,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said. “We had a big hat on.” She called it “one-on-one, driveway, in-the-park defense where you just get down and get stops.”
The Cardinal became the first team in the nation to knock off three top-10 teams, following their wins over thenNo. 3 Baylor and then-No. 9 Tennessee.
It was Stanford’s 22nd straight home win. Oregon State has won only once in 31 meetings at Maples, a 72-69 double-overtime thriller in 2017.
This time Kiana Williams hit four 3s, all in a decisive second quarter and finished with 18 points to lead Stanford (19-3, 9-2 Pac-12), which pulled into a tie with Oregon State (19-4, 9-2) for second place.
Stanford’s Alanna Smith shook off foul trouble to post 17 points, seven rebounds and three blocks.
“Her aggressiveness is off the charts,” Oregon State head coach Scott Rueck said. “That’s what I’ve been so impressed by. She wants the ball, and she knows what she’s capable of. There’s very few bad shots for her this year because she’s worked so hard. She will take contested shots all over the floor, and she hits a high percentage of them.”
Maya Dodson added 10 rebounds and four blocks for the Cardinal. Guard Destiny Slocum scored 23 points to lead the Beavers, although freshman Lacie Hull did a fine job of guarding her.
“She’s a great player,” Hull said. “The biggest thing was keeping her in front and being focused. As soon as you lose focus over her, she could start going off.”
Hull also hit buzzer-beating 3-pointers from the corner to end the second and third quarters and scored nine points.
Slocum, who redshirted last season after transferring from Maryland, is “a next-level player,” VanDerveer said. “She’s going to play in the pros.”
Stanford forced six Oregon State turnovers in the first quarter, which ended with the Cardinal leading 12-8. In the second quarter, two treys by Williams, one by Hull and two layups by twin Lexie Hull formed a 13-0 run for a 32-13 lead. The lead grew to 23 in the fourth quarter.
“If someone would have told me before the game we’d hold Stanford to 61, I would have felt great,” Rueck said. “I thought Stanford’s defensive performance was excellent. They were disciplined. I thought they played us in a way that forced us to take tough shots all game.”