Cardinal, Jones shake off rust, rout Mustangs
Haley Jones felt all the nerves as if it were her first game as a freshman again last fall. It took only a few minutes before she found a nice groove.
Jones scored on a layin 14 seconds into the game and wound up with 16 points and 10 rebounds playing for the first time in more than 10 months since a knee injury ended her freshman season early, leading No. 2 Stanford past Cal Poly 10840 in the teams’ season opener at Maples Pavilion on Wednesday.
“We’ve really missed Haley. When she went out last year it was devastating for our team,”
Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said.
Jones shot 6for10 in her first game since sustaining the right knee injury Jan. 19 at Oregon State in her 18th career game.
“I definitely had more pregame jitters than I expected to have. I haven’t suited up for a while, I was always sweats or leggings on the sideline,” Jones said. “So really putting on the uniform gave me those jitters just like freshman year. Coming out and getting that first layup was a big confidence booster. It helped me kind of relax into the game.”
The Hall of Fame coach began her 35th season on The Farm by moving to 1,095 career wins — four from passing the late Pat Summitt’s 1,098 victories to become the alltime winningest NCAA DivisionI women’s basketball coach.
Stanford, one of four Pac12 teams in the preseason top10 rankings and five among the top 18, used a 262 run to end the first half and build a 5118 lead, then kept pushing as the entire roster gained valuable minutes.
Stanford senior and returning leading scorer Kiana Williams scored 13 points after she averaged 15 points per game as a junior before the Cardinal missed out on the NCAA Tournament — they had been set to host the first two rounds — because of the coronavirus pandemic. Cameron Brink, a 6foot4 freshman, contributed 17 points and nine rebounds. Lexie Hull had 21 points with four 3pointers.
VanDerveer used a red plastic bullhorn to make herself better heard, given the social distancing and manufactured crowd noise in empty Maples
Pavilion.
Senior forward Sierra Campisano was the lone player to score in double figures for the Mustangs with 13 points.
After the game, it was announced that Stanford’s matchup with Pacific on Sunday has been canceled because of a positive coronavirus test within the Tigers’ program.