Stanford women’s team back on track
Santa Cruz resident Haley Jones’ double-double helps snap two-game skid
SANTA CRUZ >> Santa Cruz resident Haley Jones had 18 points and 11 rebounds, and the No. 5 Stanford women’s basketball team bounced back from consecutive defeats — its lone two losses of the season — to beat visiting USC 86-59 at Kaiser Permanente Arena on Sunday evening.
It was the fourth double-double of the season for Jones, a sophomore guard/forward out of Archbishop Mitty in San Jose.
The Cardinal (12-2, 9-2 Pac-12) were coming off losses to Colorado on Jan. 17 and No. 6 UCLA on Friday, marking just the fourth time since 2010 that the team had suffered consecutive conference losses.
“I think our team responded very well,” Cardinal coach Tara VanDerveer said of rebounding from the loss to the Bruins. “We got on the glass, I think we had 50-plus rebounds. We had a lot of different people contribute. We’ve got to take care of the ball better, that was a problem.”
The game was held at Kaiser Permanente Arena, home of the Golden State Warriors’ G League affiliate, due to COVID-19 re
strictions in Santa Clara County.
The Cardinal outrebounded the Trojans 5322.
Kiana Williams knocked down five 3-pointers and finished with 16 points for the Cardinal, who overcame 18 turnovers. Freshman Cameron Brink grabbed nine rebounds and Anna Wilson had eight points and seven rebounds.
“We haven’t rebounded well all year,” USC coach Mark Trakh said. “It’s something we’ve got to work on. They hit the boards really well and we’ve got to defend a little better, obviously — 86 points and they shot 50 percent from the field.”
Stanford took control with a 16-0 run spanning the first two quarters as USC went nearly seven minutes without scoring.
“It was huge,” Williams
said, “… we had to put the hammer down. We haven’t lost three in a row.”
Endiya Rogers scored 19 points to lead USC (67, 4-6), which had a shortened road trip to the Bay Area with Friday’s scheduled
game at Cal postponed because of COVID-19 protocols within the Golden Bears’ program. It marked the second straight conference game postponed for the Trojans.
USC shot 8 of 16 in the
first quarter, then went cold (4 of 17) in the second, not scoring in the quarter until a putback by Jordan Sanders at the 6:51 mark.