Stanford Women’s Basketball wins First Game of the Season!

We know it is only the first game of the season, and we know it was only Eastern Washington, and we know preseason rankings mean nothing and we know it is way too early to tell and we know this is a run on sentence and that R would totally make me rewrite it if she hadn’t already gone to bed, but…. (drawing a big breath)… the Stanford Women’s Basketball team looks Goooooood!!

photo courtesy of C

Stanford was still feeling the high from their great showing against Team USA in exhibition, holding them close in the first three quarters before the big girls pulled away 95-80. I love that Stanford Head Coach Tara VanderVeer let the freshmen Fran Belibi jump against “Big Sly” Fowles (And won!). See the photo that I took, so I didn’t have to “borrow” anyone else’s!

So back to the first official game. The final score of the Stanford- Eastern Washington game was 92-27. Freshmen Ashten Prechtel (pronounced Pretzel by the announcer, well not really, but that is what my ears hear so she will forever be called that for the next four years) led all scorers with 15 points and went 3-4 from the 3-point line. Freshmen Fran Belibi had 12 points and 15 rebounds and freshman Hannah Jump hit four consecutive 3-pointers and scored 12 points! Veterans Kiana Williams added 11 points and Lexie Hull had 10.

Okay, look at the top scorers. Notice anything about the top three? They are all freshmen! And Freshie Fran Belibi, of the dunking fame, had a double-double in her first official college game! High scorer Ashton Pretzel made three 3s! Oh wait, we said that already, but the big girl can shoot! It’s also worth noting that the Eagles did not have a player who broke double digits and at one point, Stanford’s defense held them at 19 points for 9 minutes!

What stood out most for me, though was the depth of the bench. In past years, when it was a blow out game, the subs would come in and let the foot off the gas a little and the other team would pad the score so it would “only” be a 20 point or so win. Not this time. Everyone wanted to score and everyone was very focused and driven on what they were supposed to do. Stanford as a team was 13 of 28 from 3-point range.

And the next game? Well, it’s with the University of San Francisco, and probably not much of a test either, even though coached by Stanford Alum Molly Goodenbour, but it is in the new Chase Center, in San Francisco, which is the Warriors new digs, and this will probably be the only time C and R will step inside due to the high ticket prices, but oh, how far have the Warriors fallen, and R is right, I DO write run on sentences. Whew! Looking forward to it and more. See you there, Stanford fans!

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