Stanford Glad to be Or-e-Gone

The Stanford Women’s Basketball team (ranked #11) split two in the state of Oregon. First they played unranked Oregon, were trailing the whole game, and barely won 64-62. Then they played #12 Oregon State, built up a huge lead, and then couldn’t score in the fourth to lose 58-50. Two very contrasting games.

Oregon
Stanford was without their tall tree Erica McCall, who was “not feeling well.” However they held Oregon’s lead scorer Jillian Alleyne to only three points in the first half and five total points. Stanford’s defense is often overlooked.

Kaylee Johnson got the start and made the most of it, and scored in double figures, finishing with 16 points. In fact, Kaylee looked like a different woman out there, hustling, yes, but so sure and confident, really going up strong when she got the ball, or an offensive rebound. We have not seen the type of swagger in her one and a half years on the farm.

What happened in the game, quite simply, Oregon was beating Stanford with threes. They connected on 12-21. Hats off to Karlie Samuelson for making a few herself (4-5) to keep it close. The fourth quarter started with Stanford only down by four.

In the fourth, after trailing the whole game, sometimes as much as nine points, Stanford got it within one with four minutes left, trailing 61-60. That score stuck around until Oregon’s Jillian made a free throw with 53 seconds left.

Lili Thompson wanted it! Samuel Marshall/Emerald)

Cue the music, cue lights, cue our hero, Lili Thompson. Lili drove to her left and made a very tough lay up over two defenders with 35 seconds left to tie the game. And she was fouled! And she missed the free throw. Then rinse and repeat. Lili goes left, makes a tough lay up to go up by two with 2.2 seconds left, is fouled, and misses the free throw. A timeout advances the ball for Oregon and they even got a shot off, but it missed. Stanford hangs on to win 64-62.

Kaylee Johnson with 16, Lili with 16, and Karlie Samuelson with 18.

Oregon State
Which is harder for a fan to watch, trailing all game and heart attack with 2.2 seconds left for the win, or building up a huge lead, feeling good and munching popcorn, only to watch your team slowly starve to death for points and finally lose 58-50? C and R will answer for you. The second one.

This game was not without some Stanford highlights. It was good to see Kailee Johnson (no relation to Kaylee Johnson) have a break out game, take the ball up strong against a taller post and score 14, I believe a career high. Erica McCall was back in the lineup and scored 12. Alas, Lili’s magic from last game could not save them, and she ended up with nine points, and Karlie Samuelson had seven and fouled out of the game.

Tale of Two Halves
After trailing early in the first quarter, Stanford built up a nice lead against the Beavers in the second and even held them to nine points in the second quarter with a 17-6 run. The half time score was 30-21.

Then, Stanford held the Beavs (no relation to Justin Bieber) to nine points again in the third, but only scored ten points themselves, leading 40-30 to start the fourth. Then two things happened, Oregon State went to a zone and Stanford stayed in their same offense, which was not working, and Oregon’s Jamie Weisner got untracked. Wesiner only scored four points in the first half, and ended the game with 18. Also, Devan Hunter made 5-7 threes to end the game with 19. She had only made seven all season long.

How bad was it? Oregon State went on a 22-4 run to win 58-50. Wait, our math must be wrong. Oregon State outscored Stanford 28-10 in the fourth. Yowzza. Here’s more math. This win for Oregon was the first time in 15 years, snapping a29-game losing streak. The last time they won was 2001.

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