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!

---

Stanford Women’s Basketball Season Starting

Hidey ho Stanford Women’s Basketball fans! It’s the start of a new women’s basketball season and C and R are pumped! The good news is Stanford is ranked #3 in preseason polls. The bad news is Oregon, for the first time, is ranked #1. Oregon State comes in at #7, UCLA is #11, and Arizona State is #20, so nobody will be sleeping on the Pac-12 this year!

The second reason to be excited is that Stanford was busy in the off season, scoring the number two recruiting class, including NATIONAL player of the year Haley Jones. She is a local recruit, from nearby Santa Cruz who played at Mitty. This allows her parents to easily get to games at Maples and we met her De-lightful ,with a capital D, mom, Monique Jones. We want to be invited to Thanksgiving and just sit around shooting the breeze with her, she is amazing with great energy (We said we would put her in the blog! Hi Mama Jones). Haley was held out of the first exhibition game of the season as a precaution, but we should see her in action against the next exhibition game vs Team USA (with Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, and our very own Nneka Ogwumike) on Nov 2.
But back to basketball…oh, did we tell you one of the freshies can dunk?


Photo courtesy of Stanford Women's Basketball
Stanford opened with an exhibition over Beijing Normal University, and in warm ups, just as C and R were stowing their coats, Fran dunked, so we missed that one, but many more to come (We hope). Also in the freshmen class is 6-5 forward Ashten Prechtel and Hannah Jump. We are going to need Ashten’s height, as Stanford seems to be a whole lot of speedy guards and forwards and not a lot of tall folk, as Beijing’s large center seemed to score whenever she got the ball near the basket.. Plus, when the announcer says her last name, our ears hear Pretzel, so that is her new nick name from us and we are going to be visiting the soft pretzel stand a lot this season!

Okay, back to the one game they have played, which was an exhibition against Beijing Normal University. The game opened with the two team’s national anthems and an exchange of gifts. It was neat to finds out that one of Stanford’s male practice player stood in as translator between the two teams when they meet before the game.

For the game itself, we are happy to report that five players scored in double figures, with Stanford shooting better than 63 percent in the 100-58 victory.

It was funny, when the game started, junior and returning starter Allyson Jerome was all over attacking the basket and running the fast break. She was lead scorer at the half. Freshie Fran got in the game and had a slow start in the first half, only to come on strong in the second. We were surprised she was high scorer, with 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting. Alyssa Jerome just missed with 16 points but didn't miss any of her seven attempts from the floor. Sophomore Lexie Hull added 14, Ashten had 12 and senior Anna Wilson added 11. It rained threes, with the team hitting 8-of-11 (.727) from 3-point range and the team also made 10 of its 13 free throw attempts (.769) on the night, which was a huge sore point last year.

Looking good, Stanford! Can’t wait for the season to start!

---