Preview:
Two years ago, Oregon State beat us at Maples for the first time in their history. As I recall, there was supposed to be a behind-the-bench after the game but it was cancelled. The Oregon State players celebrated and danced and hung out on our floor long after our team had departed for the locker rooms. It was one of the foulest tastes I can remember since starting my infatuation with Stanford WBB.
And here they come again--no less excellent a team than they were then. We will recognize a few returning names, such as the excellent guard who turned us down, Mikayla Pivec and sophomore forward Taya Corosdale. But Oregon State has a couple of new pieces to their puzzle we haven't seen before. Destiny Slocum was a national freshman of the year at Maryland before she transferred to OSU, and she is leading the team with 19 ppg in conference. Aleah Goodman has made 51 treys at an astounding 47% rate. In fact, they have 4 players in double digits in conference play, and are shooting 43% of their threes as a team. Into this mix they can bring a senior 6'8" center from Poland--or not--depending on what Rueck thinks the situation calls for. Oregon State is 19-3, having lost to Notre Dame, A&M, and to ASU in overtime.
It seems as if every game becomes more important than the last. To be brutally honest, we have a better chance against Oregon State than we do against Oregon--although Tara has shown she can get her team to slay giants on occasion. Losing both games this weekend would be devastating, and Oregon State seems to me to be our best (but not the only) opportunity to win.
Overview:
When Stanford plays Oregon State, it is the master of scouting report defense against extreme scouting report defense--and the games are typically low scoring. And so it was. But our defense dominated much more completely than Oregon State's, holding the nation's best three point shooters to 28%, and our best defensive effort of the season was sustained through the whole game--never giving up more than 15 points in a quarter.
Character of the Game:
Defense defense defense. We heard at the chalk talk that Kiana would be glued to Oregon State's best three point shooter, Aleah Goodman, and that was easy to see for even a casual fan once the game started. Goodman is a gifted three point shooter to be sure, but she is not as fast or as quick as Kiana, and Kiana managed to get around most of the screens to keep harassing Goodman. Result: Goodman, a 47% three point shooter went 0-7 from the field.
Lacey was the principle defender on Destiny Slocum. Slocum got free a few times to the basket, but she also got turned back fairly often. And while Slocum scored 23, it was not an efficient 23. Perhaps more important, Slocum, the point guard, did not have a single assist in the game. In fact, our suffocating defense permitted OSU to get just 4 assists in the entire game--and none by their point guard. Astounding.
All that was in question at first. Oregon State made the first 6 points, and Slocum looked like the star she is. Dijonai, Kiana, and Alanna answered back. It became clear that Alanna could rarely be stopped if she got the ball inside, and by the end of the quarter we had clawed our way to a 12-8 lead. But Alanna picked up a couple of fouls--one quite questionable, and sat out much of the 2nd quarter.
Neither team could hit a three point shot in the first quarter, but the basket got wider for us in the 2nd. Kiana made 4 treys and Lacie two in that quarter, while Oregon State was kept stone cold. The vaunted shooting champs nationally did not hit a trey until Slocum swooshed a contested one a couple of minutes into the third. By the time she made that shot, Stanford was ahead 36-20 and OSU was struggling just to get decent shots off.
Alanna came back into the 3rd and got her inside game going, but I think the real dagger was at 5:03 when Alyssa--who was being left open by OSU's scouting report--drained a three to put us up 45-23. That seemed to kill any flickering hope that OSU was going to mount a comeback. The 4th was the only quarter we "lost," but we were trading time for points to some degree, and the crowd roared its approval as we got revenge for OSU's last trip to Maples.
Performances:
I tip my hat to Kiana and Lacie for their defense. To hold an excellent set-play offense like OSU to 4 assists for the game is simply astounding--not sure I have ever seen anything like that before.
On offense, OSU made Alanna work hard for her points but she managed 17 while absorbing the bulk of the defense's attention.
Kiana was the point leader with 18, and she played 38 minutes. Her outpouring in the 2nd quarter was really what turned the game. It is so good to see her get out of her shooting slump.
I thought Maya Dodson played well except for her 4 fouls--but who knows if they were real fouls or fake fouls. She managed 4 points and 10 rebounds and 4 blocks in 24 minutes.
Alyssa Jerome had one of her better games--getting more time with Alanna in foul trouble. She scored 5 points including that dagger of a trey, but more important had 7 tough rebounds in 22 minutes and no personal fouls. Zero.
Carrington had an off shooting night. I did not pay careful attention to how they were defending her. She was 1/9 and 0/4 from three, in 20 minutes. Lexie also had mixed results, collecting 4 personal fouls and 4 points in 20 minutes.
Conclusion:
As I finished watching this game, I reminded myself how privileged we are to watch Tara's coaching genius in action. We have some talented players, to be sure, but it is games like this one where we can see Tara Vanderveer playing chess with Scott Rueck, and checkmating him. I would never have imagined a game like this--Oregon State is a very talented and well coached team, and we embarrassed them.
I don't imagine that there will be a letdown for Sunday's game. Alanna and others have been itching for a rematch with Oregon ever since they beat us in the Pac 12 finals last year. But that team is a multiheaded monster. I give us about as much chance of beating them as...I gave us of blowing out Oregon State tonight :)
Two years ago, Oregon State beat us at Maples for the first time in their history. As I recall, there was supposed to be a behind-the-bench after the game but it was cancelled. The Oregon State players celebrated and danced and hung out on our floor long after our team had departed for the locker rooms. It was one of the foulest tastes I can remember since starting my infatuation with Stanford WBB.
And here they come again--no less excellent a team than they were then. We will recognize a few returning names, such as the excellent guard who turned us down, Mikayla Pivec and sophomore forward Taya Corosdale. But Oregon State has a couple of new pieces to their puzzle we haven't seen before. Destiny Slocum was a national freshman of the year at Maryland before she transferred to OSU, and she is leading the team with 19 ppg in conference. Aleah Goodman has made 51 treys at an astounding 47% rate. In fact, they have 4 players in double digits in conference play, and are shooting 43% of their threes as a team. Into this mix they can bring a senior 6'8" center from Poland--or not--depending on what Rueck thinks the situation calls for. Oregon State is 19-3, having lost to Notre Dame, A&M, and to ASU in overtime.
It seems as if every game becomes more important than the last. To be brutally honest, we have a better chance against Oregon State than we do against Oregon--although Tara has shown she can get her team to slay giants on occasion. Losing both games this weekend would be devastating, and Oregon State seems to me to be our best (but not the only) opportunity to win.
Overview:
When Stanford plays Oregon State, it is the master of scouting report defense against extreme scouting report defense--and the games are typically low scoring. And so it was. But our defense dominated much more completely than Oregon State's, holding the nation's best three point shooters to 28%, and our best defensive effort of the season was sustained through the whole game--never giving up more than 15 points in a quarter.
Character of the Game:
Defense defense defense. We heard at the chalk talk that Kiana would be glued to Oregon State's best three point shooter, Aleah Goodman, and that was easy to see for even a casual fan once the game started. Goodman is a gifted three point shooter to be sure, but she is not as fast or as quick as Kiana, and Kiana managed to get around most of the screens to keep harassing Goodman. Result: Goodman, a 47% three point shooter went 0-7 from the field.
Lacey was the principle defender on Destiny Slocum. Slocum got free a few times to the basket, but she also got turned back fairly often. And while Slocum scored 23, it was not an efficient 23. Perhaps more important, Slocum, the point guard, did not have a single assist in the game. In fact, our suffocating defense permitted OSU to get just 4 assists in the entire game--and none by their point guard. Astounding.
All that was in question at first. Oregon State made the first 6 points, and Slocum looked like the star she is. Dijonai, Kiana, and Alanna answered back. It became clear that Alanna could rarely be stopped if she got the ball inside, and by the end of the quarter we had clawed our way to a 12-8 lead. But Alanna picked up a couple of fouls--one quite questionable, and sat out much of the 2nd quarter.
Neither team could hit a three point shot in the first quarter, but the basket got wider for us in the 2nd. Kiana made 4 treys and Lacie two in that quarter, while Oregon State was kept stone cold. The vaunted shooting champs nationally did not hit a trey until Slocum swooshed a contested one a couple of minutes into the third. By the time she made that shot, Stanford was ahead 36-20 and OSU was struggling just to get decent shots off.
Alanna came back into the 3rd and got her inside game going, but I think the real dagger was at 5:03 when Alyssa--who was being left open by OSU's scouting report--drained a three to put us up 45-23. That seemed to kill any flickering hope that OSU was going to mount a comeback. The 4th was the only quarter we "lost," but we were trading time for points to some degree, and the crowd roared its approval as we got revenge for OSU's last trip to Maples.
Performances:
I tip my hat to Kiana and Lacie for their defense. To hold an excellent set-play offense like OSU to 4 assists for the game is simply astounding--not sure I have ever seen anything like that before.
On offense, OSU made Alanna work hard for her points but she managed 17 while absorbing the bulk of the defense's attention.
Kiana was the point leader with 18, and she played 38 minutes. Her outpouring in the 2nd quarter was really what turned the game. It is so good to see her get out of her shooting slump.
I thought Maya Dodson played well except for her 4 fouls--but who knows if they were real fouls or fake fouls. She managed 4 points and 10 rebounds and 4 blocks in 24 minutes.
Alyssa Jerome had one of her better games--getting more time with Alanna in foul trouble. She scored 5 points including that dagger of a trey, but more important had 7 tough rebounds in 22 minutes and no personal fouls. Zero.
Carrington had an off shooting night. I did not pay careful attention to how they were defending her. She was 1/9 and 0/4 from three, in 20 minutes. Lexie also had mixed results, collecting 4 personal fouls and 4 points in 20 minutes.
Conclusion:
As I finished watching this game, I reminded myself how privileged we are to watch Tara's coaching genius in action. We have some talented players, to be sure, but it is games like this one where we can see Tara Vanderveer playing chess with Scott Rueck, and checkmating him. I would never have imagined a game like this--Oregon State is a very talented and well coached team, and we embarrassed them.
I don't imagine that there will be a letdown for Sunday's game. Alanna and others have been itching for a rematch with Oregon ever since they beat us in the Pac 12 finals last year. But that team is a multiheaded monster. I give us about as much chance of beating them as...I gave us of blowing out Oregon State tonight :)
