Girls’s basketball suggestions off season with career-highs

No. 15 Stanford girls’s basketball (1-0, 0-0 Pac-12) kicked its season off with a 87-40 victory in opposition to Hawai’i (0-1, 0-0 Massive West) on Wednesday night.

Whereas it was solely the primary recreation of the season, the night time featured some excellent profession highs from returning gamers, in addition to unimaginable collegiate profession begins for 3 new freshmen.

The Cardinal had a powerful begin, taking pictures 50% from contained in the arc within the first quarter. Junior ahead Kiki Iriafen began the staff off with the primary layup of the sport and continued dominating all through the quarter. She scored eight of Stanford’s first 12 factors within the first 5 minutes, totaling 17 factors within the first half. Alongside Iriafen, junior guard Elena Bosgana, fifth-year guard Hannah Bounce, senior ahead Cameron Brink and sophomore guard Talana Lepolo pushed the staff to an early lead. 4 free throws by Brink and freshman ahead Nunu Agara every maintained Stanford’s 100% free throw share within the quarter and furthered Stanford’s 24-12 lead.

Stanford held Hawaii to a 15.38 area objective share in quarter two, taking part in robust protection. Regardless of Hawai’i’s makes an attempt to catch up, Stanford’s aggressive rebounding and blocks saved the Rainbow Warriors to a mere 10 factors within the quarter.

The second quarter additionally exhibited robust offense from the Cardinal, with jumpers from Bounce, junior ahead Brooke Demetre and Iriafen, who additionally drained three free throws. A 3-pointer by freshman ahead Courtney Ogden and factors from Agara pushed Stanford’s lead, and Brink’s a number of assists and robust protection performed an important function in guaranteeing the 46-22 success for the primary half.

“As a staff we’re doing superb,” Iriafen stated. “We’re gelling collectively very well. It’s tremendous early within the season and we’re doing unimaginable issues, and I believe it’s simply going to proceed to go up from there.”

The Cardinal returned from halftime hungry for extra. Regardless of the Rainbow Warriors rising their makes an attempt to attain, the Cardinal shut their probabilities down. Blocks by freshman guard Chloe Clardy and redshirt sophomore guard Jzaniya Harriel, in addition to rebounds from your entire staff saved the rating low for Hawaii. Quarter three concluded with a 66-30 lead for the Cardinal.

Stanford continued commanding the courtroom within the fourth quarter, outscoring Hawai’i by 11. Agara dominated Stanford’s offense, making three jumpers, a layup and two free throws within the first 5 minutes of the quarter. Stanford’s management of the ball via Clardy and Harriel, factors from Ogden and Demetre and boards and blocks from sophomore guard Stavi Papadaki cleared the trail to a harmful 87-40 win for Stanford.

The triumph marks an awesome begin to the 2023-24 season for Stanford. All three freshmen proved to their teammates and the followers their talents to guide.

“I don’t even consider them as freshmen,” stated head coach Tara VanDerveer. “They actually know what they’re doing, and I give credit score to our upperclassmen that acknowledge the truth that we’d like our freshmen to play and never be ‘freshmen.’”

Agara scored 18 factors and had 6 rebounds in her profession debut, essentially the most factors scored by a Stanford freshman in a season opener since 2004.

“I used to be dedicated right here since my junior 12 months so I’ve been ready for this endlessly,” Agara stated. “Simply to be on the market with my teammates, it’s superb. The vitality that they’ve — I’ve by no means skilled something like that, so simply coming on the market and being with my sisters, my older sisters, is nice.”

Agara scored eight of Stanford’s 20 free throws, a recreation excessive. The Cardinal’s 19-of-20 foul pictures marks their finest efficiency out of no less than 20 makes an attempt since 2015.

Iriafen moreover noticed a profession excessive of 23 factors and 13 rebounds.

Demetre noticed her sixth profession recreation in double-digit scoring, with 12 factors and eight rebounds on the night time. Bosgana’s first profession begin resulted in a career-high eight rebounds. Along with having a game-high 5 assists in 17 minutes performed, Brink scored eight factors and had eight rebounds.

“Hawai’i is a superb staff,” VanDeveer stated. “They had been our event staff final 12 months, and I believe this simply actually needs to be a great message to our staff that we’re taking part in very well and we’re going to proceed this … We’ve 12 nice gamers which are taking part in for one another.”

Stanford girls’s basketball appears to be like to proceed their run this Sunday in opposition to No. 9 Indiana (1-0, 0-0 Massive Ten).