By: Ben Leonard
Despite horrendous shooting in the first half, the Stanford Cardinal fought back to beat the Washington Huskies 60-56 in Seattle. Lili Thompson’s hot shooting carried the lethargic Cardinal to the victory, scoring fifteen points on 5-13 shooting and making two steals, while the rest of the team shot a meager 30.2% from the field. Her banked-in three from the deep left wing sealed the victory for the Cardinal, giving the team a 60-55 lead with 25.7 seconds remaining in the contest. The win moved Stanford to 11-4, while dropping the Huskies to 12-3.
The victory did not come easily on Friday for #15-ranked Stanford, who have fallen from grace since upsetting UCONN early in the season. The Cardinal made just eight of their thirty-five shots in the first half, including hitting just three of their final twenty-one shots in the period, leaving them down 24-22 at the half. Stanford had no physical presence in the post, largely due to the loss of Nneka Ogwumike to the WNBA. 6’3″ forward Kaylee Johnson did pull down thirteen rebounds, but was simply not an offensive threat, scoring just five points on 2-6 shooting.
Washington’s Kelsey Plum, the nation’s second-leading scorer, averaging 24.4 points per game heading into Friday, did her best to keep the Huskies close to Stanford. Plum lead the team with 16 points in a losing effort, dishing out six assists to boot. She scored nine points in the second half, but it wasn’t enough to propel the Huskies to an upset victory. Stanford outscored Washington 38-32 in the second half, helped by Bonnie Samuelson’s four three pointers (4-9 shooting), adding on to the country’s third-best team three-point percentage. The Cardinal got the result it wanted, but will need to play much better if it wants to build on last season’s Final Four appearance.
Stats and info courtesy of ESPN, GoStanford.com
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