Cardinal rout Ducks 96-61, avenge last year’s heartbreaker

Photo credit: gostanford.com

By Joey Friedman
Sports Radio Service
February 3, 2018

PALO ALTO — The grass was green for the Stanford Cardinal on the Oregon Trail as they handed the Oregon Ducks its worst loss of the Dana Altman era. The Cardinal (13-11, 7-4 Pac-12) cruised to a 96-61 win over the Ducks at Maples Pavilion. Oregon competed with Stanford for the first four minutes and actually, at one point, had an 11-10 lead. Once Stanford took back the lead (13-11) on a Dorian Pickens’ 3-pointer, they never looked back and led for the rest of the game.

After a great 5-1 start to conference play (including a win over #16 Arizona State), the Cardinal had slowed down. After three straight losses to #14 Arizona, UCLA, and USC, the Cardinal turned it around in a dominant win over Oregon State at Maples last Thursday night to avoid evening their conference record. Similarly, Oregon has suffered close losses to Arizona and USC and they also won against the Top 25 Arizona State Sun Devils. They entered today’s game fresh off of a three-game win streak, beating UCLA, Oregon State, and Cal en route to a conference record that was a half a game behind Stanford.

A quick-paced game until the closing minutes, Stanford and Oregon were matching each other on the scoreboard for the opening minutes. Then, Stanford’s shooting ignited. At a certain point in the first half, the Cardinal was shooting 75% from the field (15-20). They finished the half shooting 68% (19-28). Aided both by their shooting and by Oregon’s sluggish offense, which had numerous scoring droughts each lasting a couple of minutes, Stanford led at the half 50-34. Pickens contributed 14 points in the first half.

For only one minute in the middle of the first half, it did seem as though Oregon had momentum shifting their way. For the first couple of defensive possessions during which they pressed, the Ducks caught the Cardinal off guard, causing three Cardinal turnovers within a single minute. Oregon went on a short 8-0 run in that span and shrunk Stanford’s lead to six. The Cardinal recovered, however, and stretched the lead back to 16 by the end of the half.

The second half saw Stanford only grow its lead once to 35 (with 9:49 left in the game and the score in favor of Stanford 78-43) and a second time to 37 (with 3:09 left and the score 92-55). The Cardinal finished shooting 63% from the field as they also made six threes in each half, totaling 20 attempts (60% from beyond the arc). The best free throw shooting team in the conference was overmatched both at the line by the Cardinal and on the boards–by large margins.

For Stanford, Dorian Pickens scored a total of 25 points tonight (three points shy of career high) as he shot 9-11 from the field, 5-6 from beyond the arc, and collected four rebounds.

A career night for Pickens became very special early on when he scored his 1000th career point at Stanford in the early going. Sitting at 999 entering the game, he joined Reid Travis, who accomplished the feat earlier this season, in the exclusive club, becoming the 46th Stanford men’s basketball player to do it.

Kezie Okpala collected 20 points, going 9-12 from the field, 2-4 from three, five rebounds, and four assists.

Not to be outdone was Travis, though, who added 17 points and seven boards in 28 minutes.

Oregon’s Troy Brown Jr. had 15 points and six rebounds, Elijah Brown had 10 points and did not attempt a free throw even though he has made 52/54 this year, Paul White had 10 points and a rebound, and Victor Bailey Jr. had 13 points, nailing two out of his three triples.

What’s Next?
ORE: Oregon will host the Washington schools, face the LA schools on the road, and then play host to the Arizona schools to close out the month.

STAN: Stanford will embark on a three-game road trip, visiting Utah, Colorado, and Cal. They will then host the Washington schools to close out the month.

Pac-12 Hoops: Bruins Roll Past the Cardinal 89-73

Photo credit: gostanford.com

By Daniel Dullum
Sports Radio Service
Saturday, January 27, 2018

The UCLA Bruins, behind the one-two offensive punch of Aaron Holiday and Kris Wilkes, cruised to an 89-73 Pac-12 men’s basketball victory over the Stanford Cardinal at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, California.

Holiday led the Bruins (15-7 overall, 6-4 Pac-12) with 21 points and Wilkes added 18. Thomas Welsh, who suffered a knee injury in UCLA’s win over California on Thursday, was back in the starting lineup and produced 12 points and 10 rebounds. Bruins point guard Jaylen Hands added nine points and 10 assists.

Daejon Davis paced the Cardinal (11-11, 5-4) with 23 points, 10 assists and four rebounds. Dorian Pickens scored 16 points, Michael Humphrey had 12 points, and Reid Travis led Stanford with seven rebounds while scoring 11 points.

Davis has scored a combined 45 points against UCLA this season. He posted 22 points in the Cardinal’s first meeting with the Bruins.

After winning five of its first six conference games, Stanford lost its third straight Pac-12 contest.

The Bruins took a 38-27 lead in the first half, sparked by a 14-0 run that included seven points from Holiday. After the halftime break, UCLA built a 22-point lead with 11:40 remaining, doing most of the damage in transition.

UCLA outshot the Cardinal 53 percent to 46 percent, and made 53 percent of its 3-point attempts. The Bruins also sank 92 percent of its free throws, and held a 33-28 rebounding edge.

The loss squares the regular season series between the two schools. Earlier, on Jan. 4, the Bruins lost to Stanford in double-overtime. UCLA has won its last 12 home games against the Cardinal.

Up Next: Stanford returns home this week for home games against the Oregon schools, hosting Oregon State on Thursday at Maples Pavilion. Tip-off is at 8 p.m.

Stanford Cardinal Men’s Basketball Podcast with Alexandra Evans: Davis showing signs of being impact player for Cardinal

Photo credit: GoStanford.com

Stanford Cardinal Podcast with Alexandra Evans Thu Jan 18, 2018:

On Saturday in Seattle the Stanford Cardinal got lots of help from Daejon Davis beating the Washington Huskies 73-64. Davis playing in his hometown at one time was committed to attend and play at UW but after former Huskies head coach Lorenzo Romar was fired last season Davis went in another direction breaking his commitment with UW and signing on with Stanford

Davis finished with 16 points and ten rebounds, teammate Travis Reid also had 16 points as the Cardinal improved to 10-8

Stanford completed it’s first two game road trip Pac 12 sweep in 12 years

The Cardinal played Wednesday night at Maples Pavilion hosting Arizona State

Alexandra Evans does the Stanford podcasts each day at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Slow start, turnovers lead to USC rout of Cal in Pac-12 home opener 80-62

Jonescalbears.com photo: Cal Bears head coach Wyking Jones during recent press conference

By Morris Phillips

BERKELEY–The pained look on Coach Wyking Jones’ face said it all. The question regarding repeated slow starts for Jones’ California Golden Bears, especially at Haas Pavilion, was fair given that Cal scored just eight points in the first 10 minutes of Thursday’s disappointing 80-62 loss to USC.

And Jones’ response? As honest and revealing as any Division I basketball coach ever wants to be or has to be when admitting his team was outclassed.

“It’s frustrating, but our guys aren’t trying to do that,” Jones said. “They are trying to do the right thing. They are young, it’s a process, and we have to just focus on the light at the end of the tunnel. These guys who are freshman are going to be sophomores next year, and then juniors and then seniors, and really good. You have to focus on what the light at the end of the tunnel is as opposed to what’s going on right now.”

What’s going on for Cal right now is a youth-laden club without a forceful, ball handling leader is taking its lumps.  USC, a pre-season Top 25 pick that’s dealing with a recruiting scandal and its own shortcomings, may have been the last opponent the Bears wanted to see on the occasion of their Pac-12 home opener. Those lumps Cal’s taking were hand delivered by the Trojans on Thursday.

USC’s zone look with arms and hands everywhere befuddled the Bears to the tune 22 turnovers juxtaposed against just 13 assists on 23 made baskets.  Of those 23 baskets, only eight came in the first half when Cal fell behind by 26 points (38-12 with 1:54 remaining).  The deficit grew to 30 points briefly in the second half as Cal’s issues offensively morphed into defensive indifference.  While the final score was more palatable, this marked the third time this season Cal has lost by 18 or more points at home this season.

If the light at the end of the tunnel that Coach Jones spoke of was to be interpreted literally, it would have been one lit candle at the western most juncture of BART’s Transbay Tube on Thursday.

“We have another game on Saturday against UCLA so we have to move past this and regather tomorrow morning, and prepare for UCLA,” said freshman Justice Sueing, who led the Bears with 15 points.

In fairness to the Bears, the Trojans are the last team a struggling outfit wants to see. Just ask USC’s most recent opponent Washington State.  With the Cougars methodically trying to regain their footing against the Trojans on New Years’ Eve after a first half that was as poor as Cal’s, WSU cut USC’s lead to just eight points. But on the next six possessions, Washington State committed five turnovers and saw their deficit balloon to 18 points in less than the three minutes that elapsed on the game clock.

Against Cal, USC’s zone caused the Bears to be extremely tentative to the point that guards Don Coleman and Darius McNeill became non-factors in the first 25 minutes of the game.  Cal’s normally high scoring guards combined to miss 13 of their 16 shots while committing six turnovers.  While McNeill found a way to extend his impressive streak of hitting at least one three-pointer in 14 of his 15 games as a collegian, his penetration into the paint was almost non-existent.

Marcus Lee had an impressive start offensively with a follow dunk and a couple of other buckets from point blank range, but five turnovers and foul trouble kept the Kentucky transfer from making much of a difference as the game progressed.

The Trojans were led by Nick Rakocevic with 19 points. Bennie Boatwright added 15 points, and Jordan Usher had 14 off the bench for USC.

Chimezie Metu was suspended for the first 20 minutes for his actions against Washington State in which cameras caught the 6’10” junior jabbing an opponent in the groin. Metu played 11 minutes in the second half, in which his epic dunk over Lee immediately triggered a SportsCenter alert all the way across the country at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut.

The Bears return to the hardwood on Saturday when UCLA visits Haas Pavilion at 3:30pm.

Stanford defeats Pac-12’s #1 UCLA 107-99 in double OT

Photo: @StanfordMBB

By Alexandra Evans

The Stanford Cardinal Men’s Basketball team (now 7-8) kicked off 2018 with a match against the visiting UCLA Bruins, who went into the match 11-3 (first place in the Pac-12 Conference).

After UCLA took the lead for the first part of the game, Dorian Pickens tied the score 22-22 (with a three-pointer) with six minutes left in the first half, as the shot clock reached zero. Travis then got a layup and a free throw to give the Cardinal the lead once again (25-24), and Dorian Pickens got another three-pointer just after the Bruins’ Jaylen Hands got a jumper, and the Cardinal trailed by only one point.

For the remaining minutes of the match, the Bruins managed to re-tie the score each time the Cardinal took a lead. After Hands’ basket, Michael Humphrey shot for Stanford, then 30 seconds later, UCLA’s Gyorgy Goloman made a three-pointer and tied the score 30-30. Oscar da Silva got a layup, but Aaron Holiday (who leads UCLA in points per game) made both free throws and gave the Bruins a 34-32 lead.

Then, it was Stanford who had to catch up. Kris Wilkes got a layup for UCLA to give them a 36-32 lead. It took two layups from Okpala to tie the score again (36-36). The Bruins clearly weren’t having it, determined to keep their lead. Prince Ali (not to be mistaken with the Disney character Aladdin’s alter ego) got a three-pointer and a layup within 30 seconds of one another. The Bruins led the Cardinal 41-36 at halftime.

The Cardinal, moved to make a comeback against the conference’s first-place team, inch their way up on the scoreboard each time the Bruins took a lead, which the latter team managed to keep. Shots alternated between both teams, beginning with Travis, then UCLA’s Thomas Welsh, a three-pointer from Stanford’s Daejon Davis, two free throws from Holiday, another three-pointer by Pickens, then one from Holiday, a layup from Okpala, and two completed free throws from Holiday which put the Bruins four points ahead at 50-46.

After a time-out just before the five-minute mark, Pickens got his fourth three-pointer of the night, bringing the Cardinal down by only one point. Despite a consistent number of baskets  for the Cardinal at the 30-minute mark of the match (10 minutes into the second period), they remained inferior to the Bruins, who were up by 10 at that point (71-61).

UCLA increased their double-digit lead as soon as Goloman got a three-pointer, and they stayed ahead even after Okpala made two free throws (the Cardinal trailed 74-63). Davis cut Stanford’s trail to single digits (after making a layup and a free throw, and after a dunk from Travis right after Holiday’s layup. Though Ali made a three-pointer and gave the Bruins a 12-point lead, Humphrey got a three pointer followed by a dunk, and the Cardial only trailed by seven, then only by five when Pickens got a layup with four minutes left in the game.

After a free throw from UCLA’s Alex Olesinski and two from Davis, Stanford trailed only by four. Wilkes was fouled for the Bruins, giving Davis two free throw opportunities. He made only one, after which the Cardinal were only a three-pointer away from tying the Bruins.

Da Silva got a layup assisted by Pickens with 46 seconds left in the game, and then the Cardinal were only a basket away from exceeding the Bruins. However, a layup from Holiday allowed the Bruins to keep their lead. Humphrey was fouled with 18 seconds left, but Ali missed both free throws for UCLA. Miraculously, Pickens got another three-pointer, his fifth of the night, with six seconds left to tie the score 85-85.

In overtime, Humphrey made two free throws to give the Cardinal their first lead since the opening minutes of the first half, but the Bruins quickly came back when Thomas Welsh made a layup and a free throw. Davis got a layup and gave Stanford a one-point lead (89-88), but after Goloman made a free throw, the score was tied again, and then the Bruins regained their lead after a jumper from Holiday (91-89).

Okpala tied the score with two and a half minutes left (91-91), and then it was up to the Cardinal’s defense to ensure the Bruins would not surpass them yet again, which they managed to do. And then, with only half a minute left, da Silva dunked and gave the Cardinal the lead. After a successful free throw from Okpala, they were ahead 94-91 until Holiday made a buzzer-beating three-pointer. The score was tied once again (94-94), sending the match into a second overtime period.

It was all defense for the Cardinal as the Bruins had possession of the ball when the second OT period began. Okpala was fouled, and then Ali made two free throws to give the Bruins a two point lead. Josh Sharma got a layup for the Cardinal and tied the score 96-96, but then he was fouled. Ali made one free throw and the Bruins were only one point ahead. There was hope for the Cardinal, until Sharma was fouled again, giving Ali two more free throw opportunities. He made both, and the Bruins led the Cardinal 99-96.

Pickens made two free throws after Holiday was fouled, cutting the Bruins’ lead to only one point. Sharma was fouled again for Stanford, after which Hands failed to make both free throw opportunities. Goloman was fouled for UCLA, giving Isaac white two free throw opportunities, which he missed. Pickens made his sixth free throw of the evening, and the Cardinal were in the lead again (101-99).

Davis saved the day (or, rather, the evening) when he got a layup with half a minute remaining to give the Cardinal a four point lead (103-99). White again received two free throw opportunities when Hands was fouled, both of which he made. Pickens also made two free throws, and the Cardinal took home a 107-99 victory.

Pickens and Davis led the team in points with 26 and 22 points, respectively, and Travis (who had 18 points) led the team in rebounds with 11.

Next, Stanford will face the USC Trojans (10-5) on Sunday, January 7 at home.

Cal Bears fall to Portland State Vikings 106-81 before Christmas

Photo: @CalMBBall

By Alexandra Evans

BERKELEY—The California Golden Bears (6-6) faced their last out-of-conference opponent, the Portland State Vikings (9-3), who defeated them 106-81 at Haas Pavilion on Thursday evening. 

The first half started off slow for the Golden Bears effective immediately. Within the first two minutes, the team was down by nine points. At the halfway point, they were down 13. With six minutes left, McNeill, Deschon Winston, and Marcus Lee brought the Bears’ score to 24. At that point, PSU had 39 points, but Cal was no longer trailing by more than half their score. That did not last long, as PSU brought their lead up to double Cal’s score (48-24) with 3:40 remaining. At the end of the first 20 minutes, PSU led Cal 56-37. There were few moments where Cal trailed by fewer than 20 points, and no Bears players made any three-pointers in the first half.

Cal was evidently determined to pick things up as the second half commenced, but PSU was just unstoppable. Six minutes in, the Vikings brought their score up by 16 points, compared to the Bears’ eight-point increase, for a score of 72-45. PSU held their 20+ point lead over Cal through the entire second half, even knocking on a 30-point lead here and there. With three and a half minutes left, Bryce Canda made a three-pointer to bring PSU’s score to an even 100, while Cal still trailed with 74 points. This was the first time in nearly seven years (since February 10, 2011 against the University of Washington) that the Bears allowed 100 points in a single game.

Don Coleman led the Bears in points tonight with 19, the seventh time he has exceeded the team this season, and the 12th time in 13 games, he has hit double digits in points. Winston tallied 10 points, a career-peak, and Nick Hamilton made five rebounds, which was a career-peak for him.

Next, the Cal Bears will face their conference rival, the Stanford Cardinal, in Palo Alto on Saturday, December 30. Stay tuned for coverage from me that night!

Oregon State sends the Cardinal down to their fourth straight loss.

by Jerry Feitelberg

Image result for stanford cardinal men's basketball

photo courtesy of Google images also main page AP photo Oregon State’s Drew Eubanks (12) grabs a rebound in the Beavers win over Stanford on Thursday night

PALO ALTO–The woes continue for the Stanford Cardinal as they lost their fourth straight game. The visiting Oregon State Beavers beat them 62-50. The Beavers were seeking to avenge the loss to Stanford earlier in the season at Gill Arena in Corvallis. The only time the Cardinal didn’t trail was the first twenty-seven seconds of the game when the score was 0-0. The Beavers took the early lead and never relinquished it. The Cardinal trailed by five at the half but scored just twenty-one points in the second half. They went cold and scored just one bucket during a seven-minute stretch midway through the second half. Both teams played sloppily down the stretch but Stanford could not get anything going as they went down to defeat. With the loss, Stanford is 11-11 for the year but are just 4-7 in Pac-12 ply and are currently in ninth place. The Beavers improved to 15-8.

The Beavers took an early 5-0 lead in the first period and led for all twenty minutes as the finished leading the Cardinal 33-29. The Beavers biggest lead was seven but every time the Cardinal closed the gap, the Beavers answered and kept them at bay. Stanford was led Grant Verhoeven, coming off the bench . with eight points. Rosco  Allen had seven and 6-foot nine-inch sophomore Mike Humphrey added six. Freshman guard Marcus Sheffield also added six.  The Beavers were led by Tres Tinkle’s ten, while Malcom Duvier pitched in with nine. Duvivier hit three three-point shots.  Gary Payton, OSU’s leading scorer, had just four points in the half. Stanford shot 52.4% from the floor while OSU’s percentage was just 46.2% Both teams had nine defensive rebounds. OSU had five offensive boards while Stanford could just get one. Big difference in the score was due to the fact that OSU scored nine second chance points and  the Cardinal did not get any.

The Beavers scored the first four points in the second half to take a 37-29 lead. They incresed the lead to eleven with 12;46 left in the game. OSU’s Langston Morris-Walker , who hails from Berkeley, hit a three-pointer to give the Beavers the big advantage. The Beavers biggest lead of the night was twelve but the Cardinal, try as they might, could not overcome the deficit. They did cut the lead to five when Rosco Allen scored a layup. Allen was fouled but he missed the free throw. The Beavers increased the lead to eight but the Cardinal’s Dorian Pickens hit a three to cut the lead to five with 1:31 left in the game. The Beavers led at that point 54-49 but they took command of the last 91 seconds as they outscored the Cardinal 8-1 to win by twelve 62-50.

Game notes- Rosco Allen led Stanford with twelve points. Grant Verhoeven added ten and freshman Marcus Sheffield had eight. The Cardinal shot just 6 for 24 in the seconad half and shot 37% for the game. OSU shot 45.8% from the floor. Scoring leaders for the Beavers were Tres Tinkle with ninetine, Gary Payton added fourteen and Malcolm Duvivier pitched in with eleven.

The Cardinl returns to play against the Oregon Ducks Saturday afternoon at Maples Pavilion. The Cal Bears beat the Ducks 83-60 Thursday night in Berkeley and the nationally-ranked Ducks will be looking to get back on the winnig track. Game time will be at 1 PM.

Attendance was 4519.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stanford meets Oregon Saturday afternoon at 1 pm at Maples Pavilion.

Attendance was just 4519

 

 

Cal Loses to USC 71-57

by Jerry Feitelberg

Trojans Basketball

The University of California Men’s basketball team travelled to Los Angeles Wednesday evening to face the USC Trojans in a PAC-12 Contest. The Bears were 1-1 in conference play so far this season while USC was 0-2 having suffered two huge losses to Utah and Colorado. However, it was the Trojans that shut down the Bears by a final score of 71-57.

The Trojans got off to a fast start and led the Bears by 15 at one point in the first half. The Bears made a run and narrowed the gap to 38-29 at the end of the first 20 minutes of play 38-29.

It was more of the same in the second half as all the Bears could do was score 28 points and were not able to overcome the deficit and fell to the Trojans 71-57.

The Bears were led by junior guard Tyrone Mathews’ 21 points and sophomore guard Jordan Mathews added 17 and the rest of the team put up just 19 points.

USC was led by Nikola Jovanovic (20) Julian Jacobs(17) and Katin Reinhardt(16).

The Bears had a new starting lineup as coach Martin had sophomore Roger Moute a Bidias and freshman Kingsley Okoruh record their first career starts.

The Bears are now 11-5 overall and 1-2 in conference play and the meet the struggling UCLA Bruins Sunday at Pauley Pavilion at 4:30pm.

Sweet Sixteen Bound Cardinal Punches Ticket to Regionals With Win Over Florida State

By: Joe Lami

The Stanford Cardinal will be returning to Maples Pavilion next weekend as they will be continue on to the Sweet Sixteen, after a victory over the Florida State Seminoles on Monday afternoon.  The second-seeded Cardinal defeated the tenth-seeded Seminoles 63-44 in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

The Seminoles grabbed an early seven-point lead, as they went on a 7-0 run to start the game in the first 1:52.  It wasn’t until the 18:08 mark where Amber Orrange was able to get things started for Stanford with a field goal.  The largest lead for Florida State was stretched to eight points at the 12:31 mark, when the Seminoles had the 14-6 lead.  However, this is when the Cardinal were able to turn the game around, as Stanford went on a 26-2 run, including a 13-minute scoring drought for Florida State to end the half.  Stanford went into halftime with a 32-16 lead.

Stanford would also control the second half as well, outscoring the Seminoles by three points to complete the victory.

All-time Pac-12 leading scorer, Chiney Ogwumike, led things for the Cardinal as she finished the game 8 of 11 from the field for 21 points.  She ended the game just one rebound shy of the double double.  Lili Thompson had another outstanding performance, as she contributed 14 points in the win, including a perfect 4 for 4 from the charity strike.  Bonnie Samuelson completed the list of players that got into double figures, as she came off the bench to score 11, with nine points coming from beyond the arc.

Florida State was able to achieve something that few teams have been able to do against Stanford this season, and that is to out-rebound the Cardinal.  The Seminoles won the rebound battle  35-32 with 12 of them coming on the offensive side of the glass.  Natasha Howard, Brittany Brown and Kai James all finished the game with seven rebounds for FSU.  Howard was also the Noles leading scorer, as she finished the game with nine points.

The Cardinal will be returning to the Sweet Sixteen for the seventh time in a row, and now they will be coming back to their home floor for possibly the next two games.  Up next for the Cardinal will be the winner of Penn State and Florida, before what is expected to be an Elite Eight matchup with the number one seed in the region, South Carolina.

One Down, Five to Go, Stanford Defeats South Dakota in the Opening Round of the NCAA Tournament

By: Joe Lami

The Stanford Cardinal started what they are hoping to be a long NCAA Tournament run on Saturday afternoon with a win.  They defeated the South Dakota Coyotes by the final score of 81-62.  The Cardinal were given a number two seed after they were defeated by USC in the semi-finals of the Pac-12 tournament.  Their opponent, South Dakota, earned the 15-seed after they won the Summit Conference Tournament.  The Coyotes also had a record of 19-14 coming into the contest.

South Dakota held the game close for the first seven minutes of the game, and actually held a two point lead at the 17:56 mark, but at the 13-minute the Cardinal gained the lead and they kept it for the rest of the game.  The Cardinal led the game 42-27 going into the halftime break.  They then outscored the Coyotes 39-35 in the second half to earn the 81-62 victory.

It was a huge day for Senior star Chiney Ogwumike, as she became the all-time Pac-12 leading scorer in the contest.  She only need one-point to gain the feat, as she finished the last contest tied with Candice Wiggins.  Ogwumike finished the game with 22 points, and eight rebounds in the 35 minutes played.  She led all scorers in the effort.

Bonnie Samuelson came off of the bench to tie her career high, as the Junior Guard sunk six of ten shots from beyond the arc to net 18 points.  Lili Thompson scored 11 points and brought down six rebounds in her first NCAA Tournament contest.  She also went 50% from three-point land, as she went three of six from beyond the arc.  Amber Orrange was the other Stanford player to get into double digits in scoring, as she finished the game with ten points.

South Dakota had a bright spot in the loss, as Nicole Seekamp finished the game with 22 points, shooting 9 of 13 from the field.  She also finished the game with five rebounds.

Stanford only has one more team in front of them before they can return to their home court, Maples Pavilion, as part of Regionals.  The tenth seed Florida State Seminoles will be the Cardinal’s next opponent, as they defeated Iowa State on their home floor earlier Saturday 55-44.  The Round of 32 contest is set for Monday at 3:30 PST.