Stanford’s strength this season has been the bench. I couldn’t quite see the match with the domestic top team. The nation’s No. 2 team’s reserves added just 9 points in Sunday’s loss to No. 1 South Carolina.
76-71 loss in extra time
It’s plagued with late-game errors, foul trouble, and offensive issues.
“Turnovers really, really hurt us. That’s something we have to improve on,” head coach Tara Vandelbier said. You didn’t get in, you took timeouts, you didn’t box, you fouled out, it all added up.”
Sophomore forward Kiki Iliafen, who was the second-most efficient shooter in the nation on Sunday, gave the Cardinals a lead following a rebound from a missed Gamecock free throw that earned the Cardinals a technical foul. I called a timeout that wasn’t working. That mistake is cited by Stanford as costing the game, but long before that one misjudgment, the team’s offense was shut down, allowing South Carolina to get back into the game.
The uncharacteristically quiet scoring output was partially due to a 5-of-19 shooting effort by Hayley Jones. Aside from a warm welcome, the Stanford shooters weren’t ready for the moment.
“I think Haley is more capable and will help us more. She was struggling a bit off the field. rice field.
In the combined fourth quarter and overtime, the Cardinals shot just 4-19 from the field and scored just 17 points as South Carolina turned back. Their first fourth quarter point came on a brink free throw with four minutes remaining.
Stanford was averaging 44 bench points in their first five games. The rotation was going to be tighter against South Carolina and lower with starters playing more minutes against key Gamecock players, but compared to South Carolina’s 34, the reserves were Only raised 9 points. They had their own bench in the second quarter while Aaliyah Boston was in foul trouble — it was a disappointment.
“We were leading and it was very disappointing that we didn’t finish the job,” said Vanderbier.
One of the biggest puzzles for Stanford this season is putting the pieces together for what has been a deep team. In his first five contests, VanDerveer used at least his 14 players, despite having fewer opponents. Freshman Lauren Betts was only out for his 14 minutes in the game, and that time was an eye-opener for him. Meanwhile, 3rd string points his guard Janiyah his Hariel scored a few minutes in the second half.
Against South Carolina, despite Brink being in foul trouble, only Betts scored four points and Asten Prechtl’s five on the bench, with Prechtl’s 32 of them. Prechtel was the only reserve out of the 52 men the bench played to record double-digit reserves in minutes. Flamberibi was the only other non-starter to attempt a shot.
The season has just started and only 6 games have been played. The Cardinal said he plans to add three more games to Hawaii when he returns from the Thanksgiving tournament. South Carolina will likely be the toughest test of the season until they could face each other again in the postseason, and not many teams get an early lesson in who they are this early in the year. .
Most of the games Stanford will play in the rest of the season also don’t look like a setback on Sunday. Until the Pac-12 play, the toughest possible challenges on the Cardinal schedule are up-and-coming Gonzaga, rapidly weakening Tennessee and Clayton.
This is enough time to reinforce how involved the bench is in important matches. That means more time for Betts, who has been very efficient, or see if the Cardinals can rely on Brooke Demetre and Jelena Bosgana to score in the middle two quarters. .
Stanford had some positives to come from their first loss of the season. Lepollo’s performances in the long run likely established him as a guard in his starting points, and Prechtel’s off-the-bench defense against Boston, where he tallied five blocks and his seven rebounds, was brilliant. was.
Cardinal has a blueprint of what to improve. It’s less sloppy and the scores are spread out on the bench, showing that they can close out the game. To do that, you’ll need to carry out attacks, not just Jones and Blink. At least hypothetically, they have the parts to do it.
As Jones said of what happened on Sunday, “I think we want to bring back a lot of the things we left on the court.”
Marisa Injemi is a staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: marisa.ingemi@sfchronicle.com
