Recap: Stanford Women’s Basketball powers past Cal on The Farm
On Sunday, Stanford women’s basketball defeated Cal on The Farm by a final score of 78-69. Stanford junior forward Courtney Ogden led the way for the Cardinal with a career-high 25 points and seven rebounds on 10-12 shooting from the field, 1-2 shooting from 3-point range, and 4-5 shooting from the foul line while junior guard Chloe Clardy (13 points & 4 rebounds) and freshman forward Lara Somfai (12 points & 13 rebounds) also finished in double figures. Cal freshman forward Taylor Barnes was the top performer for the Golden Bears with 16 points. Stanford improves to 9-2 overall and 1-0 in the ACC while Cal falls to 8-4 overall and 0-1 in the ACC.
VIDEO: Stanford Women’s Basketball Postgame Press Conference-Cal
BOX SCORE: Cal at Stanford-Sunday, December 14th
“That was a great win for our team,” Stanford head coach Kate Paye said after the game. “We’re very excited. 1-0 in ACC play. You know, I was really proud of the way our team battled. I thought it came down to the fourth quarter. I think our conditioning really kicked in and really helped us. You know, we had some, really this is a great team win. It takes everyone to kind of do something like this.
“Some of the fantastic individual performances, you know, Chloe Clardy is so steady for us out there and she really got her knocking down three threes, that was very helpful. Talana four assists, no turnovers. Nunu struggled a little bit, but she stayed in the game. She kept battling, she had five assists. Very excited about that. Lara is a total glass eater. I mean, you know, she just gobbles them up. 13 rebounds.
“That was huge, but no doubt, Courtney kind of stole the show. They call it cooking with Courtney, is that right? Cooking with Courtney and she was just a force out there. Career high is seven rebounds. She really put our team on her back and our team was really excited for her. I’m really excited for her.”
“Yeah, obviously disappointed with today,” Cal head coach Charmin Smith said after the game. “I thought we had some good spurts, but not enough. Not doing the right thing enough of the time to, you know, get an ACC win. So, we’ll keep working. Keep working to get better, but you know, frustrated with the outcome.”
Cal got out to an early 10-5 lead with 7:23 to go in the 1st quarter as Barnes was up to five points after making a 3-pointer and a layup. Stanford would then go on a 4-0 run to make it 10-9 with 4:48 to go in the quarter after a pull up jumper by Hailee Swain and a pair of free throws from Chloe Clardy.
At the end of the 1st quarter, Cal led 15-13. Barnes was leading the Bears with seven points while Ogden led the Cardinal with five points.
Stanford led Cal 21-17 with 5:45 remaining in the half. Stanford went on an 8-0 run over the previous 1:40. Clardy and Somfai each hit a three-pointer. Agara scored a basket inside.
At halftime, Stanford led Cal 34-31. Ogden was leading the Cardinal with 10 points and four rebounds, while Chloe Clardy had contributed eight points and three rebounds. Taylor Barnes (10 points) and Mjracle Sheppard (9 points) led the Golden Bears. Ogden made a huge basket late to beat the shot clock.
Stanford and Cal were tied at 46 with 4:40 left in the 3rd quarter. Ogden had led Stanford with 12 points on 5-6 shooting from the field and 1-2 from three-point range, while Barnes led Cal with 16 points on 6-9 shooting and 2-2 from 3-point range. Cal had made four of their last five field goals.
Cal led Stanford 55-52 at the end of the 3rd quarter. Aliyahna Morris hit a huge 3-pointer for the Bears to beat the buzzer, bringing her total to seven points. Barnes’ 16 points led the Bears, while Ogden’s 18 points led the Cardinal. The game looked like it was going to go down to the wire.
“Like you said, I think it’s definitely shot selection,” Ogden said of the key to her success. “My teammates put me in the right spots where I don’t have to, I guess work as hard to get up a good shot and so that really helps. But yeah, definitely shot selection for me.”
Stanford led Cal 58-57 with 6:01 remaining. Stanford had gone on a 6-0 run over the previous 3:03. Clardy and Agara both reached double figures for the Cardinal with 10 points, providing support for Ogden (18 points).
Stanford led Cal 64-59 with 3:36 left. Stanford had gone on a 12-2 run over the previous 5:28. Talana Lepolo banked in a 3-pointer from straight away. Lepolo shrugged a bit like Michael Jordan after it went in, thankful to have lady luck on her side.
“Yeah, again, I haven’t watched, like, I recall us with the lead and some just, like carelessness with the balls and turnovers that gave them, you know, a bucket right away,” Smith said of what changed down the stretch. “Live ball turnovers and then again, you know, we had some good looks that didn’t go down and they had some 3,2,1, you know, threes during that time that really were kind of deflating for us. Yeah, they made some big shots in the stretch, down the stretch when they needed to.”
Stanford led Cal 72-62 with 1:44 remaining. Ogden took over, completing a three-point play after being fouled inside. She had 23 points.
“I think she has good size,” Smith said of Ogden. “And she’s got a midrange game where she can make some tough, contested shots shooting over people. I think we let her get loose to the basket a few too many times and then you know, we fouled her a few times, she got to the free throw line. But she, she had a good game. She had a good game. They needed her to step up and she did.”
In the end, Stanford defeated Cal 78-69. Courtney Ogden achieved a career high in scoring as she led the Cardinal with 25 points and 7 rebounds. She really came through for the Cardinal, scoring in a variety of ways.
“Definitely,” Ogden said when asked if she’s looking to add more versatility to her scoring. “Attacking the basket has been a strength of mine, I think that I’ve worked on that since freshman year. Kate has definitely encouraged me to attack the basket more, to put my head down and drive and so I’ve definitely tried to utilize that in games, practice that in practice against our bigs, and it paid off.”
This is a good win for Stanford. Cal has a strong team and came in with some confidence having swept Stanford last season. To get back in the win column against Cal and defend their home floor was a must for Stanford. They were able to accomplish that goal in spades.
“So, you know, certainly nobody liked what happened last year,” Paye said. “But it was last year. You know, we’re driving ahead, we’re looking ahead. We’re not looking in the rearview mirror. You know, we’re constantly looking to learn. I thought we learned from our last game against Tennessee., I thought that game really helped us in this situation. You know, and we’re going to learn from this one, too.”
“I think it was definitely just coming out with the right mindset that we have to beat Cal,” Ogden added. “We had a bad taste in our mouths and we went out there and did it.”
As for Cal, this is a disappointing loss, but at the same time they fought hard and showed they can go toe-to-toe with Stanford. Especially given last year’s results. They need to put this one in the rear view mirror, look ahead to facing USC, and feel confident that when they run it back at Haas Pavilion, they’ll have a great chance to get even with the Cardinal.
“I don’t even, I mean, don’t we play USC next? Like, I can’t even think about this, running this back right now,” Smith said when asked about the future rematch in Berkeley. “You know, we don’t have to think about that. I’m sure. We have plenty of time before Stanford comes to Haas Pavilion.
“We’ll watch the film and I think we can walk away from this with some confidence, knowing that we competed, knowing that we had the lead for more than they had the lead in the game, right? We did some things right. We just have to continue to get better and it’s a basketball game. Someone’s gonna win, someone’s gonna lose; we’re disappointed. Highly disappointed. But we got to get ready for the next one and I do believe that this team has a lot of special moments left in it and I don’t know when they’re gonna come, but I know I’m gonna be sitting up here really proud of how we battled through to beat some really good teams and that’s the vision. That’s still the goal and you just have to keep moving forward.”
Up next for Stanford is a home game against Washington on Friday, December 19th. Tipoff is set for 7:00 PM PT on ACCNX. After that, they’ll face Oregon at the Chase Center in San Francisco on Sunday, December 21st at 3:00 PM PT on ESPN.
“I’ve been saying this is our Pac-12 stretch of the season,” Paye said. “You know, UW is an excellent team. Obviously we’ve played them a lot. I have tremendous respect for Tina. They have some very nice player. They’re tough defensively. You know, they are very, they’re hard to guard, you know? And then obviously Oregon, you know, I’ve been, I’ve watched ahead on them a little bit, too. Those are two kind of teams that we know really well, their systems, and it’s going to be very challenging.”
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