Recap: Stanford Women’s Basketball powers past Cal State LA in exhibition
On Wednesday, Stanford women’s basketball defeated Cal State LA in an exhibition at Maples Pavilion by a final score of 85-50. Stanford junior guard Chloe Clardy led the way for the Cardinal with 20 points and six rebounds while junior forward Nunu Agara had 17 points and 7 rebounds. Freshman forward Lara Somfai had a double-double for the Cardinal with 13 points and 10 rebounds. The top scorer for Cal State LA was guard Nevaeh Asiasi with 16 points and five rebounds.
BOX SCORE: Cal State LA at Stanford-Wednesday, October 29th
“Yeah well, this was, you know, really exciting,” Stanford head coach Kate Paye said after the game. “Kind of, a lot of things felt brand new tonight. You know, we have a brand new locker room space that we’re very grateful for, new athletic training room, so it’s kinda past few years, we’ve been in the visitor’s locker room on the other side of Maples, so kind of learning a new flow and kind of finding some new routines. Obviously, we have a very different roster this year. So, it just felt exciting. And I know I woke up excited. I think our players were very excited. We have a lot of respect for Cal State LA, this is the second year that we played them. Coach Torino and their team. You know, they do a really great job. So, it’s always helpful.
“You know, we’ve had a great preseason, we’ve been practicing really hard against each other, against our practice players, but you know, the feedback of playing somebody else and I saw a lot of things that I’m really excited about and a lot of things that I know we can do better. And that’s the fun part of it. That’s what we enjoy as coaches.
“We have great players on our team, we’re working really hard, we’re very unselfish. You know, obviously, Chloe gained so much experience last year. To see her pick up right where she left off is really exciting. Lara and our other freshmen, you know, just to see, you can see kind of how good they’re gonna be, and their upper-class players are really helping them. So, you know, we’re gonna take this tape and really learn from it.”
Stanford rolled with starting five of guard Talana Lepolo, guard Hailee Swain, wing Courtney Ogden, forward Nunu Agara, and forward Lara Somfai. Swain and Somfai being freshmen. With that lineup, Stanford got off to a great start, leading 18-6 at the end of the 1st quarter. Swain was leading the Cardinal with eight points. Stanford was shooting just 8-24 (33.3%) from the field, but they were holding Cal State LA to 3-18 (16.7%) shooting from the field.
In the 2nd quarter, Stanford would outscore Cal State LA 23-19 to lead 41-25 at halftime. Agara was up to nine points and four rebounds for the Cardinal while Swain’s eight points was second on the team. Nevaeh Asiasi and Sofia Fidelus each had eight points for the Golden Eagles, doing their part to keep their team in the game. The only thing that wasn’t clicking for Stanford was their 3-point shooting as they were 2-11 from deep.
Stanford would lead 69-38 at the end of the 3rd quarter. Agara was up to 17 points and 7 rebounds while Chloe Clardy was up to 16 points and five rebounds. After a close 2nd quarter, Stanford outscored Cal State LA 28-13 in the 3rd quarter, closing it out on a 7-0 run.
In the end, Stanford would win by a final score of 85-50. They got a lot of different people going throughout the duration of the game, including sophomore forward Harper Peterson, who had a nice putback and sophomore guard Shay Ijiwoye, who had a nice layup as she blew past a defender. It was truly an all-around team effort.
“Our team knows this: We need everyone,” Paye said. “We are 15 strong and every single player on our team has a really important role and we’re still figuring that out. You know, this is still October. But to have Harper back, kind of going through the injury from last year, she’s very smart, she’s versatile, she’s an excellent passer, she’s very skilled, has a beautiful shot. She is really gonna help us and I know her teammates were really excited for her.”
For Stanford, this went about as well as they could hope it would go. They got everyone involved, got a feel for what kind of team they are, and nobody got hurt. As I mentioned earlier, the only downside to this game for Stanford was the 3-point shooting was off. They shot 3-18 from deep and Ogden wasn’t able to get anything to fall, shooting 0-3 from the field. Knowing that those shots will fall and that Ogden is bound to get going, they should be feeling good on the whole with how this game went.
“Yeah, our team, we have a very unselfish team,” Paye said. “We move the ball really well, we had 17 assists tonight, I think we can move it even more. You know, we don’t have any like ball hogs out there. People move the basketball and you know, Alex, I mean, she had some beautiful post moves in there, you know, and people were looking for her. You know, I think we can do it even more, quite honestly. You know, I thought early in the first half, we were a little bit impatient. We tried to kind of one-two pass and we’re so excited. We wanna score. I thought our offense started to look better when, you know, we got to kind of different layers of our offense and get inside, do some split cuts, reverse the ball, on ball pick, snap up and get the ball moving. That’s when I thought we got quality looks.”
To touch quickly on the freshmen, they all showed what they are capable of and the potential they have as a unit. They all seemed to enjoy playing with each other and having fun in their first experience playing in front of the Maples crowd.
“Oh my gosh, it was amazing,” Somfai said of playing her first home game. “I loved it. It’s so cool to be here. I know like, during the anthem, I actually kind of got teary eyed a little bit because I was like, I really have never heard the American anthem, only when I played against America, obviously. But I thought it was super, it was amazing for me and it was really unreal. Like, obviously the year lead up after committing, I was just counting down the days to play, so I know Coach Kate was very excited as well. But yeah, I think for all the freshmen it was super exciting, but it means a lot to me.”
Up next for Stanford is the regular season. They’ll open things up at home against UNC Greensboro on Monday, November 3rd at 7:00 PM PT on ACCNX.
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