Recap: Stanford Women’s Basketball powers past UC Davis
On Thursday, Stanford women’s basketball defeated UC Davis 70-45. Stanford junior forward Nunu Agara led the way for the Cardinal with 16 points and 16 rebounds while freshman forward Lara Somfai had 14 points and 12 rebounds. UC Davis sophomore guard Ryann Bennett led the way for the Aggies with 19 points on 5-5 shooting from 3-point range. Stanford improves to 6-0 overall while UC Davis falls to 3-2.
VIDEO: Stanford Women’s Basketball Postgame Press Conference-UC Davis
BOX SCORE: UC Davis at Stanford-Thursday, November 20th
“All right, you know, we’re very excited,” Stanford head coach Kate Paye said after the game. “That was a great win. It’s fun to be back home at Maples. First, I just wanna say how much respect for we have for UC Davis and Jen Gross and her staff. They’re great coaches and they are great friends and it’s always a very tough game against UC Davis. We played them for very many years because they are so well coached.
“And we run very similar offense. So, you know, they kind of know what we’re doing better than we do half the time. So, you know, something that we can learn a lot from. I know that they’re gonna have a great year.
“I was very excited about, you know, our team. We had a lot of great contributions. Obviously to have two players, Nunu and Lara, and both having double-doubles is really exciting. You know, I thought our defense came through for us again. Even though I could still nitpick with it a little bit. We have a lot of improvement that we can do. I feel like we have great shooters on our team. We got to work on our spacing, pick up our pace on things. That’s something I think we can learn from tonight’s game.”
Stanford led UC Davis 15-8 at the end of the 1st quarter. Somfai led Stanford with seven points and three rebounds. Stanford was shooting 5-14 from the field while UC Davis was shooting 2-14. Neither team was shooting the rock well.
At halftime, Stanford was ahead 35-19 after outscoring UC Davis 20-11 in the 2nd quarter. Somfai was up to 12 points and seven rebounds. Nobody had reached double figures for Davis. It wasn’t the prettiest of games, but Stanford was in firm control.
By the end of the 3rd quarter, Stanford was up 56-33 over UC Davis. Agara had 14 points and 11 rebounds for Stanford and was in a nice rhythm. Bennett made a 3-pointer at the buzzer for UC Davis and had 14 points as well. She was having a strong night and despite Stanford’s best efforts, she was making all her threes.
“I don’t know what you’re supposed to do about that,” Paye said about Bennett’s buzzer beater. “You know, she’s a terrific player and we knew that coming in. I mean she was the top of our scouting report. We kind of game planned for her and you know, she still was able to shoot, you know, obviously 19 points, five rebounds, very efficient. She is very quick and she’s very skilled. So you know, she’s a terrific player.”
In the end, Stanford finished with a 70-45 victory. Stanford forward Nunu Agara had a career night in rebounding with 16 points and 16 rebounds, while Lara Somfai recorded another double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds. UC Davis battled hard, but the Cardinal being the better team simply had too many weapons for UC Davis to overcome.
“You know, I took it personally because Kate at halftime told me that I need to rebound,” Agara said with a smile. “I wasn’t rebounding. She said I was coughing all the time, so I took that personally and said I was gonna rebound. So I guess, if I get to just, you know, use the ability that God gave me to get some rebounds.”
For Stanford, this was overall a good win. They controlled the game wire to wire and both Agara and Somfai really came to play as they each finished with double-doubles. I think on the whole, Stanford should feel good about this win though of course, there are things they can work on like perimeter defense.
“I mean, I think for me, it’s my teammates and my coaches,” Somfai said of the key to averaging a double-double. “Like, I know they really really believe in me and especially Nunu being a captain, she’s very vocal and definitely helps me when I go in my head sometimes. And I think for me, rebounding is super important. It gets me going. It’s something that takes effort. And for me, like when I get a few rebounds, I get going and I get into the game and then I feel confident for my shots and stuff like that. So, I think it’s super important and yeah, it’s just my teammates and people around me. They really, really help me a lot. So just looking forward to it.”
Something that made this game extra special for Somfai was having her dad in attendance watching play. To have him come all the way from Australia to see her play for the first time in two years really meant a lot to her. That gave her extra motivation to have a strong outing.
“Oh my god, it was amazing,” Somfai said of having her dad there. “I actually, I caught myself. I was like, I had, like tears during the national anthem. I caught myself. I was like no, I gotta get it together. But it was so good. He hasn’t seen me play in like, I think two years. I think the last time was when I played with my national team in Papua New Guinea. Yeah, that was like, the only time my parents had ever come out. So yeah, it means a lot to me and he won’t be back for a while. So I think I really wanted to make the most of it.”
With this being Big Game Week, the Cardinal made it clear that they are supportive of the football team as they look to bring The Axe back to The Farm. It’s always fun to see how supportive the entire athletic department is of one another.
“Beat Cal! That’s all we got!” Agara said while clapping. “Beat Cal.”
“No blue anywhere,” Somfai added. “No blue colors, no blue Gatorade.”
“It’s a really exciting week,” Paye said. “You know, Stanford has a lot of pride. We, you know, around the athletic department we say one team. You know, we have 36 varsity sport teams, but we’re all one team and we love what Andrew, Coach Reich, and kind of all the guys are doing. We’re behind them 100%. I even got to blow the train whistle today. That was fun. Go Stanford.”
Up next for Stanford is a home game against Lehigh on Sunday, November 23rd. That will begin at 1:00 PM PT on ACCNX.
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