After Friday night’s near-upset against No. 6 ranked Stanford, there is no denying the Washington women’s basketball team has plenty of fight.
The Huskies got off to a glacially slow start against the Cardinal, as UW began the game just 2-for-21 from the field while scoring just five points in the first quarter. But the offense recovered from its atrocious start with a thrilling performance in the second half that and brought the UW crowd’s mood from lethargic to enraptured.
Lauren Schwartz’s 3-pointer with 15 seconds left in the fourth sent the game to overtime tied at 50-50. In the end though, Stanford came out on top as Stanford star Cameron Brink scored eight points in OT and Washington couldn’t get the final shot in a 63-59 loss.
“Really proud of our team’s fight tonight,” UW head coach Tina Langley said. “I thought we came out and battled and showed a lot of improvement from our last game.”
After falling behind 9-0 lead in the first quarter and going scoreless for the first four minutes of the game, the Huskies finally got their first bucket when when sophomore Elle Ladine hit a stepback 3-pointer at 5:58 to make it a 9-3 game.
The Huskies managed just one more bucket in the first, but Stanford’s anemic 2-for-14 shooting effort put the Cardinals ahead by just six points, 11-5.
UW didn’t score again until Schwartz hit a 3-pointer at 3:32 in the second, but after Schwartz’ shot, the baskets finally started to fall. Hannah Stines hit back to back 3-pointers at 2:35 and 2:00 to bringing the Huskies within eight points, and Ladine hit a 2-point jumper with six seconds left in the half to make it 22-16, as the Huskies went into halftime on an 8-0 run.
Stanford’s 22 points was the fewest the team has scored in the first half this season.
After a 3-pointer by Dalayah Daniels to kick off the second half, the Huskies had turned a terrible start and seemingly insurmountable 15-point deficit into a three-point game.
Stines tied the game at 31-31 with a free throw at 4:12, and Stanford quickly responded with a 10-0 run to pulled ahead 41-31. But Sayvia Sellers made a jumper with 17 seconds left in the third to make it an eight-point game heading into the fourth quarter.
Jayda Noble, back in the lineup after missing each of the past four games, hit a 3-pointer with 5:37 left to pull the Huskies within five points and a layup by Daniels brought UW within three at 44-41.
Elle Ladine made it a one-point game at 44-43 with a steal and a layup at 4:09 to finish off a 7-0 UW run. After a Stanford six-point run quieted the crowd, Stines hit a 3-pointer with 42 seconds left to bring them back to an excited roar.
Schwartz made a free throw with 22 seconds left to put the score at 50-47, and then hit her three that sent the game to an extra frame.
As the crowd roared around her at that moment, Schwartz didn’t get too excited. She still had a job to do with 15 seconds left on the clock.
“During (the 3-pointer), nothing went through my head, but afterwards, I was focused on the next play and what we had to do to get (those) stops and make it go to overtime. ” Schwartz said.
But the Huskies couldn’t finish the job. Stanford’s Courtney Ogden scored a layup off an inbound pass to put Stanford up by four with 5.2 seconds left. Another 3-point attempt from Schwartz fell short as the buzzer sounded, and Stanford earned a measure of revenge for last year’s 72-67 upset loss at Alaska Airlines Arena.
Before the game, UW honored UW head coach Tara VanDerveer, who last month became the winningest head coach in college basketball victory with her 1,203rd career win, with a January 21 victory over Oregon State that pushed her past former Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski on the all-time list.
Though she was on the opposing side, UW fans, players, and coaches all showered VanDerveer with applause for her legendary accomplishment.
“Stanford’s a great team. Incredibly well coached,” Langley said nearly beating VanDerveer for the second straight year. “Great to honor Tara tonight in person and all she’s accomplished. But also just want to really say to our team how proud I am of the continued improvement and the way we’re growing.”
The teams combined for 32 turnovers, with Stanford finishing with 18 and UW ending the night with 14.
Stines finished with a team-high 17 points for UW, while Brink scored 22 for Stanford.
The Huskies finished the game 22-for-67 from the field, for a 32.8 shooting percentage, while Stanford, which came into the game averaging 80.6 points per game, shot 42 percent from the field against UW’s Pac-12 leading defense.
The Huskies came into the game averaging a conference-best 56.7 points per game, and held Stanford to its third-lowest point total of the season. UW kept the Cardinal to 11 points or fewer in three of the four regulation quarters, and outscored them 17-9 in the fourth.
“I think we just communicated more,” Daniels said. “I don’t think we showed as much fear as we did in the first half, … I don’t think we needed the first half to sink in, but you know, we took it and made adjustments.”
Daniels tied her career-high with five blocks, while the 6 foot-4 inch Brink had six for Stanford.
UW finishes its four-game homestand against Cal at noon on Sunday.
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