In L.A. Friday

Stanford (11-7, 5-1)
at USC (13-4, 3-3)
Friday, Jan. 19 • 8 p.m.
Galen Center • Los Angeles, Calif.
Television • Pac-12 Bay Area/Los Angeles
Radio •GoStanford.com
Live Statistics • USCTrojans.com
Complete Release (PDF)
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THE GAME: Stanford (11-7, 5-1), alone in second in the Pac-12, heads to Los Angeles for a game at USC (13-4, 3-3) on Friday, Jan. 19 at 8 p.m. Christian Miles and Tammy Blackburn have the call on Pac-12 Networks and Tim Swartz will handle the radio broadcast on GoStanford.com.
 
THE RUNDOWN: Stanford returns 10 letterwinners, but just two starters to a team coming off its seventh Final Four in the past 10 seasons ... Stanford fell out of the AP poll for the first time since 2001 on Dec. 25, re-entered at No. 24 on Jan. 1 and is out again for the second consecutive week ... The Cardinal has seven losses through 18 games for the first time since 2000-01 ... Stanford is tied for the national lead with seven games against ranked opponents ... It has played five top-10 teams, two more than any other school ... The Cardinal is 13th in the country in field goal percentage defense (.347) ... Stanford is shooting nearly 45 percent in its six Pac-12 games after converting just 39 percent in the nonconference ... Kiana Williams is one of two freshmen in the Pac-12 averaging double figures in scoring in league games (10.8) ... In her six games since returning from injury, Brittany McPhee is averaging 17.3 points ... She was named espnW National Player of the Week on Jan. 1 ... Stanford is 11-0 when holding its opponent under 70 points ... Alanna Smith is 14th in the Pac-12 in scoring (14.2), seventh in rebounding (8.1) and third in blocks (2.1) ... Kaylee Johnson is ninth in program history in rebounds (871) and seventh in blocks (148) ... She has seven 10+ rebound games this season after just three last year.
 
VS. USC: Stanford is 58-20 all-time against USC dating back to Feb. 2, 1979, 24-13 against the Trojans on the road and has won 19 of the teams' last 20 meetings. The Cardinal has prevailed nine times in a row against USC in the Galen Center. The Trojans last home win in the series came on Jan. 6, 2008 (73-72). Brittany McPhee scored 21, Marta Sniezek had eight points, 10 rebounds and six assists and Stanford held off USC 72-65 in the teams' previous meeting on Dec. 31. Last time at USC, the Cardinal tied a school record with 13 blocks on Jan. 22, 2016.
 
WEEKEND RECAP »

• Stanford swept the Washington schools to move into sole possession of second place in the Pac-12 with a 5-1 league record.
• The Cardinal received 59 combined points from its starting lineup to beat Washington State 70-57 on Friday night and moved to 63-0 all-time against the Cougars.
• Stanford attempted a season-low 13 3-pointers against WSU. The Cardinal outscored Washington State 46-26 in the paint 46-26, its highest total since last Dec. 28 against Yale (58) and the program's most in a conference game in four seasons. Stanford had 49 points in the paint in an 80-56 win over No. 14 Arizona State on Jan. 20, 2014.
• On Sunday Stanford outscored Washington 40-22 in the second half and won its 17th straight at home against the Huskies, 71-45.

WHERE WE STAND »

• The Cardinal's 11-7 record is its worst through 17 games since it was also 11-7 at the same point in 2000-01. Stanford would eventually get to 14-7 before finishing that year 19-11 overall and advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
• Stanford entered conference play with a 6-6 mark, the program's first time heading into league action with at least six losses since 1998-99. Stanford was 4-7 in its regular-season nonconference slate in that season, which was also the last time the Cardinal lost multiple regular-season, nonconference home games as it has this year with results against Western Illinois and Tennessee.
• The Cardinal dropped out of the AP poll for the first time in 17 years on Dec. 25 after those two losses, but worked its way back a week later at No. 24 following its home victories over UCLA and USC.
• Stanford avoided dropping three consecutive games at home for the first time since 1985-86 with its win over UCLA on Dec. 29.
• The one-week respite was the first time Stanford had been unranked since the 2001 season, when a 72-54 loss at No. 20 Oregon on Jan. 13 knocked the No. 24 Cardinal out of the polls. It wouldn't get back in until opening the next season at No. 9.
• Stanford is out of the polls again for the second consecutive week.
• The Cardinal has been in 522 AP polls, tied for the third most all-time with Georgia, and had its stretch of 312 in a row snapped when it was unranked Dec. 25. Stanford's streak is tied for the third longest in the history of the poll. Tennessee had the longest run at 565 weeks, Connecticut has an active 461-week streak and Duke also appeared in 312 consecutive rankings.
• Stanford is 32nd in the NCAA RPI and has played the nation's ninth-toughest schedule.

SETTING THE STAGE »

• Since 2007-08, the Cardinal owns a conference road record of 80-12 and a Pac-12 home record of 88-6.
• Stanford is 116-26 (.817) on the road the last 11 years, third in both wins and percentage. Connecticut is 123-6 (.953) and Green Bay is 120-25 (.828).
• The Cardinal is 11-0 this season when holding its opponent under 70 points and has used seven different starting lineups in its 18 games.
• Tara VanDerveer and Stanford faced Mark Trakh 14 times in his previous stint at USC from 2005-09. The Cardinal was 13-1 in those games, its only loss coming in Los Angeles on Jan. 6, 2008, 73-72.
• Trakh also served as the head coach at Pepperdine from 1994-2004 and Stanford won three meetings with the Waves during those 10 seasons in Nov. 2001 (75-63), Jan. 2003 (91-58) and Nov. 2003 (69-61).
• Including this season, VanDerveer and the Cardinal are 18-1 against Trakh's teams. Stanford opened its Final Four run last season with a 72-64 win over Trakh's New Mexico State Aggies in the first round.
• New Mexico State led by as many as nine early before Alanna Smith gave Stanford its first lead midway through the third quarter and Brittany McPhee provided the lead for good midway through the fourth. Smith had 19 and 11 and McPhee added 16, six rebounds and a career-high five steals.

WHAT'S BACK, WHAT'S NOT »

• The Cardinal returns 10 letterwinners, but just two starters to a team coming off its seventh Final Four in the past 10 seasons.
• Stanford posted a 32-6 overall record last season and a 15-3 mark in Pac-12 play. The Cardinal won its 12th Pac-12 Tournament championship and celebrated Tara VanDerveer's 1,000th career victory during the program's 14th 30-win campaign.
• Gone are Erica McCall, Karlie Samuelson and Briana Roberson, seniors that accounted for 45 percent of Stanford's minutes, 46 percent of its scoring and 35 percent of its rebounds in 2016-17.
• The Cardinal's young squad has eight underclassmen and entered the year with just one returner on the roster that averaged more than 20 minutes per game in her career (Marta Sniezek).

BAPTISM BY FIRE »

• Stanford is tied for the national lead with seven games against ranked teams and is 1-6 in those contests, notching its first win of the year against No. 11 UCLA in its conference opener, 76-65. In beating the Bruins, Stanford snapped a six-game losing streak against ranked foes.
• Kansas State has also played seven top-25 teams and eight schools have had six games against ranked opponents.
• The Cardinal has played five top-10 teams in No. 5 Ohio State (Nov. 10), No. 1 UConn (Nov. 12), No. 9 Ohio State (Nov. 25), No. 9 Baylor (Dec. 3) and No. 7 Tennessee (Dec. 21). No other school has more than three games against top-10 opponents this season.
• For comparison, Stanford played five top-10 opponents all of last year, which was the program's most since 2010-11 (7).
• Dating back to last season, 12 of Stanford's past 24 games have been against ranked opponents, including eight in the top 10 and four in the top five.
• "We can schedule it so that we are 12-0 or 10-2, but this team went to the Final Four last year and that's the level that we have to get to," Tara VanDerveer said of her team's nonconference schedule. "We need our tough schedule to pay off for us, but it only pays off if we build on it. Don't get frustrated. Get mad and go to work. We are looking up at people right now. We need people to look up at where we need to be and embrace that challenge."
• Stanford was 8-4 against ranked teams last season and has won multiple games against top 25 opponents for each of the last 15 seasons.

OFFENSE/DEFENSE »

• After shooting just 39.3 percent in 12 nonconference games, Stanford has hit 44.8 percent in its first six Pac-12 contests. The Cardinal was also at 29.5 percent from 3-point range in the nonconference and is at 33.0 percent in league play thus far.
• Overall, the Cardinal is shooting 41.0 percent from the field (146th in the country), 30.5 percent (223rd) from deep and 64.1 percent (296th) from the free throw line.
• The program's all-time lows in those categories are 42.6 percent from the field (2015-16), 31.1 percent on 3-pointers (2011-12) and 64.8 percent on free throws (1978-79).
• Stanford's turnover margin (-4.1) is also 319th in the nation.
• At the other end of the court the Cardinal is 13th in the country in field goal percentage defense (.347), 15th in blocks per game (5.72) and ninth in rebounds per game (44.9).

SCOUTING REPORT »

• Stanford has done a good job of limiting its opponent's top offensive threat in Pac-12 play. Through five games the leading scorers below have combined to shoot just 24.4 percent from the floor and average 10.3 points.
• Especially notable are its performances against Kianna Ibis and Borislava Hristova. Ibis was coming off 30 and 26-point performances the previous two games against Utah and Cal in which she shot 54.5 percent (24-of-44). Hristova was the reigning Pac-12 Player of the Week after she combined to shoot 65.9 percent (29-of-44) and score 36 and 29 in her two prior games with Colorado and Utah.

BRITT'S BACK »

• Brittany McPhee came back on Dec. 21 against No. 7 Tennessee after missing the previous nine games recovering from a right foot injury. In seven games since, McPhee is averaging 17.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists.
• With 969 points, she is close to becoming the 39th Stanford player to score 1,000 in her career.
• On Jan. 1, McPhee was named espnW National Player of the Week after averaging 23.5 points on 54 percent shooting, 7.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists in Stanford's home victories to start conference play.
• She totaled 26 points, seven rebounds and four assists in a 76-65 victory against the No. 11 Bruins and followed that with 21 points, eight rebounds, two blocks and two steals in a 72-65 win against the Trojans. At her best when it mattered most, 22 of McPhee's 47 points in the two games came in the fourth quarter.
• McPhee has scored 20+ in four of her nine games this season and is averaging 17.1 points per game to go with 5.2 rebounds. Because she missed so much time, McPhee won't appear in the national statistical rankings until the NCAA Tournament should Stanford advance to play 36 total games this season.
• Of McPhee's 13 career 20-point games, six have come against ranked teams and her four highest-scoring performances have come against top-15 foes. She scored a career-high 28 against No. 8 Texas on Nov. 14, 2016 and also dropped in 27 in the Elite Eight against No. 2 Notre Dame on March 26, 2017 in addition to her 27 and 26-point efforts against No. 7 Tennessee and No. 11 UCLA.
• In fact, eight McPhee's last 13 games dating back to last season have come against top-25 teams and she is averaging 19.3 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.9 assists in those ranked contests.
• McPhee, an All-Pac-12 performer as a junior and candidate for this year's Ann Meyers Drysdale, Naismith, and Senior CLASS awards, averaged 13.3 points per game last season, including 16.8 points on 44.4 percent shooting from behind the arc in the NCAA Tournament.
• She made her USA Basketball debut this summer at the U24 Four Nations Tournament in Tokyo. McPhee averaged 9.3 points on 61.1 percent shooting (11-of-18) and 4.0 rebounds in 15.7 minutes per game and the United States swept its three games against Australia, Canada and Japan.
• A human biology major with a 3.73 cumulative GPA, McPhee was also honored at the 2017 Final Four as women's basketball's Elite 90 award winner, which is presented to the student-athlete with the highest grade point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA's 90 championships.

WATCH WILLIAMS »

• Kiana Williams received the first collegiate honor of her career when she was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week on Jan. 8 after leading Stanford in scoring at Arizona and Arizona State with an average of 13.0 points per game.
• She scored 12 on 4-of-8 shooting, including 3-of-6 from deep, in Stanford's 61-46 win at Arizona on Jan. 5 and followed that up with at 14 on 6-of-12 shooting in her team's 73-66 loss at ASU on Jan.7.
• Williams has scored in double figures in eight of her last 11 games and is second in scoring among Pac-12 freshmen in league games, averaging 10.8 points in six conference contests.
• Williams and Arizona's Sam Thomas (11.8 ppg) are the only freshmen averaging double figures in scoring in Pac-12 games.
• Williams averaged 3.1 points and shot 20.7 percent (6-of-29) in her first seven collegiate games. In the last 11 she's scoring 11.5 per game on 39.4 percent shooting (43-of-109).
• A five-star talent, rated as the eighth best player in the country according to ESPN HoopGurlz, Williams was the Cardinal's first top-10 recruit since Chiney Ogwumike signed as the top player in the country in Nov. 2009.

FROM DOWN UNDER »

• A candidate for this year's Lisa Leslie Award, Alanna Smith was named Pac-12 Player of the Week for the first time on Nov. 27 following her three games in Las Vegas. She averaged a double-double of 23.7 points and 11.7 rebounds in Stanford's 2-1 week, shot 64.6 percent from the field (31-of-48), 40 percent from deep and also averaged 2.0 blocks per game.
• Smith's 33-point, 16-rebound performance against No. 9 Ohio State was the nation's first 30-point, 15-rebound double-double against an AP top-10 team since Stanford's Chiney Ogwumike went for 32 points and 20 boards against No. 3 Tennessee on Dec. 21, 2013.
• On Dec. 13, Mississippi State's Teaira McCowan also did it with a 35-point, 19-rebound effort as part of a 90-79 Bulldog win against No. 9 Oregon.
• Smith's is just the fourth by a Pac-12 player against a top-10 team since 2000 and the others are all Cardinal. In addition to Ogwumike's in 2013, Nneka Ogwumike had 42 points and 17 rebounds against No. 6 Tennessee on Dec. 20, 2011 and Nicole Powell put up 32 points and 16 rebounds against No. 2 Tennessee on Dec. 14, 2003.
• Smith's point total is the third-highest single-game effort in the Pac-12 this season and the most at Stanford since Chiney Ogwumike dropped in 37 against Washington State on March 1, 2014.
• In her last 33 games, Smith is averaging 14.2 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.1 blocks in 27 minutes.
• In her first 57 career appearances, the first international recruit in program history averaged just 5.6 points, 3.2 rebounds and 0.9 blocks 13 minutes per game.
• Her five double-doubles are tied for fifth in the Pac-12 with Ruthy Hebard (Oregon) and Kristen Simon (USC). UCLA's Monique Billings has eight as does Oregon's Sabrina Ionescu, including four triple-doubles, Oregon State's Marie Gulich has seven double-doubles and Cal's Kristine Anigwe has six.
• Smith is averaging 14.2 points, 8.1 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game this season, one of just 15 players in the country putting up 14/8/2. In the Pac-12 it is just Smith and Gulich with those averages.
• The Australian is 14th in the Pac-12 in scoring, seventh in rebounding and third in blocks.
• Of her six career games with 20+ points, three have come this season.

GETTING ON THE GLASS »

• Kaylee Johnson's 871 career rebounds are ninth in program history. Next on the list is Jeanne Ruark Hoff, who grabbed 908 from 1978-83.
• Johnson's 871 rebounds are third among active Pac-12 players behind UCLA's Monique Billings (978) and Utah's Emily Potter (929).
• Her 7.4 career rebounds per game average would be eighth in Stanford history. Johnson has pulled down 10 or more 39 times in 117 career games and owns a pair of 22-rebound outings as a freshman.
• She is also seventh in school history with 148 career blocks.
• Johnson had her 10th career double-double against Washington State last Friday night with 10 points and 15 rebounds. It was her first since she went for 11 and 12 in the Pac-12 Tournament semifinals against Oregon last March 4.
• She has seven double-digit rebound games already this season after just three last year.

CARRINGTON EMERGES »

• McPhee is back and so is sophomore DiJonai Carrington, who had missed Stanford's final three nonconference games after taking an elbow in practice.
• After averaging 2.5 points and 2.3 rebounds as a freshman, Carrington has emerged as Stanford's third-leading scorer (10.0 ppg) and its third-best rebounder (6.7 rpg) this season.
• She dropped in 21 points against No. 1 UConn on Nov. 12 and pulled down a career-high 22 rebounds one game later against UC Riverside on Nov. 17.
• The 5-foot-11 guard's rebound total is tied for third in school history with Kaylee Johnson and Mikaela Ruef. Chiney Ogwumike, who totaled a school-record 24 rebounds against Oregon on Feb. 24, 2013, and Nneka Ogwumike, who had 23 at Oregon on Jan. 23, 2010, are the only Cardinal players with more boards in a game.
• Carrington scored a career-high 24 points and had 10 rebounds for her second double-double of the season in Stanford's 79-54 win over Kent State on Nov. 23.
• Carrington's brother Darren just finished his career as a wide receiver at Utah and was a two-time All-Pac-12 second teamer. Her father, also Darren, played football at Northern Arizona and was a fifth-round draft pick of the Denver Broncos in the 1989 NFL Draft. He appeared in Super Bowl XXIV with the Broncos and Super Bowl XXIX with the Chargers.
• Carrington herself played two years of tackle football in middle school with the Clairemont Hawks.

THE ART OF THE ASSIST »

• Marta Sniezek had nine assists and just one turnover on Dec. 21 against No. 7 Tennessee, her fourth career game with at least nine assists.
• She has handed out five or more assists in 36 of her 91 career appearances and is 11th in the Pac-12 averaging 4.4 assists per game this season.
• The 5-foot-8 Sniezek was Stanford's leading rebounder against USC on Dec. 31, pulling down a career-high 10 to go with eight points, six assists and only one turnover.
• On Jan. 7 at Arizona State she made a career-high three 3-pointers and scored 10, her fifth time in double figures and second this season.
• Her assist rate is in the top five percent of the country. Sniezek assists on more than 28 percent of her teammates' field goals when she's on the floor.

NONCONFERENCE PERFORMANCES »

• Sophomore Anna Wilson, who battled injures as a freshman and only played 48 total minutes in six games, came off the bench against Ohio State on Nov. 25 and poured in 21 points in 19 minutes, making 7-of-8 from behind the arc.
• Wilson became the 10th Stanford player to make seven 3-pointers in a game and the first since Bonnie Samuelson dropped in eight against UCLA on Feb. 15, 2015.
• The school record for 3-point makes in a game is nine shared by Lindsey Yamasaki (Feb. 24, 2001 at Washington) and Molly Goodenbour (Dec. 21, 1993 at Tennessee).
• In an 81-57 loss at No. 9 Baylor on Dec. 3, Shannon Coffee scored a career-high 14 points and was 4-of-8 on 3-pointers.
• Stanford's center became the first player in the nation at least 6-foot-5 to hit four 3-pointers in a game since Delaware's Elena Delle Donne made the same number against Georgia State on March 6, 2013. Delle Donne made four or more 3-pointers 15 times in her career.
• Down four at halftime, Stanford scored 62 second-half points and made 15-of-31 3-pointers to beat San Francisco on the road on Nov. 29, 86-66.
• Against the Dons, Stanford was 4-of-10 on triples in the first half and then exploded in the second, going 11-of-21 across the third and fourth quarters.
• The 11 3-point makes in the second half are the most in a half in program history and the 15 total makes on 31 attempts (.484) are tied for third at the school all-time behind a pair of 16 3-point efforts at UCLA (Feb. 24, 2002) and at Washington (Feb. 24, 2001).