Road Trip Continues at UBRoad Trip Continues at UB
Bryan Lynn/Icon Sportswire
Women's Basketball

Road Trip Continues at UB

No. 8 Stanford (8-1)
at Buffalo (7-2)
Friday, Dec. 21 • 12 p.m. ET/9 a.m. PT
Alumni Arena • Buffalo, N.Y.
Stream • ESPN+
Audio •GoStanford.com
Live Statistics • UBBulls.com
Complete Release (PDF)
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THE GAME: No. 8 Stanford (8-1) continues its East Coast road trip at Buffalo (7-2) on Friday, Dec. 21 at 12 p.m. ET. Nick Filipowski and Amy Audibert have the call on ESPN+ and Tim Swartz will handle the radio broadcast on GoStanford.com.
 
THE RUNDOWN: Stanford beat No. 9 Tennessee on Tuesday, 95-85, its third victory against the Lady Vols in Knoxville since the series began 30 years ago ... The win was the Cardinal's second in four days against a top-10 opponent after beating then-No. 3 Baylor last Saturday, 68-63 ... Stanford is the only school in the nation with a pair of top-10 wins this season ... DiJonai Carrington's 33-point, 13-rebound, four 3-pointer effort against Tennessee is just the second for a player in the past 20 years against a ranked opponent ... Stanford's 95 points against the Lady Vols are a program record on the road against a top-10 team ... The Cardinal is 13th in the country in scoring offense (84.2) and 10th in field goal percentage (.485) ... Stanford is fourth nationally, averaging 11.0 3-point makes per game and eighth in 3-point percentage, making 41.6 percent ... Alanna Smith is the only player in the nation shooting better than 55 percent from the floor and 50 percent from behind the arc and is the reigning consensus national player of the week ... Stanford has two of the top three shooters from the floor in the Pac-12 in Alanna Smith (.594) and Maya Dodson (.589) ... The nation's consensus No. 1 recruit, Haley Jones, announced her commitment to Stanford on Nov. 28, the first top player to sign with the Cardinal since Chiney Ogwumike in Nov. 2009.
 
VS. BUFFALO: Friday will be the first meeting between Stanford and Buffalo and the program's first game in the state of New York since an 81-55 win at Fordham on Jan. 5, 2002. A 1999 inductee into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame, Tara VanDerveer's family moved to Western New York from Schenectady in 1968. She transferred to Buffalo Seminary in October of her junior year because it had a girls basketball team that played a limited schedule and graduated from the school in 1971.
 
RECORDS SET ON ROCKY TOP »

  • On the 30th anniversary of the first meeting in their storied rivalry, Stanford went on the road and beat No. 9 Tennessee in Knoxville, 95-85, on Tuesday night.
  • In the first top-10 matchup between the schools since 2013, the Cardinal collected its third win against the Lady Vols in Thompson-Boling Arena. Its previous road victories in Knoxville came on Dec. 22, 2012 (73-60) and Dec. 15, 1996 (82-65).
  • Stanford shot 14-of-24 (.583) from 3-point range, an opponent record for Thompson-Boling Arena and a record-tying number of makes from deep against the Lady Vols all-time.
  • The Cardinal's 95 points were the most against Tennessee in Knoxville in 13 seasons and just two shy of the opponent record in Thompson-Boling Arena. Texas beat the Lady Vols 97-78 on Dec. 9, 1987.
  • Stanford shot 55 percent overall (33-of-60) to score its 95 points, a program record for scoring on the road against a top-10 team.
  • DiJonai Carrington led five Cardinal in double figures with a career-high 33 points and 13-rebounds for her third career double-double. Carrington was 11-of-15 (.733) from the floor and 4-of-5 (.800) from deep and became just the second player in the last 20 years to have 33 points, 13 rebounds and four made 3-pointers against a ranked opponent. Missouri's Evan Unrau had 40/15/4 against No. 8 Kansas State on Feb. 22, 2014, a game that went into double-overtime.

 
RESUME BUILDERS »

  • Coupled with Saturday's 68-63 home victory over then-No. 3 Baylor, Stanford beat a pair of top-10 teams in the span of four days, something it last did eight years ago when it beat No. 4 Xavier, 89-52, on Dec. 28, 2010 and No. 1 UConn, 71-59, on Dec. 30, 2010 to end the Huskies' then-record 90-game winning streak. Both of those victories were at home.
  • Stanford is the only school in the nation with a pair of top-10 wins to its name and is now No. 5 in the official NCAA women's basketball RPI.
  • On Saturday, Alanna Smith had 21 points, Shannon Coffee made a key 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter and Stanford held on to beat previously undefeated and then-No. 3 Baylor 68-63.
  • The win was the Cardinal's first in the regular season against a top-five team since it ended No. 1 UConn's 47-game winning streak in overtime, 88-86, on Nov. 17, 2014.
  • Stanford is now 9-1 in its last 10 home game against top-five opponents.
  • The 6-foot-5 Coffee set season highs with nine points and 19 minutes and made three of her four 3-point attempts. The senior has made 12 from deep in her career and seven have come against Baylor. She was 4-of-8 last season in an 81-57 loss in Waco.
  • Coupled with Smith's 5-of-9 effort from behind the arc, the Cardinal's two tallest players were a combined 8-of-13 (.615) from distance.
  • Baylor, which entered the game leading the nation in field goal percentage (.557), shot just 34.9 percent (22-of-63) against the Cardinal, its lowest since losing 88-69 to Notre Dame in the Elite Eight on March 31, 2014 (.338).
  • Kalani Brown (16.4 ppg) and Lauren Cox (12.3 ppg), who came in averaging nearly 30 combined points per game, together went for just seven points on just 3-of-11 shooting (.273). Brown came into the day leading the NCAA's active players in field goal percentage (.648) made only two of her seven attempts from the floor, the third-lowest percentage of her career when attempting at least five shots.
  • The win was Stanford's 15th in a row at home, the 10th-longest active streak in the nation.

 
LONE LOSS »

  • Stanford started the season 6-0, its best since winning its first 11 games in 2012-13.
  • The Cardinal's loss at Gonzaga on Dec. 2 was its third to a WCC team in the nonconference in the last four seasons. Gonzaga won at Stanford, 68-63, on Nov. 18, 2016 and Santa Clara beat the Cardinal in Maples on Nov. 23, 2015, 61-58.
  • Gonzaga shot 54.2 percent from the floor (26-of-48) in its most recent victory, the best for a Stanford opponent since No. 22 DePaul made 59.6 percent (31-of-52) in a 91-71 win on Dec. 16, 2010.

 
MARKED OFFENSIVE IMPROVEMENT »

  • The Cardinal is 13th in the country in scoring offense (84.2) and 25th in scoring margin (+20.2).
  • Stanford hasn't averaged more than 75.0 points per game since 2013-14 and has averaged 68.7 (2017-18), 68.8 (2015-16) and 69.3 (2014-15) in three of the last four years. Those are three of the five lowest scoring offenses for a Tara VanDerveer team at Stanford, behind 1985-86 (66.6) and 1986-87 (67.8).
  • Stanford is 10th nationally in field goal percentage (.485) and 16th in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.30). Those categories are just a couple of many where the Cardinal has seen a marked improvement year-over-year. Last season, Stanford was 87th in field goal percentage (.424) and 126th in assist-to-turnover ratio (0.93).

 
AGAINST RANKED »

  • The Cardinal, 2-0 against ranked teams this season, was 4-9 against ranked foes last year and, including this year, has won multiple games against top 25 opponents for each of the last 17 seasons.
  • Stanford is 77-43 (.642) against AP ranked opponents since 2007-08, fifth in the country in such wins the past 12 years and fourth in percentage.
  • Connecticut (.903), Baylor (.761), Notre Dame (.733), Stanford (.642), Tennessee (.607), Duke (.550) and Maryland (.534) are the only teams with winning records against ranked teams over that span.

 
SHARP SHOOTERS »

  • Stanford is fourth in the country, averaging 11.0 3-point makes per game and eighth in 3-point percentage, making 41.6 percent.
  • Stanford's 16 3-pointers on Nov. 11 against Idaho tied a program single-game record also achieved at UCLA on Feb. 24, 2002 and at Washington on Feb. 24, 2001.
  • Entering the season, Stanford had made 14 3-pointers in a game 16 times in 1,389 games (1.2 percent). This year's Cardinal has already done it three times in nine games (33.3 percent) against Idaho (16), San Francisco (15) and Tennessee (14).
  • The Cardinal made 31.9 percent of its attempts from behind the arc last season, the second-worst percentage in program history. Stanford also was a program-low 42.4 percent from the floor overall in 2017-18.
  • Stanford won that game against Idaho 115-71, its fifth-highest point total ever and most since tying a school record with 122 against Cal State Fullerton on Dec. 10, 1994.

 
FOUR TO THE FARM »

  • Stanford bolstered an already strong recruiting class for next season with the addition of the nation's consensus No. 1 recruit, Haley Jones (Santa Cruz, Calif./Archbishop Mitty), who committed on Nov. 28.
  • Jones joined the earlier signings of top-50, five-star talents Fran Belibi (Aurora, Colo./Regis Jesuit), Hannah Jump (Los Altos Hills, Calif./Pinewood School) and Ashten Prechtel (Colorado Springs, Colo./Discovery Canyon) in Stanford's class, which is ranked second nationally by espnW HoopGurlz.
  • Jones is the first No. 1 prospect to sign with Stanford since Chiney Ogwumike came to The Farm as the top player in the country in Nov. 2009. She is also the first woman to have her college commitment covered by ESPN and SportsCenter.

 
SO INTERNATIONAL »

  • Alanna Smith, Jenna Brown and Alyssa Jerome all represented their countries across the globe in various tournaments this summer.
  • Smith, the program's first international student, became the sixth Stanford player to appear in a FIBA World Cup in helping Australia to a silver medal in late September. The senior was one of two Stanford players at the tournament in Tenerife, Spain along with alumna Nneka Ogwumike (United States) and was a late arrival to campus for the fall quarter. Classes started on September 24.
  • It was the 22-year-old's second go-around with the Senior Women's National Team. She made her debut and won silver at the 2017 FIBA Asia Cup in Bangalore, India and was one of two Australian players to score in double figures, averaging 10.8 points on 58.3 percent shooting and 5.3 rebounds.
  • Brown and the USA Basketball U18 National Team won gold at the FIBA Americas U18 Championship in Mexico City in early August. The freshman averaged 7.5 points on 57.1 percent shooting, 2.8 assists and 2.3 rebounds in six games. She had her best performance in the semifinals against Colombia, going for a team-high 17 points on 6-of-7 shooting, including hitting three of her four 3-point attempts.
  • In her first taste of FIBA competition two years ago, Brown took home bronze alongside current Cardinal Maya Dodson at the 2016 FIBA U17 World Cup in Zaragoza Spain.
  • Jerome was the youngest player on Canada's Senior Women's National Team roster that participated in a four-game exhibition series in China and Japan from August 1-7.

 
SUMMERS OFF THE FLOOR »

  • Senior center Shannon Coffee spent her summer interning with the Stanford Center for Clinical Research, working on a study to address growing concerns over concussions in sports through research and data collection.
  • The project involved mouthguards developed by engineers at Stanford with the ability to track impact, force and more in collisions between high school football players.
  • Senior guard Alexa Romano was in Peru all summer as part of an archaeological excavation and research team led by Stanford professor Dr. John Rick at a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Andes.
  • It was Romano's second academically-oriented international trip with Stanford. Two summers ago she spent three weeks in India as part of The Rubenstein-Bing Student-Athlete Civic Engagement Program, serving as a coaching assistant for sports activities, taught English as a second language courses and promoted computer literacy initiatives for youth at a community center in New Delhi.

 
FROM DOWN UNDER »

  • Alanna Smith is on a laundry of preseason watch lists, including the Naismith Trophy, Wade Trophy, John R. Wooden Award, Katrina McClain Award and Senior CLASS Award and also was selected to the preseason All-Pac-12 Team as voted on by the media who regularly cover the conference.
  • The reigning espnW, USBWA and Pac-12 Player of the Week, this season Smith is shooting 59.4 percent from the field (57-of-96), 52.2 percent from behind the arc (24-of-46) and averaging a team-high 18.2 points per game to go with 6.0 rebounds.
  • She is the only player in the nation shooting better than 55 percent from the floor and 50 percent from deep using NCAA minimums of five made field goals per game and two made 3-pointers per game.
  • Smith is second in the conference and 22nd in the country in field goal percentage, third in the Pac-12 and sixth in the country in 3-point percentage, seventh in the league in scoring and leads the nation's 6-foot-4 players in 3-point percentage and 3-pointers made.
  • She is 32nd in school history in scoring (1,168) and seventh in blocks (161).
  • In the Cardinal's win over San Francisco on Nov. 15, Smith had 18 points, seven rebounds, three assists, four blocks and five made 3-pointers. She is the eighth player with those numbers in a single game in the past 20 years and the only one to do it in less than 30 minutes (26).
  • Smith has made 98 career 3-pointers, more than any other player her height since 2015-16. Six-foot-4 Courtney Zezza on Saint Francis has made 86 over the past four years.

 
WATCH WILLIAMS »

  • Kiana Williams is also on a handful of watch lists for the Naismith Trophy, John R. Wooden Award and Ann Meyers Drysdale Award.
  • The sophomore is second on the team in scoring (15.1 points per game) and makes an average of 2.89 3-pointers per outing, good for fourth in the league. Her 71 made triples a year ago are the second most for a Stanford freshman in program history.
  • Williams is also averaging 4.7 assists per game, which is 10th in the conference. No Stanford player has averaged 4.5 assists in a season since Jeanette Pohlen in 2010-11 (4.8).

 
INCREASED CONTRIBUTIONS »

  • Six-foot-3 posts Nadia Fingall and Maya Dodson have played major roles in Stanford's 8-1 start.
  • A junior, Fingall has started each game and is averaging 8.4 points and 5.1 rebounds. She's shooting 50.8 percent from the field (31-of-61) and dropped in a career-high 24 points on 11-of-14 shooting in Stanford's 88-65 win against FGCU in Hawaii on Nov. 23 to go along with another personal best five assists. Fingall averaged 3.3 points on 44.6 percent shooting and 3.1 rebounds a year ago.
  • Dodson similarly has upped her game as a sophomore and is scoring 8.2 points on 58.9 percent shooting from the floor (33-of-56) and leads the conference in blocks per game (1.67). As a freshman, Dodson scored 3.5 points per game on 49.5 percent shooting.
  • Dodson is third in the league in field goal percentage, just behind Alanna Smith (.594) according to the Pac-12's stats, which have different minimums than the NCAA.
  • Fingall, who had 19 assists in 34 games a year ago, already has 17 this season. Dodson has 14 in 197 minutes this year after just five in 372 minutes as a freshman in 2017-18.

 
TWIN TREES »

  • Sisters Lexie (25.7 minutes per game) and Lacie Hull (24.0 minutes per game) have played big roles in the early going and are Stanford's second and third most utilized players in terms of minutes played.
  • Lexie, who has missed the past six games with a left foot injury, started the season's first three games and averaged 10.7 points, 7.0 rebounds and 2.7 steals. She had an 11-point, 11-rebound double-double in the season opener against UC Davis and is believed to be the first freshman in Stanford history to record a double-double in her debut.
  • Lacie has started each of Stanford's last three games and scored a career-high 14 points and made four of her five 3-point attempts in the win at Tennessee.
  • Her seven steals on Nov. 24 against American were the most for a Stanford player since Candice Wiggins had the same number in a win over Old Dominion on Nov. 24, 2007.
  • Lacie is 10th in the conference, averaging 2.00 steals per game, and has 16 assists against just seven turnovers (2.29 assist-to-turnover ratio). Candice Wiggins is the only Stanford player to average 2.0 steals per game in a season over the past 20 years. She did it three times: 2004-05 (2.43), 2007-08 (2.15) and 2005-06 (2.00).