Conference Opener UpcomingConference Opener Upcoming
Hector Garcia-Molina/Stanford Athletics
Women's Basketball

Conference Opener Upcoming

No. 6 Stanford (10-1, 0-0)
vs. USC (10-2, 0-1)
Friday, Jan. 4 • 8 p.m.
Maples Pavilion • Stanford, Calif.
Tickets
Promotions
Television • Pac-12 Networks
Audio •GoStanford.com
Live Statistics • GoStanford.com
Complete Release (PDF)
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THE GAME: No. 6 Stanford (10-1, 0-0) opens conference play at home against USC (10-2, 0-1) on Friday, Jan. 4 at 8 p.m. Elise Woodward and Ros Gold-Onwude have the call on Pac-12 Networks and Kevin Danna will handle the radio broadcast on GoStanford.com.
 
THE RUNDOWN: Stanford is 29-3 in Pac-12 openers and hasn't lost one since the 1999-2000 season ...  The Cardinal's 177 conference wins the past 11 seasons are tied with Green Bay for the most in the nation ... Alanna Smith's 30-point, 13-rebound, five-assist, three-block performance at Buffalo was just the fourth for a player in a true road game since 2000 ... DiJonai Carrington's 33-point, 13-rebound, four 3-pointer effort against Tennessee was just the second for a player in the past 20 years against a ranked opponent ... The Cardinal has won 16 in a row at home ... Stanford is the only school in the nation with a pair of top-10 wins this season ... Stanford's 95 points against the Lady Vols are a program record on the road against a top-10 team ... The Cardinal is 24th in the country in scoring offense (80.8) and 17th in field goal percentage (.469) ... Stanford is 12th nationally, averaging 9.9 3-point makes per game and 13th in 3-point percentage, making 39.1 percent ... Alanna Smith is the only player in the nation shooting better than 55 percent from the floor and 49 percent from behind the arc ... 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. USC: Stanford is 60-20 all-time against USC dating back to Feb. 2, 1979, 30-6 against the Trojans at home and has won 21 of the teams' last 22 meetings. The Cardinal has prevailed 16 times in a row against USC in Maples Pavilion. The Trojans' last road win in the series came on March 1, 2001 (62-59). USC's only win in the last 10 seasons came in a Pac-12 Tournament semifinal on March 8, 2014 (72-68). Tara VanDerveer's 1,000th career victory came at home against the Trojans on Feb. 3, 2017 (58-42).
 
HEADING INTO CONFERENCE »

  • Stanford enters conference play with a 10-1 record (.909), its best 11-game start since it began the 2013-14 season 22-1. The Cardinal started the year with six consecutive victories, something it hadn't done since winning its first 11 games in 2012-13.
  • This is the first season since 2013-14 that Stanford suffered just one nonconference defeat.
  • The Cardinal's Nov. 18 home contest against Ohio State was canceled due to smoke from the devastating wildfires in Butte County that had compromised the air quality throughout the Bay Area.
  • Stanford is currently No. 6 in the AP Top 25 and No. 4 in the NCAA RPI.
  • Stanford is 29-3 in Pac-12 openers. Its last loss came at Arizona State (74-68) on Jan. 6, 2000.
  • Since 2007-08, the Cardinal owns a conference home record of 93-6 and a Pac-12 road record of 84-14.
  • Stanford's 177 conference wins the past 11 seasons are tied with Green Bay for the most in the nation.
  • Stanford's all-time Pac-12 record is 500-75 and 150 wins clear of the next closest team (UW - 336).

 
RECORDS SET ON ROCKY TOP »

  • On the 30th anniversary of the first meeting in their storied rivalry, Stanford went on the road and beat then-No. 9 Tennessee in Knoxville, 95-85, on Dec. 18.
  • 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 a Dec. 15 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.
  • The win against the Lady Bears 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 Shannon Coffee set season highs with nine points and 19 minutes and made three of her four 3-point attempts against Baylor. 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 Alanna 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.

 
HOME COOKIN' »

  • Stanford is in the midst of a 16-game winning streak in Maples Pavilion, the eighth longest active stretch in the country and the program's longest since it went 28 straight from Jan. 18, 2013 until an 87-81 overtime loss to No. 10 Texas on Nov. 20, 2014.
  • Last season, the Cardinal was the only Pac-12 team undefeated at home in conference (9-0).
  • Stanford's last home loss was to No. 7 Tennessee on Dec. 21, 2017 (83-71) and its last conference loss at home was to No. 15 UCLA on Feb. 6, 2017 (85-76).
  • The Cardinal hasn't lost a home game to an unranked Pac-12 team since Feb. 22, 2015, when it was beaten by Cal, 63-53.

 
LONE LOSS »

  • 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 24th in the country in scoring offense (80.8) and 21st in scoring margin (+19.5).
  • 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 17th nationally in field goal percentage (.469) and 19th in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.26). 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).

 
SHARP SHOOTERS »

  • Stanford is 12th in the country, averaging 9.9 3-point makes per game and 13th in 3-point percentage, making 39.1 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 11 games 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.
  • 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.

 
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 espnW, USBWA and Pac-12 Player of the Week from Dec. 17, this season Smith is shooting 58.6 percent from the field (75-of-128), 49.1 percent from behind the arc (28-of-57) and averaging a team-high 18.9 points per game to go with 6.5 rebounds.
  • She is the only player in the nation shooting better than 55 percent from the floor and 49 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 25th in the country in field goal percentage, third in the Pac-12 and 12th in the country in 3-point percentage, seventh in the league and 42nd nationally in scoring.
  • She is 31st in school history in scoring (1,212), sixth in blocks (165) and one of 18 players in the NCAA with multiple 30-point performances this season.
  • Smith has made 102 career 3-pointers, more than any other player her height since 2015-16. Six-foot-4 Courtney Zezza on Saint Francis has made 87 over the past four years.
  • Smith put together her 11th career double-double with 30 points and 13 rebounds to lead Stanford to a 62-55 win at Buffalo on Dec. 21.
  • The senior also had five assists and three blocks and became just the fourth player since 2000 to put together a line of 30/13/5/3 in a true road game.
  • Jennie Simms had 41/13/6/3 for Old Dominion against Florida Atlantic on Feb. 4, 2017, Jerica Coley had 30/14/5/4 for FIU against South Florida on March 17, 2012 and Jessica Davenport had 34/16/6/3 for Ohio State against Iowa on Jan. 12, 2006.

 
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 (13.0 points per game) and makes an average of 2.45 3-pointers per outing, good for sixth 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 4.5 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 10-1 start.
  • A junior, Fingall has started each game and is averaging 8.5 points and 5.0 rebounds. She's shooting 50.0 percent from the field (39-of-78) 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 9.0 points on 54.3 percent shooting from the floor (44-of-81) and leads the conference in blocks per game (1.73). As a freshman, Dodson scored 3.5 points per game on 49.5 percent shooting.
  • Dodson, who has come on as a sub in all 11 games thus far, is the Pac-12's second-leading scorer off the bench. Oregon State's Kat Tudor has appeared off the bench in 11 of 12 games for the Beavers and is averaging 12.7 points in those appearances.

 
CARRINGTON CLUTCH »

  • DiJonai Carrington has pulled down 10 or more rebounds in three consecutive games and is averaging 13.3 points and 8.0 rebounds in her last eight, one of three Pac-12 players with those numbers since Thanksgiving.
  • UCLA's Michaela Onyenwere is averaging 18.9 points and 8.1 rebounds and Oregon's Ruthy Hebard 16.0 points and 8.6 rebounds in each of their last eight games.

 
TWIN TREES »

  • Sisters Lexie (25.7 minutes per game) and Lacie Hull (23.9 minutes per game) are Stanford's second and third most utilized players in terms of minutes played.
  • Lexie, who has missed the past eight 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.
  • Lacie has started each of Stanford's last five games, averaged 7.2 points and 3.0 rebounds and earned Pac-12 Freshman of the Week honors on Dec. 24.
  • 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.