Stanford Goes SouthStanford Goes South
Grant Shorin/Stanford Athletics
Women's Basketball

Stanford Goes South

No. 10 Stanford (19-4, 9-3)
at UCLA (15-9, 8-4)
Friday, Feb. 15 • 6 p.m.
Pauley Pavilion • Los Angeles, Calif.
Television • Pac-12 Los Angeles
Audio •GoStanford.com
Live Statistics • UCLABruins.com
Complete Release (PDF)
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THE GAME: No. 10 Stanford (19-4, 9-3) will look to win its 20th game for the 18th consecutive season when it heads to UCLA (15-9, 8-4) on Friday, Feb. 15 at 6 p.m. Anne Marie Anderson and Tammy Blackburn have the call on Pac-12 Los Angeles and Kevin Danna will handle the radio broadcast on GoStanford.com.
 
THE RUNDOWN: After starting the season 16-1, Stanford is 3-3 in its last six games ... Stanford was projected as a No. 2 seed (No. 7 overall) in the committee's first top-16 reveal on Monday night ... Tara VanDerveer won her 900th game at Stanford on Jan. 20 against WSU, becoming the fifth DI coach, women's or men's, with that many at one school ... The Cardinal is 4-2 against ranked opponents this season and the only school in the nation with three top-10 wins ... Stanford is 24th in the country in scoring offense (77.6) and 27th in field goal percentage (.451) ... Alanna Smith is one of two players in the country averaging 20.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 2.0 blocks per game ... DiJonai Carrington is averaging 15.1 points and 8.7 rebounds in the last 15 games with five double-doubles ... Four of Kiana Williams' five 20-point games this season have come in conference ... Smith, Carrington and Williams combine for 62 percent of Stanford's scoring offense ... Stanford averaged 80.8 points on 46.9 percent shooting in its first 17 games and has dipped to  68.7 points on 39.9 percent shooting in its last six ... Haley Jones, the nation's consensus No. 1 recruit, announced her commitment on Nov. 28, the first top player to sign with Stanford since Chiney Ogwumike in Nov. 2009.
 
VS. UCLA: Stanford is 61-25 all-time against UCLA and 23-13 against the Bruins on the road, but has dropped two straight in Pauley Pavilion. The Cardinal's last win in Westwood came on Jan. 23, 2015, when Briana Roberson (21), Bonnie Samuelson (21) and Amber Orrange (20) each scored 20 and Stanford won 79-70. UCLA won 56-36 on Jan. 24, 2016 and 64-53 on Jan. 21, 2018. The Cardinal beat the Bruins earlier this season in Maples Pavilion, 86-80, behind 30 points from DiJonai Carrington, 24 from Alanna Smith and 21 from Kiana Williams.
 
NEWS AND NOTES »

  • Since having its 11-game winning streak snapped on Jan. 27 at Utah the Cardinal is 2-3. That streak was tied for the third-longest active streak in the nation.
  • Stanford entered conference play with a 10-1 record (.909), the first time in five years it 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. 10 in the AP Top 25 and No. 5 in the NCAA RPI.
  • It is also projected as a No. 2 seed (No. 7 overall) and first and second round tournament host in the NCAA women's basketball selection committee's first reveal of the top 16 overall seeds.
  • Since 2007-08, the Cardinal owns a conference home record of 99-7 and a Pac-12 road record of 87-16.
  • Stanford's 186 conference wins since 2007-08 are tied for the most in the nation (Green Bay/UConn).
  • Stanford's all-time Pac-12 record is 509-78 and 172 wins clear of the next closest team (UW - 337).
  • The Cardinal was 14-of-14 at the line in Jan. 11's 72-65 win over No. 19 Arizona State, a program record for makes without a miss from the stripe. Stanford had previously gone 13-for-13 against Seattle on Feb. 29, 2012 and Cal on Feb. 11, 2005.
  • Stanford leads the conference and is 17th in the country in blocks per game (5.3).
  • Tara VanDerveer won her 900th game as head coach at Stanford on Jan. 20 against Washington State to become the fifth DI coach, women's or men's, with that many at a single school (Pat Summitt, Geno Auriemma, Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim).
  • Stanford, 4-2 against ranked teams this season, is the only school in the nation with three top-10 wins (No. 3 Baylor - Dec. 15; No. 9 Tennessee - Dec. 18; No. 7 Oregon State - Feb. 8).

 
TOUGH SUNDAY »

  • Stanford lost 88-48 to No. 3 Oregon on Sunday afternoon, snapping the program's 22-game home winning streak and its 18-game Pac-12 home winning streak.
  • The Cardinal had won 29 in a row over the Ducks in Maples Pavilion. Oregon's only other win in the building came on March 5, 1987 (63-54).
  • The margin of defeat was the worst of Tara VanDerveer's career, larger than Idaho's 88-49 loss at Washington on Dec. 9, 1978, her third game as a collegiate head coach and first career loss. It was also the Stanford program's worst since a 42-point defeat at Long Beach State on Feb. 2, 1985 (98-56) and its second-biggest home loss, trailing only a 45-point rout at the hands of Long Beach State on March 10, 1983 (96-51).

 
INJURY BUG »

  • A number of players have missed significant stretches of time for Stanford.
  • Junior Nadia Fingall, who had started each of the Cardinal's first 12 games and averaged 8.0 points and 4.9 rebounds, will miss the remainder of the season after tearing the ACL in her left knee in a game against USC on Jan. 4.
  • Senior Marta Sniezek has yet to play this year after undergoing offseason ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) surgery on her right hand/thumb. She started 32 games last season.
  • Freshman Lexie Hull returned in Stanford's Jan. 6 win over UCLA after missing the previous nine games with a left foot injury. She had started the first three games of the year.
  • Sophomore Maya Dodson returned to the lineup at Cal on Jan. 31 after missing the previous eight games with a left foot injury.

 
OFFENSIVE IMPROVEMENT THIS SEASON »

  • The Cardinal is 24th in the country in scoring offense (77.6) and 23rd in scoring margin (+14.3).
  • 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 27th nationally in field goal percentage (.451), 20th in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.26) and 19th in fewest turnovers (293).
  • 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), 126th in assist-to-turnover ratio (0.93) and 230th in fewest turnovers (518).

 
OFF OF LATE »

  • Stanford shot 46.9 percent (507-of-1081) from the floor overall and averaged 80.8 points in its first 17 games (16-1) and is making 39.9 percent (155-of-388) and averaging 68.7 points in its last six (3-3).
  • Over the season's first 17 games, the Cardinal was making 39 percent of its 3-pointers (171-of-439) and an average of 10.1 per game. In the last six it has seen those numbers dip to 27.0 percent (41-of-152) and 6.8 per game.
  • Stanford has struggled to both make 3-pointers and defend the 3-point line over that six-game stretch. The Cardinal has been outscored by 39 points from behind the arc (162-123) since its Jan. 25 game at Colorado and has allowed its opponents to shoot a combined 54-of-136 (.397).
  • Stanford's split last weekend against the Oregon schools were its two lowest-scoring games of the season  (61; 48) and its two worst shooting performances (.358; .317).

 
FROM DEEP »

  • Stanford is 16th in the country, averaging 9.2 3-point makes per game and 35th in 3-point percentage, making 35.9 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 done it three times in 23 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, and was also a program-low 42.4 percent from the floor overall.

 
DEFENSE COMING TOGETHER »

  • Stanford's scouting-report defense, typically one of the strongest in the country, got off to a bit of a slow start this season. Through the season's first 20 games, Cardinal opponents were shooting 36.8 percent from the field, 34.6 percent from behind the arc and averaging 63.7 points per game.
  • From November through January, Stanford was 55th in the nation in field goal percentage defense, 313th in 3-point field goal percentage defense and 167th in scoring defense.
  • The Cardinal had been locked in defensively in its first two games in February before the outlier against Oregon, holding Cal and Oregon State below 30 percent shooting, under 20 percent from deep and to season-low point totals.
  • The No. 7 Beavers came in leading the nation in 3-point field goal percentage (.430) and were sixth in field goal percentage (.492). Stanford limited OSU to 44 points on 28.6 percent shooting (16-of-56) and 19.0 percent on 3-pointers (4-of-21).
  • In those two victories combined, Stanford's defense gave up 47.0 points and held its opponents to 27.6 percent shooting (32-of-116) and 18.4 percent from behind the arc (7-of-38). Cal (2) and Oregon State (4) combined for just six assists in the two Cardinal wins.

 
FROM DOWN UNDER »

  • Alanna Smith remains on every major watch list, including the Naismith Trophy, Wade Trophy, John R. Wooden Award, Katrina McClain Award and Senior CLASS Award.
  • A two-time Pac-12 Player of the Week this season (Dec. 17 and Jan. 14) and the espnW and USBWA National Player of the Week from Dec. 17, Smith is shooting 52.4 percent from the field (174-of-332), 42.6 percent from behind the arc (55-of-129) and averaging a team-high 20.1 points per game to go with 7.9 rebounds.
  • She is just 9-of-38 from behind the arc in her last six games (.237).
  • Elena Delle Donne is the only player 6'4" and taller over the past two decades to shoot better than 40 percent from 3-point range when she made 41.3 percent as a freshman at Delaware in 2009-10 (NCAA minimum of two made 3-pointers per game).
  • Smith, who has double-doubles in six of her last 14 games, is one of two players in the country averaging 20.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 2.0 blocks per game this season (Bella Alarie - Princeton).
  • She is 17th in school history in scoring (1,466) and second in blocks (203).
  • Smith is within range of joining an elite company of players that have put together careers of 1,600 points, 150 made 3-pointers and 200 blocks. Since 1999-00, the only three to do that are Elena Delle Donne (3,039 points; 206 3-pointers; 273 blocks), Maya Moore (3,036 points; 311 3-pointers; 204 blocks) and Breanna Stewart (2,676 points; 152 3-pointers; 414 blocks).

 
WATCH WILLIAMS »

  • Kiana Williams is among the 10 remaining candidates for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award.
  • The sophomore is second on the team in scoring (14.3 points per game) and has had four of her five 20-point games this season in conference.
  • Williams had her first career double-double with 21 points and 10 assists in the Jan. 6 win against UCLA. It was Stanford's first 20-point, 10-assist double-double since Jeanette Pohlen had 21 and 12 in a win over USC on Jan. 22, 2011.
  • Williams is also averaging 4.7 assists per game, which is eighth in the conference. No Stanford player has averaged 4.5 assists in a season since Jeanette Pohlen in 2010-11 (4.8) and no one has averaged 5.0 since Nicole Powell in 2001-02 (6.3).

 
CARRINGTON CLUTCH »

  • DiJonai Carrington has pulled down 10 or more rebounds in seven of the last 15 games and is averaging 15.1 points and 8.7 rebounds in those 15 with five double-doubles.
  • She is one of four Power 5 conference players in the country under 6'0" averaging 13.0 points and 7.0 rebounds along with Sabrina Ionescu (Oregon), Anriel Howard (Mississippi State) and Mikayla Pivec (Oregon State).

 
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.
  • 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 9-2 in its last 11 home games against top-five opponents. Its only such losses since 2007-08 were to No. 2 Connecticut, 61-35, on Dec. 29, 2012 and No. 3 Oregon, 88-48, on Feb. 10, 2019.
  • 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.

 
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.
  • Belibi, Jones and Prechtel are on the West Team for the 2019 McDonald's All American Game on March 27. Of Stanford's 24 McDonald's All-Americans all-time, nine will be on the team together next season.