STANFORD, Calif. - Six Cardinal received all-conference recognition from the league's coaches, as the Pac-12 Conference announced its All-Pac-12, All-Defensive and All-Freshman teams Tuesday morning.
Lexie Hull and Kiana Williams were both voted to the 15-player All-Pac-12 squad, while Hull also earned a nod as one of five on the All-Defensive Team. Williams, Nadia Fingall and Lacie Hull were all honorable mentions for the All-Defensive Team, while Francesca Belibi and Ashten Prechtel earned honorable mention status on the All-Freshman Team.
The Cardinal has placed at least two players on the All-Pac-12 Team since the conference changed the format to a 15-player list in 2010. Stanford's 81 All-Pac-12 selections all-time lead the league. Stanford featured one player on the All-Defensive Team 11 times in its 13 year existence.
Lexie Hull, named to both the All-Pac-12 Team and All-Defensive Team for the first time in her career after being named honorable mention All-Freshman last season, is second on the squad in scoring, averaging 13.5 points per game, but leads the team in rebounding with a 6.0 average. The sophomore from Spokane, Wash. has scored in double figures 21 times this year, including six 20-plus point games and a career-high 29 in overtime against Colorado.
Oftentimes tasked with guarding the opposition's best offensive weapons, Hull has proven her merit as a defensive stopper, leading Stanford with 46 steals. She swiped a career-best seven in the first half alone in the Cardinal's victory over Ohio State in December, and her season and career best effort on the boards came in a loss at Texas, as Hull pulled down 12 rebounds against the Longhorns. Hull is one of two players to start in all 30 games for the Cardinal, and she showed up big under the bright lights against No. 3 Oregon, scoring 27 points with a career-high six 3-pointers. Hull has been a key example of versatility for Stanford this season, also dishing 61 assists, good for second on the squad.
Williams, now a two-time member of the All-Pac-12 team, leads the Cardinal in both scoring and assists, and ranks tied for first with Lexie Hull, owning 57 made 3-pointers. The true floor general for the Cardinal, Williams averages 34.0 minutes per game and is joined by Hull as the only player to start every contest. Williams' scoring average has risen as the season wears on, now up to 14.6 points per game, including six straight games in double figures as Stanford ventures into the postseason, her best scoring stretch of the year.
Williams is up to 22 double-digit scoring efforts this season, as she has led the Cardinal in scoring a team-leading 10 times. Her seven 20-plus point games are also tops on the team, and she dishes a Stanford-high 3.8 assists per game when she's not putting the ball in the basket herself. Understanding the defensive scout has been a key competent of Williams' game, and Williams ranks second with 33 steals this season. Perhaps her most talked about moment of the year was her heroics in Boulder, scoring the game-tying 3-pointer with 12 seconds left in regulation, getting a steal, and heaving a 40-foot, game-winning buzzer-beater against Colorado in February, earning SportsCenter's top play of the weekend. That game was Williams' finest in the scorebook, as the junior finished with a career-high 29 points and seven 3-pointers. Williams has risen up the record book in her third year on campus, becoming the program's 41st 1,000 point scorer earlier in the season against Tennessee, and now sitting fifth all-time with 219 made 3-pointers.
Lacie Hull, an All-Freshman Team member last season, is honorable mention All-Defensive for her second straight season with the Cardinal. Inserted in to the starting five near the beginning of conference play, Hull has made 14 straight appearances in the opening lineup, and similar to her sister, is an all-around player for the Cardinal. The sophomore has scored in double figures three times on the year, including a career-high 19 against Northern Colorado. Hull hit a season-best three 3-pointers against UCLA in Maples Pavilion, and averages over three rebounds and just over one steal per game.
Featuring 28-straight starts, Nadia Fingall has featured a standout senior season for the Cardinal to earn honorable mention status for the All-Defensive Team. Recovering from a season-ending ACL tear as a junior, Fingall has played her best basketball this year for Stanford, averaging nearly seven points and six rebounds per game.
Nearly a year to the date since suffering her season-ending injury, Fingall went off for a season-high 20 points in Stanford's conference-opening win over Washington State, hitting three 3-pointers against the Cougars. Her expanded shooting range has been a key asset in her fourth year on The Farm, as she's hit more 3-pointers as a senior than she did in her previous three seasons combined. The team's second-leading rebounder, Fingall has collected at least three boards in 25 straight games, including 13 against Syracuse and more recently, 12 vs. Oregon. Fingall also leads the team in blocked shots, averaging just over one per game, as Stanford ranks 15th nationally with 149 on the year.
Francesca Belibi, the nation's No. 19 player coming into college, played the best basketball of her college career in Stanford's last weekend trip to Arizona and Arizona State. The freshman leads the Cardinal, shooting 59 percent from the floor, and she was ultra-efficient in the desert, shooting 12-of-15 from the floor in the two games combined.
Belibi earned a double-double in her first game of the season and has scored in double figures eight times, including five in conference play. Her season-high 20 points came against Utah, and she pulled down 15 rebounds against Eastern Washington in November. As it stand's now, Belibi's shooting percentage is the 10th best single-season percentage in program history and fourth best by a freshman.
Ashten Prechtel, also named honorable mention All-Freshman, averages 7.4 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. From Colorado Springs, Colo., Prechtel has made six starts for the Cardinal and ventured into double figures 12 times, the most of any of Stanford's first year players. Prechtel has featured four double-doubles, three of which came in conference play, including a career performance at Washington State with 19 points and 14 rebounds.
Also an adept 3-point shooter, Prechtel is tied for fourth on the team with 23 made long balls this season, and featured heroics of her own against Colorado, tying the game with 1.6 seconds left on an inbounds play at home vs. the Buffs. She also ranks second on the Cardinal with 30 blocked shots.
Stanford, the No. 3 seed in the upcoming Pac-12 Tournament, has a bye into the quarterfinals and will play the winner of No. 6 Oregon State and No. 11 Washington State on Friday, March 6 at 8:30 p.m.