Cardinal to Chase Center

THE GAME: Stanford closes out its nonconference schedule against No. 11 Ohio State in the Invisalign Bay Area Women’s Classic at Chase Center on Friday, Dec. 20 at 5:30 p.m. Elise Woodward and Christy Winters-Scott have the call on FS1, while Tim Swartz will handle the radio broadcast on GoStanford.com, the Stanford Athletics app and Learfield’s Varsity Network.

THE RUNDOWN: The Cardinal won the first college basketball game played at the Chase Center, a 97-71 victory over San Francisco on November 9, 2019 ... Stanford is second in the nation in 3-point percentage (103-of-246; .419) ... One game after hitting a school-record 18 3-pointers against Le Moyne, the Cardinal went 14-of-20 (.700) in a win over Washington State and knocked down 13 against Gonzaga on Nov. 10 ... Nunu Agara is one of five major conference players in the country averaging 17.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.0 block, and one of only two underclassmen ... When Stanford was ranked on Nov. 11, Kate Paye became the 16th person to both play on and be a head coach for an AP-ranked team at the same school ... Heading into 2024-25, Stanford was looking to replace 59.8 percent of its scoring and 54.4 percent of its rebounding ... The Cardinal’s young squad has just one returning player on the roster that has averaged more than 20 minutes per game in her career (Talana Lepolo) ... Stanford was picked seventh in the ACC preseason poll and was outside the preseason AP Top 25 for the first time since 1999-2000 ... Stanford’s 2025 recruiting class is ranked No. 3 nationally by espnW HoopGurlz.

VS. OHIO STATE: Stanford is 2-3 all-time against the Buckeyes and won the teams’ most recent meeting, 71-52 in Maples Pavilion on Dec. 15, 2019. The two have split their neutral-site contests, with Ohio State winning in overtime at the Play4Kay Showcase in Las Vegas, 94-82, on Nov. 25, 2017, and the Cardinal in the Sweet 16 in Berkeley on March 28, 2009, 84-66. Ohio State won the two games in Columbus, 79-47 on Dec. 28, 1984, and 85-64 on Nov. 10, 2017. Because of how the Play4Kay Showcase bracket played out, Stanford and Ohio State faced each other twice in a seven-game span in Nov. 2017.

BUCKEYE CONNECTIONS »

• Tara VanDerveer led Ohio State to a 110-37 record and three NCAA Tournaments from 1981-85, including the Elite Eight in her final season, before making the admittedly difficult decision to take the job at Stanford. VanDerveer was twice named Big Ten Coach of the Year (1984, 1985).
• VanDerveer actually orchestrated Ohio State’s win against Stanford on Dec. 28, 1984, 79-47.
• A star for the Buckeyes from 1979-82 who played her junior and senior seasons for VanDerveer, longtime Stanford associate head coach Amy Tucker is one of the best talents to come out of the state. As a player, she led the Buckeyes to a 72-51 record and twice paced the team in scoring, finishing her career second on Ohio State’s all-time scoring list with 1,629 points.
• Through the end of the 2023-24 campaign, Tucker’s career scoring output continues to hold a place in Ohio State lore, ranking 14th in Buckeye women’s basketball history. She also finished her career atop the school’s all-time list for games played with 123, a mark that stood for 14 years.
• As a senior in 1981-82, Tucker was named Ohio State’s captain and led the squad to the Big Ten Tournament title and an appearance in the inaugural edition of the NCAA Tournament.
• In May 2012 Tucker was inducted into the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame. Tucker was previously recognized for her achievements by being inducted into the Ohio State Sports Hall of Fame in 1994.

CHASE CENTER CONNECTIONS »

• Stanford will be making a return to the Chase Center for the first time in five years.
• The Cardinal won the first college basketball game played at the venue, a 97-71 victory over San Francisco on November 9, 2019.
• Current Indiana Fever guard Lexie Hull led Stanford to that victory with 27 points on 10-of-12 shooting and eight rebounds.

TREE-POINT BARRAGE »

• Stanford was incredible from 3-point range over the first three games of the season. One game after hitting a school-record 18 3-pointers in the opener against Le Moyne, the Cardinal went 14-of-20 (.700) in a win over Washington State and knocked down another 13 against Gonzaga on Nov. 10.
• The Cardinal is second in the nation in 3-point percentage, shooting 41.9 percent from deep (103-of-246) in its first 11 games. That is all despite going only 22-of-80 (.275) across games against UC Davis, Indiana, Cal Poly and LSU.
• Ten different players have hit a 3-pointer, and there are three who have made at least 20 - Elena Bosgana (22), Jzaniya Harriel (22) and Brooke Demetre (21). Those three players are a combined 65-of-143 (.455).
• Only California has more players with at least 10 made 3-pointers, with four. But the Golden Bears have attempted 69 more 3-pointers (315) than Stanford.
• Stanford’s 103 3-pointers in its first 11 games are the program’s most since 2018-19 (109).
• Individually, Jzaniya Harriel is fifth in the country in 3-point percentage (.500; 22-of-44).
• Last season, Harriel was 32-of-81 from deep (.395) in 34 games. This year, she’s 22-of-44 (.500) behind the arc and 11-of-29 (.379) on two-pointers. In her career, 68.6 percent of her makes have been from deep. She’s a career 41.5 percent 3-point shooter (59-of-142), but 32.1 percent on twos (27-of-84).
• A career 31.4 percent shooter (50-of-159) on 3-pointers during her first three collegiate seasons, Bosgana is shooting 41.5 percent (22-of-53) as a senior.
• Chloe Clardy is 9-of-23 (.391) this year, just one year after going 2-of-20 (.100) during her debut season.
• Tess Heal, a career 31.5 percent 3-point shooter coming into her first season at Stanford is 11-of-19 this year (.579).
• Against Washington State and in available records dating to 2002-03, Stanford’s 3-point percentage (.700) was its best when attempting at least 20, eclipsing a 13-of-20 (.650) effort at Washington State on Jan. 2, 2004. The Cardinal became the 15th DI team to hit at least 70.0 percent on 20+ attempts over the last 23 seasons, and first since South Dakota went 19-of-27 (.704) in a win over Midland Lutheran on Nov. 7, 2022. A team hadn’t done it against a DI opponent since Valparaiso at Southern Illinois on Feb. 27, 2021. Valpo was 15-of-20 (.750).

OF LATE »

• Stanford picked up a Quad 2 victory on Monday afternoon with a 62-57 victory over UTSA. Elena Bosgana had her first career double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Stanford led by three with 13 seconds remaining after Bosgana split a pair of free throws. UTSA called its final timeout to advance and inbounded the ball in front of its own bench when Jzaniya Harriel jumped the exchange between Idara Udo and Jordyn Jenkins, stole the ball and dropped in a fastbreak layup as time expired.
• The win snapped a two-game losing streak for Stanford. In his previous outing, the Cardinal sufferedan 83-63 road loss in its ACC opener at California on Dec. 13.
• Cal hit a school-record 18 3-pointers, the most Stanford has surrendered in a game in readily available records dating back to 2002-03.
• Just the Cardinal’s 22nd loss in 103 all-time meetings with Cal, it was Stanford’s largest margin of defeat since a 96-65 loss in Berkeley on Feb. 9, 1982.
• Stanford has not dropped three consecutive games in the same season since January 2001 against Arizona, Oregon State and Oregon. Spanning across seasons, Stanford lost in the Final Four to South Carolina in 2017 and then opened up the 2017-18 campaign by dropping games against Ohio State and UConn.

DILIGENT DEVELOPMENT »

• One year after Kiki Iriafen was the country’s most improved player, Nunu Agara has taken a massive leap and is one of the NCAA’s most improved this season. After averaging 5.4 points and 2.9 rebounds as a freshman, she’s putting up 17.4 points (+12.0) and 7.1 rebounds (+4.2) per game as a sophomore.
• Since 1999-2000, Iriafen has the largest increases at Stanford, going from 6.7 points per game as a sophomore to 19.4 as a junior (+12.7) in 2023-24 and from 3.8 rebounds per game to 11.0 (+7.2).
• Eighth in the league in scoring (17.4) and 12th in rebounding (7.1), Agara is one of five major conference players in the country averaging 17.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.0 block, and one of just two underclassmen. The others are junior Serah Williams at Wisconsin (19.3 ppg, 12.3 rpg, 3.0 apg, 2.9 bpg), UCLA junior Lauren Betts (19.8 ppg, 10.0 rpg, 2.3 apg, 2.2 bpg), TCU graduate student Sedona Prince (17.5 ppg, 9.6 rpg, 2.1 apg, 3.8 bpg) and UConn freshman Sarah Strong (17.3 ppg, 8.3 rpg, 3.6 apg, 1.5 bpg).
• She has scored in double figures in 10 of 11 games this season, including three 20-point efforts.
• Agara had career highs with 29 points and 13 rebounds in Stanford’s overtime loss at No. 5 LSU on Dec. 5 and shot 75.0 percent from the floor (12-of-16). According to Sports Reference, she is the fifth DI player since 2002-03 to have 29 points and 13 rebounds in a true road game against an AP top five opponent and the only one to do it on better than 60.0 percent shooting.
  • 11/21/21: NaLyssa Smith (Baylor) at No. 3 Maryland (30 pts, 15 rebs, .560 fg%)
  • 1/24/21: Elizabeth Kitley (Virginia Tech) at No. 2 NC State (30 pts, 13 rebs, .591 fg%)
  • 12/22/13: Crystal Bradford (Central Michigan) at No. 4 Notre Dame (30 pts, 13 rebs, .429 fg%)
  • 11/19/08: Alysha Clark (MTSU) at No. 2 Oklahoma (31 pts, 16 rebs, .444 fg%)

BOSGANA’S BIG DAY »

• Elena Bosgana scored a career-high 26 points and didn’t miss from the floor to lead Stanford to an 84-54 win over visiting UC San Diego on Nov. 29.
• Bosgana poured in her 26 on a perfect 10-of-10 shooting, including 5-of-5 from deep, tying the school record for single-game field goal percentage (min. 10 attempts). Kim Kupferer was 11-of-11 from the floor in a game against Pacific on Jan. 24, 1981.
• The senior also had six rebounds, three assists and four steals in her 30 minutes. The only “blemish” in her otherwise perfect game was a missed free throw in the third quarter.
• According to Sports Reference, Bosgana is just the sixth DI player since 2002-03 to be perfect from the floor when attempting at least 10 total field goals and five 3-pointers and first since South Dakota State’s Tagyn Larson on Feb. 13, 2019 against Omaha (11-of-11, 5-of-5).
• She also became the fourth Stanford player to be perfect on 3-pointers with at least five attempts, joining Jennifer Azzi (7-of-7 vs. Eastern Michigan on Dec. 29, 1989), Joslyn Tinkle (5-of-5 vs. Michigan on March 26, 2013) and Lauren St. Clair (5-of-5 vs. UCLA on Feb. 3, 2000).

AP POLL »

• One week after reappearing in the AP Top 25 at No. 24, Stanford fell out following its loss at Indiana.
• When Stanford was ranked on Nov. 11, Kate Paye became the 16th person to both play on and be a head coach for an AP-ranked team at the same school (H/T Mel Greenberg).
• The other 15, in alphabetical order: Adia Barnes (Arizona), Amanda Butler (Florida), Pokey Chatman (LSU), Cynthia Cooper-Dyke (USC), Kellie Harper (Tennessee), Michelle Clark-Heard (Western Kentucky), Niele Ivey (Notre Dame), Carolyn Kieger (Marquette), Linda Lappe (Colorado), Wendy Larry (Old Dominion), Cheryl Miller (USC), Carol Ross (Ole Miss), Bev Smith (Oregon), Holly Warlick (Tennessee) and Lindsay Whalen (Minnesota).
• The Cardinal was picked seventh in the ACC preseason poll and was outside the preseason AP Top 25 for the first time since 1999-2000. Since appearing in its first rankings on Nov. 23, 1987, Stanford had appeared in the preseason Top 25 each season except one (1999-00).
• Prior to this year’s preseason poll released on Oct. 15, Stanford had been ranked in 123 consecutive AP polls since Jan. 29, 2018, which was the third-longest active streak in the country.
• The Cardinal is the second-most ranked team of all-time and has appeared in 646 of 871 all-time AP polls over 49 seasons (Tennessee - 780).

FIRST CLASS »

• Kate Paye’s first signing class as head coach includes three five-star talents and two four-stars according to espnW HoopGurlz, and four ranked in that publication’s top 100.

Player	HoopGurlz Rank	Stars	Ht./Pos.
Hailee Swain	9	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️	5-11 • G
Lara Somfai	16	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️	6-4 • F
Alex Eschmeyer	31	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️	6-5 • F
Nora Ezike	84	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️	6-2 • F
Carly Amborn	--	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️	6-2 • G/F

• The class began with Swain’s commitment in July 2022 and culminated with Somfai’s announcement the morning of Nov. 13. The group is rated No. 3 by espnW HoopGurlz.
• Stanford’s three five-star signees are second to LSU (4) and the program’s most since it had four in the Class of 2019 (Haley Jones, Ashten Prechtel, Fran Belibi, Hannah Jump). That group won a national championship as sophomores.

WHAT’S BACK, WHAT’S NOT »

• Heading in 2024-25, Stanford was looking replace 59.8 percent of its scoring, 54.4 percent of its rebounding and 42.8 percent of its minutes played from a season ago.
• The Cardinal’s leading returning scorer was Elena Bosgana (6.7) and its leading returning rebounder was Brooke Demetre (3.6).
• The Cardinal’s young squad has seven underclassmen and just one returning player on the roster that has averaged more than 20 minutes per game in her career (Talana Lepolo). Lepolo has missed the last six games with a right knee injury.
• Outside of Lepolo and among available players prior to this season, only Elena Bosgana, Brooke Demetre and Jzaniya Harriel had started any games for Stanford, and they had combined for just 40 total starts in their first three seasons. Bosgana started all 36 games last season and Demetre and Harriel started two each.