On a cool Friday night in Palo Alto, the No. 2 Stanford Cardinal took care of business, dispatching the No. 15 Norfolk St. Spartans 79-50.
Cameron Brink once again came to play, notching 17 points, 15 rebounds, and 6 blocks in the round 1 matchup. Kiki Iriafen added 17 points of her own en route to hitting the 1000 point milestone in her Stanford career.
SNORE! You can only write "Brink and Iriafen were superb" in so many articles before you crave novelty.
Oh? What's this? Neither were the leading scorer? That's right, it was Elena Bosgana leading the way for the Cardinal with 18 points on the night, going 6-10 from the field and 4-6 from deep. She was feeling it. I was eating it up:
Talk about stellar reporting from Channel Tree.
Four Cardinal ended the game in double digits (add Hannah Jump's 13 to the above triumvirate), and Stanford led wire to wire. Despite this, the game felt a bit sloppy. After a Round of 32 exit last year, I was hoping they'd cover the -35.5 spread and score well into the 90s... just to prove that they could.
Instead, the Cardinal had 14 turnovers and looked lethargic at times. While the Spartan shots were in no serious danger of falling in, this was my review of Stanford's defense (blocks notwithstanding):
It's hard to criticize a 29 point win, but when the standard is Final Four or Bust, nitpicking comes naturally.
Up next, the Cardinal take on the No. 7 seed Iowa State. The Cyclones are just coming off the second biggest comeback in Women's March Madness history (20 points, only behind Texas A&M's 21 point comeback in 2017). The x-factor for the Cyclones was a phenomenal performance by Audi Crooks:
With Iriafen and Brink defending Crooks in the post, the Cyclones will struggle feeding their stud, but rest assured she will find a way to be dangerous. Cyclones are a force of nature, and nature finds a way.
Coach Tara VanDerveer did address the "painful" Round of 32 exit last year, and assured us that this year's team "is a totally different team" both in terms of personnel as well as on court communication, off court mentality.
Hoops will be hot tomorrow! Tune in to ESPN at 7pm PT for the Round of 32. Or if you're in town, come watch in person at Maples Pavilion, as the Card attempt to torture some twisters.
--Fear The Me.