Guru’s WBB March Madness - I: Stanford 2nd Half Eruption Rallies Cardinal Over Louisville To Become Last Ticket Puncher Into Women’s Final Four

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

SAN ANTONIO - For the past five months, Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer had been a fearless captain guiding her Cardinal through most of them on a nomadic journey to both comply with stringent COVID—19 protocols and ultimately land PAC-12 regular-season and tournament crowns, a No. 2 ranking in the final Associated Press women’s poll, and the overall No. 1 seed in what was to be an NCAA tournament like none of the previous 38.

On Tuesday afternoon, several hours before launching the final 40-minute adventure against No. 2 seeded Louisville, the regular season Atlantic Coast Conference champ, to bid for the remaining slot in this weekend’s Women’s Four here at the Alamodome, FIBA, the international basketball organization, announced the former Olympic coach of the 1996 USA Gold Medalists was to become part of its Hall of Fame Class of 2020.

Among the mix of schools and special sector names attached to this locale that is so rich in Texas history and culture, Stanford was tabbed by the basketball committee as the top seed in the Alamo Region.

Bullseye. 

Because what happened next following Dawn Staley and her top-seeeded South Carolina squad crushing No. 6 Texas for a slot out of the Hemisfair Region is surely to become memorable throughout future generations of NCAA women’s tournament participants.

Louisville jumped in front and continued with a dominating first half that carried over to a 12-point lead in the third period, threatening to obliterate all Stanford accomplished from last fall until Tuesday’s sunset.

By then, however, VanDerveer, whose team had won all season with inside force and a squadron of three-point shooters, went to a move with a reserve who had not seen action in Tuesday night’s first two quarters.

Boom.

Ashten Prechtel came off the bench firing treys and gaining all 16 of her points, igniting her teammates on a 13-0 run and ultimately a break-a-way finish resulting in a 78-63 result for a 14th Final Four appearance and first since 2017.

“To play a second half and beat them by 27 really says a lot about how hard people were playing,” VanDerveer said, sitting calmly in front of the TV camera for the zoom-software used interview undisturbed by a fire alarm that briefly threatened to disrupt the post-victory scene. “How much they wanted to do it for each other. They were willing to listen to me. My dad would always say it’s not the start of the race, but the finish.

“Honestly, I didn’t recognize the people in the jerseys in the first half and I just thought we were taking a lot of bad shots. We weren’t taking care of the ball,” VanDerveer said.

“I just said, you know, don’t worry about winning, compete, and be aggressive. We were not aggressive enough.”

The victory slates Stanford (29-2) against South Carolina (26-4) at 6 p.m. EDT on Friday night on ESPN before top-ranked and River Walk Region No. 1 seed Connecticut (28-1) meets third-seed Arizona ((20-5), a second PAC-12 representative, out of the Mercado Region at 9:30 p.m.

Both games lead to Sunday night’s 6 p.m. championship cementing a two-year gap in the wake of the last year’s coronavirus-caused cancellation of the men’s and women’s tournament.

Ironically, it was South Carolina on the way to its only NCAA title to date in 2017 that ousted Stanford in the nationa semifinal.

In the Tuesday nightcap game here, Lexi Hull had 21 points for Stanford, Kiana Williams, the most outstanding player of the regional, had 14 points, Haley Jones had a double double of 10 points and 10 rebounds, Cameron Brink had nine points, and Prechtel had her 16, including a perfect 3-3 from deep extended to a perfect 6-for-6 overall from the field in the responding attack.

“Ashten was a two-way player, her 3 was the shot that just said, `alright, we’re back,’” VanDerveer said. “We can win this game. Really exciting to see her play well.

“She’s been doing great things for us all year. She really picked a great time to shine.”

For herself, Prechtel said, “For sure, it was tough not to play in the first half. I was nervous. We didn’t want to go home. Coming out of halftime, there was urgency.”

Among the Stanford fans among the 17 percent limited attendance under the protocol in the arena was NFL Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, whose sister Anna played 30 minutes but was held to three points in a starting role, while dishing four assists and grabbing four rebound.

Louisville’s Dana Evans was the sole Cardinals star with a strong production, scoring 24 points,.

“What a great substitution,” Louisville coach Jeff Walz tipped his proverbial hat to VanDerveer for inserting Prechtel. “She changed the entire game. Her 15 minutes, she’s a plus 27 on the plus-and-minus side. She won the game for them. She was remarkable in there in the second half.”

Williams struggled early in the game before looking like the playmaker she is.

“I had to change my mentality,” she said. “I was forcing things. I wanted it too bad. I didn’t let the game come to me. Tara got on me, my coaches got on me, and my teammates picked me up. I just had to change my mentality coming back in the second half.”

Stanford has won two NCAA crowns, the last in 1992 two seasons after the first.

Meanwhile, Evans, an all-American, announced she would be declaring for the WNBA draft.

“My senior year was everything I asked for except a national championship,” she said.

The Alamo All-Region team consisted of Williams, Prechtel, Evans, Hull, and Oregon’s Sedona Prince, who lit the off court controversy of the entire 64-team event behind held here, showing photos on social medial comparing the men’s and women’s weight areas among other things.

The All-Hemisfair Region team from the earlier game had four South Carolina stars — Most Valuable Player Zia Cooke, Laeticia Amihere, Aliyah Boston, Victoria Saxton — and Texas’ Celeste Taylor.

As uplifting as the outcome was for Stanford, it was total devastation for Louisville (26-4).

Besides the contribution of Prechtel, Walz contrasted other elements of the two halves.

“I thought we were really, really good defensively in that first half,” Walz said. “Got them to play exactly how we wanted them to play, really made it difficult for them. We contested. We actually did a decent job of rebounding the basketball.

“Then there’s no question, we missed some shots. We had some good looks there and missed a couple, and then they were just relentless on the offensive glass,” Walz said. 

“I don’t think they have had an offensive rebound or a point in the first quarter. They had zero second-chance points in the first quarter and ended up with 23. And we had talked to our team that that was one of two areas, second chance points and then fast break points, where we really had to dig down and stop them.

“They were just relentless with their size and and their effort continuing to go after it.

“Unfortunately, it sucks. There’s no other way to put it. There’s a few other ways to put it, but I don’t think you want to hear me say those things, so I’ll just stick with sucks.”

And that’s the report.