Williams joins 1,000 point club, leads way to rout of Tennessee
Stanford routed rival Tennessee 78-51 Wednesday night in a game that was remarkable because of the margin of victory, and the ease with which the Cardinal cruised by the Lady Vols, while showing they still have plenty of room to grow.
Junior point guard Kiana Williams joined No. 1 Stanford's 1,000-point club and had her best game of the season -- 19 points, seven assists and strong defense. Despite missing starter DiJonai Carrington, and without presumed preseason starter Maya Dodson at center, head coach Tara VanDerveer could still send waves of players at No. 23 Tennessee and six different Cardinal made a three-pointer.
Kellie Harper's team has great size and skilled players but the offense went careening off the road once Rennia Davis sat with two fouls with five minutes left in the first quarter and never got back on track. Harper at one point received a technical for chewing on the officials for too long and on multiple occasions was clearly frustrated with the execution of her players.
Davis scored eight of Tennessee's first 12 points and then only scored six the rest of the game. No other Lady Vol scored in double figures and the team shot a miserable 28%.
Stanford's defense started the game slow, but after a few stern words from VanDerveer the Cardinal locked in, especially in the paint.
Freshmen Fran Belibi and Ashten Prechtel each had three blocks. Prechtel also grabbed eight rebounds, scored 10 points and had three assists. Prechtel and Belib teamed up with Nadia Fingall (six rebounds and two 3FG) to win the battle in the paint: Stanford outrebounded Tennessee 50-44 and had a 24-22 edge despite the youth of their interior players.
Two key elements of the win were three-point shooting and depth. The Cardinal put the game out of reach in the third quarter with five made three pointers. Prechtel, Lexie Hull, Hannah Jump and Williams all got in on the act during that stretch.
Ten players played at least eight minutes in the game and 10 different players scored. Lexie had 11 points and nine rebounds and Haley Jones added eights points.
There have been different heroes in recent games but Williams had yet to have a game that she felt really was a good, well-rounded performance. She delivered that Wednesday night.
She was efficient (7-of-13 FGA and 2-of-4 3FGA) and hustled for 35 minutes on both ends of the court. With Haley Jones taking on more point guard duties, Williams was able to affect the game off the ball more and then switch back to her main role of leading the offense.
An appreciative crowd at Maples Pavilion gave Williams a standing ovation when she exited the game, but the player known as Skippy by her teammates because of her joy playing the game didn't realize she'd scored her 1,000 point earlier in the game. She didn't hear the PA announcer and didn't realize how close she was to the milestone before the game.
Williams was clearly excited postgame about heading to Austin to play the University of Texas Sunday at 10 a.m. PST. Williams is from San Antonio and will probably have a sizeable contingent of supporters at the game.