Beavers Begin Big Weekend

No. 24 Stanford (14-8, 8-2)
at No. 16  Oregon State (16-5, 7-3)
Friday, Feb. 2 • 6 p.m.
Gill Coliseum • Corvallis, Ore.
Television • Pac-12 Bay Area/Pac-12 Oregon
Radio •GoStanford.com
Live Statistics • OSUBeavers.com
Complete Release (PDF)
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THE GAME: Back in the top 25 for the first time in a month, No. 24 Stanford (14-8, 8-2) plays at No. 16 Oregon State (16-5, 7-3) on Friday, Feb. 2 at 6 p.m. Kate Scott and Mary Murphy have the call on Pac-12 Networks and Kevin Danna will handle the radio broadcast on GoStanford.com.
 
THE RUNDOWN: The Cardinal assisted on 90 percent of its made baskets (27-of-30) last time out against Arizona ... Back in this rankings this week at No. 24, the Cardinal is also 27th in the RPI and has played the nation's eighth-toughest schedule ... Stanford returned 10 letterwinners, but just two starters, to a team coming off its seventh Final Four in the past 10 seasons ... The Cardinal has eight losses through 22 games for the first time since 1998-99 ... Stanford is tied for the national lead with nine games against ranked opponents, including five against top-10 teams ... Fourteen of Stanford's last 28 games have been against top-25 teams ... The Cardinal is ninth in the country in field goal percentage defense (.347) ... Stanford is shooting better than 44 percent in its 10 Pac-12 games after converting just 39 percent in the nonconference ... Kiana Williams is the Pac-12's second-leading freshman scorer in conference games (10.1) ... Brittany McPhee, who was named espnW National Player of the Week on Jan. 1, became the program's 39th 1,000-point scorer on Jan. 26 against Arizona State ... Alanna Smith is sixth in the Pac-12 in double-doubles (5), 18th in the league in scoring (13.3), 10th in rebounding (7.5) and third in blocks (2.0) ... Kaylee Johnson is ninth in program history in rebounds (895) and seventh in blocks (149).
 
VS. OREGON STATE: Stanford is 55-9 all-time against Oregon State and 24-8 against the Beavers on the road. After winning 29 in a row over OSU from 2001-15 the Beavers have taken three of the last five, including two straight in Corvallis. The Cardinal's last win in Gill Coliseum came on Feb. 26, 2015, 69-58, when five Stanford players scored in double figures and the Cardinal snapped Oregon State's 21-game home winning streak. Friday will mark the 10th meeting and seventh consecutive with both schools ranked in the AP top 25.
 
WHAT JUST HAPPENED »

• The Cardinal didn't trail all weekend in a home sweep of No. 25 Arizona State and Arizona, shooting 45.7 percent from the floor, 35.2 percent from deep, combining for 39 assists against just 16 turnovers and collecting 20 steals.
• Stanford, which had nine turnovers against the Sun Devils and seven against the Wildcats, kept those numbers under 10 in back-to-back games for the first time all season and second time in the last four seasons. The Cardinal also had nine and seven in two consecutive outings last February against Cal (W, 72-54) and No. 10 Oregon State (L, 50-47).
• Stanford knocked down 14 3-pointers, including all seven of its made field goals in the first quarter, in beating the Wildcats 79-42 on Sunday. The 14 makes from deep are tied for ninth in school single-season history and were the second-highest total this season. Stanford made 15 in an 86-66 win at San Francisco on Nov. 29, 2017.
• The Cardinal's starting lineup didn't turn the ball over once and combined for 15 assists against the Wildcats. Stanford assisted on 27 of its 30 made baskets, its highest total since it had 28 on 40 field goals in a win at Arizona on Jan. 17, 2014.
• In assisting on 90 percent of its field goals against Arizona (27-of-30), Stanford posted its highest assist rate since it had 28 assists on 31 made buckets (90.3 percent) of a win over UC Davis on March 19, 2011.
• It was the best the Cardinal has done in conference since at least the year 2000, surpassing the 88.5 percent it assisted on (23-of-26) in a win at No. 23 Arizona on Dec. 29, 2002.
• On Friday, Stanford avenged its earlier loss to Arizona State and beat the No. 25 Sun Devils 74-50, its second win of the season against a ranked opponent in nine tries.
• The 24-point margin of victory was Stanford's largest over a ranked team in four seasons, since the Cardinal routed No. 14 Penn State 82-57 in the Sweet 16 on March 30, 2014.
• Brittany McPhee scored 19 of her game-high 24 in the second half and became Stanford's 39th 1,000-point scorer when she hit a jumper in the lane early in the fourth quarter.
• McPhee was 9-of-11 from the floor and a perfect 7-of-7 in the second half against ASU and finished the weekend averaging 19.5 points on 73.7 percent shooting (14-of-19).

SETTING THE STAGE »

• At 8-2, Stanford is tied for second in the Pac-12 with No. 9 UCLA and one game behind No. 6 Oregon. No. 16 Oregon State is fourth at 7-3.
• In three games against the Beavers last season, neither team shot over 40 percent nor scored more than 51 points in regulation. Currently Oregon State is eighth in the nation in field goal percentage defense (.3462) and Stanford is ninth (.3471).
• Stanford came back from 13 points down to beat OSU in the Pac-12 Tournament Championship, 48-43, in the teams' last meeting on March 5. Alanna Smith scored 18 points off the bench, Karlie Samuelson added 14 and after surrendering 22 points and nine field goals in the first quarter, the Cardinal allowed just 21 points and seven made field goals over the game's final 30 minutes.
• Stanford held Oregon State to 28.3 percent shooting, but the Beavers grabbed 20 offensive rebounds and outscored the Cardinal by 21 from behind the arc to win in Corvallis, 50-47, last Feb. 24.
• Tied 51-51 at the end of regulation, Oregon State outlasted Stanford in the Cardinal's third double-overtime game in program history last Jan. 8, 72-69. The game featured 10 ties, 11 lead changes and neither team had greater than a six-point advantage.
• Currently, the Cardinal's 14-8 record is its worst through 22 games since it was 13-9 at the same point in 1998-99. Stanford would eventually finish that year 18-12 overall and in a tie for third in the conference with a 14-4 mark. It would end its season in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to Maine, 60-58.
• Stanford entered conference play with a 6-6 mark, the program's first time heading into league action with at least six losses since 1998-99. Stanford was 4-7 in its regular-season nonconference slate in that season, which was also the last time the Cardinal lost multiple regular-season, nonconference home games as it has this year with results against Western Illinois and Tennessee.

IN THE POLLS »

• The Cardinal dropped out of the AP rankings for the first time in 17 years on Dec. 25, worked its way back a week later at No. 24 following its home victories over UCLA and USC and dropped out again for three consecutive polls after it lost at No. 25 Arizona State on Jan. 7 (73-66).
• Stanford is back in this week at No. 24. The Cardinal is 27th in the RPI and has played the nation's eighth-toughest schedule.
• This season is the first Stanford has been unranked since 2001, when a 72-54 loss at No. 20 Oregon on Jan. 13 knocked the No. 24 Cardinal out of the polls. It wouldn't get back in until opening the next season at No. 9.
• The Cardinal has been in 523 AP polls, the fourth most all-time, and had its stretch of 312 in a row snapped when it was unranked Dec. 25. Stanford's streak is tied for the third longest in the history of the poll. Tennessee had the longest run at 565 weeks, Connecticut has an active 463-week streak and Duke also appeared in 312 consecutive rankings.

WHAT'S BACK, WHAT'S NOT »

• The Cardinal returns 10 letterwinners, but just two starters to a team coming off its seventh Final Four in the past 10 seasons.
• Stanford posted a 32-6 overall record last season and a 15-3 mark in Pac-12 play. The Cardinal won its 12th Pac-12 Tournament championship and celebrated Tara VanDerveer's 1,000th career victory during the program's 14th 30-win campaign.
• Gone are Erica McCall, Karlie Samuelson and Briana Roberson, seniors that accounted for 45 percent of Stanford's minutes, 46 percent of its scoring and 35 percent of its rebounds in 2016-17.
• The Cardinal's young squad has eight underclassmen and entered the year with just one returner on the roster that averaged more than 20 minutes per game in her career (Marta Sniezek).

BAPTISM BY FIRE »

• Stanford is tied for the national lead with nine games against top-25 teams and is 2-7 in those games.
• Kansas St. has played nine ranked teams and Oregon, Notre Dame and Oklahoma have played eight.
• The Cardinal is also tied with Notre Dame for the lead in games against top-10 teams with five. Stanford played all of those opponents during the nonconference portion of its schedule in No. 5 Ohio State (Nov. 10), No. 1 UConn (Nov. 12), No. 9 Ohio State (Nov. 25), No. 9 Baylor (Dec. 3) and No. 7 Tennessee (Dec. 21).
• For comparison, Stanford played five top-10 opponents all of last year, which was the program's most since 2010-11 (7).
• Dating back to last season, 14 of Stanford's past 28 games have been against ranked opponents, including eight in the top 10 and four in the top five.
• "We can schedule it so that we are 12-0 or 10-2, but this team went to the Final Four last year and that's the level that we have to get to," Tara VanDerveer said of her team's nonconference schedule. "We need our tough schedule to pay off for us, but it only pays off if we build on it. Don't get frustrated. Get mad and go to work. We are looking up at people right now. We need people to look up at where we need to be and embrace that challenge."

AGAINST RANKED »

• From 2000 to 2012, Stanford played 27 conference and conference tournament games against ranked opponents and went 21-6. In just the last six seasons, the Cardinal has played a ranked Pac-12 team 34 times in conference and conference tournament games, going 22-12.
• Stanford is 73-41 (.640) against AP ranked opponents since 2007-08, fifth in the country in such wins over that span and fourth in percentage.
• Stanford has won multiple games against top 25 opponents for each of the last 16 seasons.

OFFENSE/DEFENSE »

• After shooting just 39.3 percent in 12 nonconference games, Stanford has hit 44.2 percent in its first 10 Pac-12 contests.
• Overall, the Cardinal is shooting 41.4 percent from the field (125th in the country), 30.4 percent (220th) from deep and 62.5 percent (323rd) from the free throw line.
• The program's all-time lows in those categories are 42.6 percent from the field (2015-16), 31.1 percent on 3-pointers (2011-12) and 64.8 percent on free throws (1978-79).
• Stanford's turnover margin (-2.8) is also 288th in the nation.
• At the other end of the court the Cardinal is ninth in the country in field goal percentage defense (.347), 19th in blocks per game (5.45) and 15th in rebounds per game (43.6).

SCOUTING REPORT »

• Stanford has done a good job of limiting the efficiency of its opponent's top offensive threat in Pac-12 play. Through 10 games the leading scorers below have combined to shoot just 27.9 percent (36-of-129) from the floor and average 11.3 points.

BRITT'S BACK »

• Brittany McPhee came back on Dec. 21 against No. 7 Tennessee after missing the previous nine games recovering from a right foot injury.
• She became Stanford's 39th 1,000-point scorer early in the fourth quarter of its win over No. 25 Arizona State on Jan. 26 and is currently 37th on the Cardinal's all-time scoring list with 1,025. Molly Goodenbour (1989-93) is next with 1,040 career points.
• On Jan. 1, McPhee was named espnW National Player of the Week after averaging 23.5 points on 54 percent shooting, 7.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists in Stanford's home victories to start conference play.
• She totaled 26 points, seven rebounds and four assists in a 76-65 victory against the No. 11 Bruins and followed that with 21 points, eight rebounds, two blocks and two steals in a 72-65 win against the Trojans. At her best when it mattered most, 22 of McPhee's 47 points in the two games came in the fourth quarter.
• McPhee has scored 20+ five times this season and is averaging 16.2 points per game to go with 4.8 rebounds. Because she missed so much time, McPhee won't appear in the national statistical rankings until the NCAA Tournament should Stanford advance to play 36 total games this season.
• Of McPhee's 14 career 20-point games, seven have come against ranked teams and her four highest-scoring performances have come against top-15 foes. She scored a career-high 28 against No. 8 Texas on Nov. 14, 2016 and also dropped in 27 in the Elite Eight against No. 2 Notre Dame on March 26, 2017 in addition to her 27 and 26-point efforts against No. 7 Tennessee and No. 11 UCLA.
• In fact, 11 of McPhee's last 17 games dating back to last season have come against top-25 teams and she is averaging 17.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.9 assists in those ranked contests.
• She made her USA Basketball debut this summer at the U24 Four Nations Tournament in Tokyo. McPhee averaged 9.3 points on 61.1 percent shooting (11-of-18) and 4.0 rebounds in 15.7 minutes per game and the United States swept its three games against Australia, Canada and Japan.
• A human biology major with a 3.73 cumulative GPA, McPhee was also honored at the 2017 Final Four as women's basketball's Elite 90 award winner, which is presented to the student-athlete with the highest grade point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA's 90 championships.

WATCH WILLIAMS »

• Kiana Williams received the first collegiate honor of her career when she was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week on Jan. 8 after leading Stanford in scoring at Arizona and Arizona State with an average of 13.0 points per game.
• She scored 12 on 4-of-8 shooting, including 3-of-6 from deep, in Stanford's 61-46 win at Arizona on Jan. 5 and followed that up with at 14 on 6-of-12 shooting in her team's 73-66 loss at ASU on Jan.7.
• Williams has scored in double figures in 10 of her last 15 games and is second in scoring among Pac-12 freshmen in league games, averaging 10.1 points in 10 conference contests. Arizona's Sam Thomas (10.7 ppg) leads the conference's freshmen in scoring in Pac-12 games.
• Williams averaged 3.1 points and shot 20.7 percent (6-of-29) in her first seven collegiate games. In the last 15 she's scoring 10.8 per game on 38.3 percent shooting (57-of-149).
• Since entering the starting lineup against UNLV on Dec. 16, more than 40 percent of Williams' points have come in the first quarter (53-of-132).
• She had a career-high seven assists on Sunday in the win over Arizona and totaled eight assists and zero turnovers in 50 minutes in the two games last weekend.
• A five-star talent, rated as the eighth best player in the country according to ESPN HoopGurlz, Williams was the Cardinal's first top-10 recruit since Chiney Ogwumike signed as the top player in the country in Nov. 2009.

FROM DOWN UNDER »

• A candidate for this year's Lisa Leslie Award, Alanna Smith was named Pac-12 Player of the Week for the first time on Nov. 27 following her three games in Las Vegas. She averaged a double-double of 23.7 points and 11.7 rebounds in Stanford's 2-1 week, shot 64.6 percent from the field (31-of-48), 40 percent from deep and also averaged 2.0 blocks per game.
• Smith's 33-point, 16-rebound performance against No. 9 Ohio State was the nation's first 30-point, 15-rebound double-double against an AP top-10 team since Stanford's Chiney Ogwumike went for 32 points and 20 boards against No. 3 Tennessee on Dec. 21, 2013.
• On Dec. 13, Mississippi State's Teaira McCowan also did it with a 35-point, 19-rebound effort as part of a 90-79 Bulldog win against No. 9 Oregon.
• Smith's is just the fourth by a Pac-12 player against a top-10 team since 2000 and the others are all Cardinal. In addition to Ogwumike's in 2013, Nneka Ogwumike had 42 points and 17 rebounds against No. 6 Tennessee on Dec. 20, 2011 and Nicole Powell put up 32 points and 16 rebounds against No. 2 Tennessee on Dec. 14, 2003.
• Smith's point total is the fifth-highest single-game effort in the Pac-12 this season and the most at Stanford since Chiney Ogwumike dropped in 37 against Washington State on March 1, 2014.
• In her last 37 games, Smith is averaging 13.6 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.1 blocks in 27 minutes.
• In her first 57 career appearances, the first international recruit in program history averaged just 5.6 points, 3.2 rebounds and 0.9 blocks 13 minutes per game.
• Her five double-doubles are tied for sixth in the Pac-12 and she is 18th in the league in scoring (13.3), 10th in rebounding (7.5) and third in blocks (2.0).
• Of her six career games with 20+ points, three have come this season.

GETTING ON THE GLASS »

• Kaylee Johnson's 895 career rebounds are ninth in program history. Next on the list is Jeanne Ruark Hoff, who grabbed 908 from 1978-83.
• Johnson's 895 rebounds are third among active Pac-12 players behind UCLA's Monique Billings (1,027) and Utah's Emily Potter (943) and her 149 blocked shots are fourth behind Potter (254), Billings (205) and Oregon State's Marie Gulich (167).
• With one more rejection she'll become the seventh Stanford player with 150 in a career joining Jayne Appel (273), Chiney Ogwumike (202), Val Whiting (201), Erica McCall (200) and Kristen Newlin (163).
• Her 7.4 career rebounds per game average would be eighth in Stanford history. Johnson has pulled down 10 or more 39 times in 121 career games and owns a pair of 22-rebound outings as a freshman.
• Johnson had her 10th career double-double against Washington State on Jan. 12 with 10 points and 15 rebounds. It was her first since she went for 11 and 12 in the Pac-12 Tournament semifinals against Oregon last March 4.
• She has seven double-digit rebound games already this season after just three last year.

CARRINGTON EMERGES »

• After averaging 2.5 points and 2.3 rebounds as a freshman, sophomore DiJonai Carrington has emerged as Stanford's third-leading scorer (9.8 ppg) and third-best rebounder (6.8 rpg) this season.
• She started seven games during the nonconference portion of the schedule and has come off the bench in Pac-12 play after missing Stanford's final three non-league games due to injury.
• If the Pac-12 had a Sixth Woman of the Year Award, Carrington would have as strong case. In 12 games as a substitute she is averaging 9.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.67 steals. Those rebound and steal numbers lead the conference's non-starters and she's fifth in scoring.
• She dropped in 21 points against No. 1 UConn on Nov. 12 and pulled down a career-high 22 rebounds one game later against UC Riverside on Nov. 17.
• The 5-foot-11 guard's rebound total is tied for third in school history with Kaylee Johnson and Mikaela Ruef. Chiney Ogwumike, who totaled a school-record 24 rebounds against Oregon on Feb. 24, 2013, and Nneka Ogwumike, who had 23 at Oregon on Jan. 23, 2010, are the only Cardinal players with more boards in a game.
• Carrington scored a career-high 24 points and had 10 rebounds for her second double-double of the season in Stanford's 79-54 win over Kent State on Nov. 23.
• Carrington's brother Darren just finished his career as a wide receiver at Utah and was a two-time All-Pac-12 second teamer. Her father, also Darren, played football at Northern Arizona and was a fifth-round draft pick of the Denver Broncos in the 1989 NFL Draft. He appeared in Super Bowl XXIV with the Broncos and Super Bowl XXIX with the Chargers.
• Carrington herself played two years of tackle football in middle school with the Clairemont Hawks.

THE ART OF THE ASSIST »

• Marta Sniezek had one of the best weekend of her career against the Arizona schools, averaging 10.5 points, 3.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists, including a career-high 13 points against the Sun Devils.
• Sniezek, who came into the weekend averaging 4.0 points per game in her career and shooting 27.8 percent from 3-point range (20-of-72), made 8-of-18 from the field (.444), including three of her seven attempts from deep (.429).
• She has handed out five or more assists in 38 of her 95 career appearances and is 11th in the Pac-12 averaging 4.5 assists per game this season.
• Of her six career games scoring in double figures, three have come this season and two were against Arizona State.