Preview: Oregon State Women’s Basketball Versus Stanford

The Oregon State Women’s Basketball team hosts the Bay Area schools this week. First up is Stanford on Friday night where Oregon State will look for win number ten in the series. Tip off is slated for 6 PM PST and you can watch the game on the Pac-12 Network, listen on Oregon State AllAccess, or follow along on Twitter. Let’s take a closer look at the Cardinal.

Stanford (#24 in AP Poll, 14-8 overall, 8-2 conference)

Don’t let the eight losses fool you, Stanford is still a legit team. Of those eight losses, seven were against ranked teams, including five in the top ten. Early on they were without one of their best players in Brittany McPhee who missed nine games due to injury.

Since the start of Pac-12 play, Stanford ranks first in scoring defense and shooting percentage defense. Over the course of the season they have defended well at the three point line, holding teams to 27.4% from behind the arc. As we all know, the three point shot is Oregon State’s bread and butter, so this will be an interesting match-up to watch.

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Stanford is led by senior guard McPhee and junior forward Alanna Smith who average 16 and 13 points per game respectively. Smith is also one of the team’s leading rebounders at 7.5 per game. They are still coached by Tara Vanderveer, of course, who has been at the head for as long as yours truly has been alive.

Prediction

Flip a coin. Like I said, don’t let the eight losses fool you. The Cardinal are typically the best coached team that the Beavers face off against year in and year out, and the job Coach Vanderveer has done in righting the ship after a 6-6 start is remarkable. I believe the home crowd will be a factor yet again, a la the first Civil War game, and help this team to a close win. Look for Oregon State to get going with Marie Gulich’s low post moves and Mikayla Pivec’s drives into the paint to help soften that three-point defense.