Hones Sweet Hones! Stanford Heads to Final Four

By Kecia Bailey: SPM CA Writer
Posted Tuesday, April 1, 2008

“I told [Candice] that she’s the best player on the floor and there’s no one who can stop her out there. She’s played all over the world and no one can stop her there, so why tonight?”

SPOKANE, Wash. – After an 11-year drought, the Stanford Cardinal are headed back to the Final Four following a 98-87 victory over the #1 seed Maryland Terrapins in the Spokane regional final Monday night. This marks the team's first trip to the Final Four since 1997, when the Cardinal lost to Old Dominion 83-82 in overtime.

For a team from northern California, the unseasonal snow of Eastern Washington had been a good omen. The Cardinal had been a perfect 2-0 on snowy days in Spokane and in neighboring Pullman, home of their Pac-10 rival Washington State Cougars. A light snow fell an hour before tip-off, a fortuitous sign perhaps of the night to come.

Senior guard Candice Wiggins put on another phenomenal performance for the Cardinal, notching her second 40-point game of the tournament (becoming the only player in tournament history to accomplish such a feat) with a game-high 41 points to make sure Stanford was not turned back in this round.

Whether a premonition or wishful thinking, sophomore center Jayne Appel offered a bit of encouragement to her teammate before the game,

“I told her that she’s the best player on the floor and there’s no one who can stop her out there. She’s played all over the world and no one can stop her there, so why tonight?”

All the talk leading up to this game was about the post players, Candice Wiggins, or some measure of disrespect either team felt perpetrated by somebody somewhere at some time about their team. It was Stanford’s sophomore guard JJ Hones, however, who stole the spotlight in the game early as she poured in 17 points in the first half on her way to a career-high 23 points.

Hones, who is playing in her first postseason after suffering an ACL injury last year, reflected on her performance.

“I felt like throughout the course of the tournament people had stepped up big. I felt like people had been sleeping on me in terms of that…so I felt it was kind of my duty to make shots.”

Another player doing the unthinkable this game for Stanford was Pedersen who finished a perfect 3-3 from the perimeter, marking a career high in three-point shots made.

“They found me on those pick and pops with Candice and I’ve been practicing my three in practice,” she said. “I think it was just my time to step up and hit them.”

The game began at a blistering pace, shots were flying and falling like it was a shoot-around rather than high-stakes game with a ticket to Tampa on the line. By the first media timeout at the 15:16 mark, each team had scored 12 points; Maryland on 5-8 shooting and Stanford going 4-9.

When play resumed, the Cardinal began to try to pull away behind an aerial barrage. Stanford reeled seven straight makes from the floor, including 3-point baskets from Hones, freshman forward Kayla Pedersen, and Wiggins. As junior guard Jillian Harmon’s shot nestled through the net, Stanford had built an eight-point advantage, 30-22.

Maryland was not about to let Stanford run away quite yet, they were ready to match the Cardinal’s torrid shooting, and quickly erased their lead to take a 31-30 lead of their own with 8:00 minutes remaining in the first half. That was the last lead they would have in the game.

Stanford closed the final 7:35 of the first half scoring 21 points, behind a spectacular performance by Hones, who added eight points in that stretch including a steal and a breakaway layup, and closed Stanford’s scoring with a 3-pointer -- her third of the half -- to give the Cardinal a 51-38 advantage.

Kristi Toliver answered with a three of her own, to send the Terrapins into the intermission down 51-41.

Both teams shot the lights out in the first half, Stanford hitting 61 percent from the floor and Maryland edging them with a 64 percent; the difference was Stanford’s 68 percent (8-12) from the perimeter. Wiggins and Hones had a half-high 17 points apiece, while Toliver lead Maryland with 11.

With 20 minutes to go to Tampa, the second half would belong to whichever team could keep the pace. Both teams kept up with each other there as well, with Stanford shooting 41 percent from the floor and Maryland shooting 46 percent.

Maryland made a strong push at the start of the half. After freshman guard Jeanette Pohlen opened the scoring with Stanford’s ninth 3-pointer of the game, Maryland made a run to cut the Stanford lead to five. Kristi Toliver, Marissa Coleman and Marah Strickland brought the Terrapins back, combining for 16 points during the run, with Strickland nabbing key offensive boards and a steal.

Again the Cardinal stood firm and held back the charging Terrapins. Wiggins’ 3-pointer stemmed the Maryland momentum and on their next possessions Rosalyn Gold-Onwude drained a three and then Appel connected on a layup to push the Cardinal lead back to 13 with 13:31 to play.

A frustrated coach Frese exploded over a foul call against senior reserve Jade Perry, earning a technical. Wiggins converted on the free throw and followed that almost immediately with a slicing score down the lane to give the Cardinal its largest lead of the night 73-58.

As the game got close late, Maryland had a difficult time making shots and free throws. With Stanford’s lead down to seven at 79-72, and under five minutes left in their season, Strickland missed a pair of free throws, Harper missed a layup, and Crystal Langhorne split a pair of free throws.

The Terrapins would get as close as nine, but time was no longer their ally, and Wiggins closed the door for good by making 5 of 6 free throws with less than two minutes to go.

Dribbling out the final seconds after Laura Harper turned the ball over, Wiggins made her way up the floor, as the clock approached zero, the realization hit her that she and her team had broken another drought and had gotten past the Elite Eight. She was overcome with emotion, with tears and exclamations of “Oh My God” as the horn sounded and she could finally feel an experience that had previously eluded her.

“I think what hit me was actually my sophomore year, we lost to LSU and they were celebrating and dancing and I was like gosh, I just want to dance like that, just be excited and go to the Final Four with my team. And sure enough, we were all out here dancing,” Wiggins said.

Yes, they were dancing. As the horn sounded, and the obligatory t-shirts and caps were distributed to the players and coaches, the band played the school's unofficial fight song -- Free’s “All Right Now” -- as the players danced and embraced all around the court, relishing the moment and the achievement which had been not only a year in the making -- as they had said all season -- but also 11 years in the making.

As it always seems to do on moments like this, a ladder arrived and it was time to clip the net, an additional trophy of their conquest of the western region. One-by-one the Stanford players and coaches climbed the rungs to take their snip. Unexpected heroine JJ Hones was first to take a cut. Seniors Cissy Pierce and Wiggins waited till near the end and followed each other up.

Wiggins stopping to wave her prize to the Stanford traveling party who cheered as relentlessly as she had played in the game. Last up were two players whose time on the floor this season was cut short by ACL injuries early in the season; sophomore forward Michelle Harrison – who went down in the first game of the season and sophomore guard Melanie Murphy – who was lost for the season nearly two weeks later, cut the final player strings.

First-year assistant coach Kate Paye, who left a corporate law job to return to the Farm this season, had to take off her heels to make the climb up the ladder. She’s had experience at this, as a member of the 1992 team – the last Cardinal team to cut down the last net of the season as National Champion with a 78-62 victory over Western Kentucky.

The final cut of course goes to the head coach, and VanDerveer made her way up and cut the last two strands to release the net from the rim. She held it up in a pose which was strikingly similar to her pose in a picture incorporated into the photo montage that graces the cover of Stanford’s 2007-2008 media guide.

On ending the drought, Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said, “I think that going to the Final Four is something really special.”

On what it means to her and her team she added, “I think we’ve have some great teams, we’ve had some great individual players (at Stanford over the years), but I don’t know that there’s ever been anyone who has done any more for their team than Candice does, in so many ways…I’m just really happy for her and really happy for our team to have this opportunity…They just really wanted it for each other and it’s really special.”

As the final strains of the alma mater “Hail, Stanford, Hail” wafted into the upper levels of the arena, everyone started to make their way off the floor and to the locker room, Pierce, seemingly soaking in every sweet moment, took her time as she clutched the regional champion trophy to her chest, resisting any attempt by a teammate to take it away from her. Like her teammates mindset coming into the game, this one wasn’t going to get away.

After the game Maryland coach Frese searched for answers. The game plan had been simple.

“They’re obviously dangerous they they’re hitting threes with the kind of inside presence they have. So we really felt like we wanted to stick to our game plan – that essentially those shots weren’t going to continue to fall.” she said. “As much game film as we had watched on them, we felt like the percentages were going to even up. But obviously like I said, all the credit goes to Stanford for just making so many great shots in this game”

It was hard for Kristi Toliver to put into perspective the performance she had Monday night, scoring a career-high 35 points and dueling Wiggins to the end, in what at times seemed like they were engaged in their own private game of H-O-R-S-E on the court of the Spokane Arena.

“Right now, all I’m feeling is the loss and the fact that I don’t get to play with my seniors anymore. That’s what’s going on in my head,” she said with a cracking voice and dampened eyes.

In addition to Toliver, the other four Maryland starters also scored in double figures. Coleman had 16, Strickland had 10 and seniors Langhorne and Harper ended their careers with 133 and 10 points respectively.

Maryland finishes with a record of 33-4.

The Cardinal backcourt of Wiggins and Hones combined for 64 of the Cardinal’s 98 points, but also contributing double figures were their front-court mates Pedersen (15) and Appel (11).

Stanford (34-3) now takes its 22-game win streak to Tampa, Florida to face either UConn or Rutgers in one of two national semi-finals set for Sunday, April 6th. ESPN will televise the game.

Notes:

All Spokane Regional Team

Shavonte Zellous Guard Jr. Pittsburgh
Kristi Toliver Guard Jr. Maryland
Jayne Appel Center So. Stanford
Kayla Pedersen Forward Fr. Stanford

Most Outstanding Player:
Candice Wiggins Guard Sr. Stanford