STANFORD – Stanford will need a deep run in this week’s ACC Tournament in order to make its 37th straight NCAA tournament, but at least it will be coming in on a hot streak.
The Cardinal (16-13, 8-10) will enter the postseason Wednesday in Greensboro, N.C., having won five of six games, including Sunday’s 87-82 win over Georgia Tech at Maples Pavilion.
“I think we’ve been playing really well and with a lot of confidence,” Stanford coach Kate Paye said. “Absolutely nothing succeeds like success, so we’re going to continue to build. Our team is all about improving and learning from the good things and working on the other things, and we’re excited to be going in with a lot of confidence.”
The Yellow Jackets (21-9, 9-9) had spent the past 11 weeks in the AP Top 25, reaching as high as No. 13, before falling out this past Monday. But they led for just 36 seconds Sunday.
Stanford shot 61.4 percent – the best any ACC team has shot against a conference opponent this season — led by sophomore forwards Mary Ashley Stevenson (7 for 9, 17 points) and Courtney Ogden (7 for 10, 16 points).
Ogden blew by her defender for an open lay-up with 5:21 to play to put Stanford ahead 79-78. A 3-pointer by senior Brooke Demetri extended the lead to 84-78 with 3:45 remaining, and the Cardinal led by at least two possessions the rest of the way.
Playing on her Senior Day, Greece native Elena Bosgana had team-highs of 19 points and six rebounds and was one of five Cardinal with three assists.
As a result, the Cardinal will enter its first ACC Tournament as the No. 11 seed and will face No. 14 Clemson, who beat visiting Stanford in overtime two months ago, Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. The winner will face the No. 6 seed on Thursday at 4:30 p.m.
“I feel like our team has improved so much since the start of ACC play,” Paye said. “We’ve learned so much about ourselves. We’re really grateful for the opportunity. We’re used to the travel, we have a way we do it, and we’re excited to play on Wednesday.”
When Bosgana became the program’s first recruit from Europe, she joined a program that had just won the 2021 NCAA championship under Tara VanDerveer, then the winningest coach in women’s college basketball.
As Bosgana leaves The Farm, Stanford is led by VanDerveer’s longtime assistant and is outside the top three in its conference for the first time since 1987-88.
The Cardinal was unable to withstand the departures of Cameron Brink (No. 2 pick in WNBA Draft) and Kiki Iriafen (18.1 points, 8.3 rebounds for Big Ten champion USC) and an injury to two-year starting point guard Talana Lepolo, who had 264 assists in her first two years but was limited to eight assists in five games this season after undergoing offseason knee surgery.
Stanford finished a perfect 14-0 at home against unranked teams, but lost its three home games against Top 25 teams and was 2-10 away from Maples.
To have an extended stay this week, it will need to stay hot from 3-point range (Stanford entered the weekend 15th in the nation at 36.9% from behind the arc) and hope for a return from Nunu Agara, who is 11th in the ACC in scoring (15.9) and eighth in rebounding (7.6) but has played just seven minutes since suffering a concussion on Feb. 6.
There are signs that Stanford can bounce back next season. The Cardinal is a young team – freshman Shay Ijiwoye and sophomores Mary Ashley Stevenson and Chloe Clardy started Sunday while sophomore Courtney Ogden was the first player off the bench.
Agara is also a sophomore, and Stanford has three McDonald’s All-Americans in a 2025 recruiting class that is ranked third nationally by espnW.
But Paye said this year’s team isn’t done yet.
“They’re not scared. They’re not giving up,” Paye said. “They’re excited, they have confidence. I truly believe that our team can compete with any team in the country. We know that there’s a lot of external narratives… and we don’t really care about them. What we care about is the way we feel about each other and we want to play really well on Wednesday.”
