Under the South Carolina basket, when All-American Aliyah Boston’s point-blank attempt hit the iron and rebounded, Stanford won a ticket to the place he had always wanted to go since his long and tortuous journey began in November – the game national championship – after defeating South Carolina 66-65 in an exciting national semifinal game at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
Kiana Williams, the hometown girl, was on the court smiling broadly as her teammates ran to her for the group hug. The exhalation was collective and deep after the chaotic final 13 seconds that put the cardinal on the razor’s edge of a very, very different set of emotions.
“That was surviving and moving forward,” said Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer. “It was not a beautiful game for us, credit to South Carolina … But we will have to learn from it and play better on Sunday.”
Haley Jones gave a different word for the sentiment after the semi-final full of drama and comings and goings from Friday.
“It’s surreal,” said the second-year striker, who starred for Cardinal with 24 points, including what ended up being the winner with 32 seconds for a broken play. “I don’t think it really hit me yet. I mean, everyone growing up, you want to go to the national championship, play on the biggest stage, in front of the biggest crowd, against the best team. We know that whoever comes out with a “W” tonight will be a big competition for us on Sunday. We’re just moving on. We are excited. “
Stanford hit the ball with a one-point advantage – thanks to Jones’ unbalanced jump – to freshman Cameron Brink, who lost his grip after being hit by Gamecocks defenders, and handed it to South Carolina’s Brea Beal, who drove straight into the basket and missed a tray. Boston, which had been a dominant domestic presence throughout the game, even when she struggled with problems in the second half, followed quickly, but her shot was too strong and rebounded, ending the game dramatically.
Jones was an island of peace in this game, calm, cool and controlled when he finished with 24 points out of 11 out of 24 shots, including a pair of 3 points. All of this despite sitting for the entire second half with two fouls. Jones talked about his team’s stamina and stance as a product of their well-narrated journey together this season.
“I think it’s just us being together, having confidence in each other,” said Jones. “If someone turns around, I will not miss passing the ball the next time. I have confidence and trust in them. I think this union really brings us together.
“We just had a great chemistry out there and I think that really shows up when it comes to squeezing.”
VanDerveer has seen Jones mature this season. And she definitely saw it on Friday night when the player who was 1 to 9 beyond the 3-point arc during the regular season hit two more points from 3 at critical moments against South Carolina, bringing his total NCAA to five .
“Haley has been working very hard,” said VanDerveer. “I thought that her practices have been very focused, she is talking about. She really took a step forward. She knows this. She is not a freshman. She really was a leader out there. Obviously she has confidence. She plays with confidence. ”
Stanford kept pace on the boards against a South Carolina team (over 40-36) who had no rebound all season and had a critical performance of 18 points and 13 rebounds from junior Lexie Hull, six blocks from the freshman center Cameron Brink and nine points and eight rebounds from the bench of Elite Eight hero Ashten Prechtel.
The cardinal started slowly for the second consecutive game, losing 11-2 in the first minutes before drawing the game at the end of the first quarter, 15-15, and holding South Carolina without a basket for nine minutes during a stretch connecting the first and the second quarter. Stanford managed a nine-point advantage in the third quarter, but the final quarter was a tough game and no one knows better than VanDerveer, named Coach of the Year Naismith earlier in the day, that his team could easily have been the one going home disappointed . But they didn’t. And the Hall of Fame said its team will be ready on Sunday, no matter what.
“This is a team in which I have confidence, confidence in themselves, really play hard for each other,” said VanDerveer. “They were absolutely thrilled to be in the championship game. They know that we didn’t play a big game tonight. “
Stanford (30-2) now has his chance to compete in the program’s first national championship in 29 years (since 1992). And it is the Cardinal’s first trip to the title game since 2010, when he played, interestingly, at the Alamodome against Connecticut. Stanford did not win that game. Now they have a chance to redo it.
“Being able to bring us back to this stage of the national championship is just an honor to be able to do that, for Tara, for the team, for the program,” said Jones. “We still have one more game to go, so we’re looking forward to doing what we can with that, I hope to do a voice over. Yeah, kind of leave our mark and legacy. “