Stanford's Short Bench Hurts in Defeat to Louisville

Stanford's women's basketball team dropped another tough one on the road, this time in Louisville against the Cardinals. With Stanford playing without Nunu Agara, who was injured in the blowout against Notre Dame, they came in without their best all-around player and the leader of the offense this season.

Agara has been one of just two players to score in double figures on average this year, and without her, the Cardinal roster rallied, with four players scoring ten or more, but in the end it still wasn't enough.

Stanford lost this one 74-65, dropping their record to 11-12 on the year and just 3-9 against the ACC, which is among the bottom of the conference along with Pittsburgh (3-9), SMU (2-11), and Wake Forest (1-11).

Two of Stanford's three ACC wins have been against Wake Forest (74-71) and Pitt (58-46), while the other was against Florida State in a shootout, 89-84. The win against Wake Forest was the only victory away from Maples of the bunch.

As for the game on Sunday, Chloe Clardy led the team in scoring with 16 points, adding an assist and two steals in 37 minutes of playing time. She shot 7-of-15 from the field, and hit both of Stanford's three pointers in the game

The Cardinal as a team went just 2-of-16 (12.5%) from beyond the arc. This is a team that was shooting the lights out from deep at the beginning of the season, and was even leading the nation in threes to begin the year, but of late has just been unable to connect from distance.

Injuries have certainly played a role.

Not only were the Cardinal down Agara, but Talana Lepolo hasn't played since November, junior Jzaniya Harriel has been out since the Cal game on January 23, and Stanford was limited to just eight players getting minutes on Sunday. Both Shay Ijiwoye (seven minutes) and Kennedy Umeh (nine minutes) were limited in their playing time, leaving the big-time minutes to just six players.

Sophomore Mary Ashley Stevenson has been seeing increased minutes, including 33 against Louisville, and on Sunday she dropped a season-high 15, adding five boards, an assist, and a block. She was also the only player with a positive plus-minus, accruing a +1 for the game.

Senior Elena Bosgana, the other player averaging double figures this year, put up 14, while adding ten rebounds, an assist, and five steals in 31 minutes.

Tess Heal was the fourth double-digit scorer against Louisville, adding ten points in 31 minutes, along with a rebound and a steal. She was also the only Cardinal not to commit a turnover in the game. Stanford finished the game with 18 turnovers, but wound up even with the Cardinals in that stat column.

Stanford and Louisville ended up nearly tied in number of possessions, with the visitors getting 69 and the home squad with 70. The biggest difference was the team's shooting, specifically from three. Louisville shot 6-of-14 (42.9%), with Tajianna Roberts going 4-of-7. She also led Louisville in scoring with 21. Jayda Curry added 19 points, and Ja'Leah Williams dropped 13.