The No. 17 Arizona women’s basketball team hosts No. 6 Stanford University on Thursday, Feb. 9, at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN. Thursday night’s game will be a rematch, as the two teams met in Stanford, California on Jan. 2. The Cardinal beat the Wildcats with ease 73-57.
Road Trip Recap
Last weekend, Arizona traveled to Los Angeles to take on No. 14 UCLA and USC and came back to Tucson with two wins. Their first game of the weekend was on Friday, Feb. 3, against UCLA. Arizona trailed throughout most of the game and with less than five minutes remaining, Arizona was trailing 61-50. However, Arizona stormed back and finished the game on a 21-5 run to beat No. 14 UCLA 71-66 in overtime. The Wildcats followed Friday night’s thriller with another exciting game against USC on Sunday, Feb. 5. Arizona defeated USC 81-75 in double overtime in a game that went back and forth from start to finish.
Thursday night begins a brutal stretch for the Wildcats as they will face No. 6 Stanford, the University of California Berkeley, the No. 7 University of Utah and the No. 25 University of Colorado Boulder in their next four matchups.
No. 17 Arizona vs. No. 6 Stanford
Stanford leads the Pac-12 in rebounds, while Arizona is ranked 10th in the conference. In their first matchup against Arizona, Stanford had 53 rebounds compared to the Wildcats’ 35.
The Cardinal are 22-3 and 10-2 in Pac-12 play. The Cardinal look to rebound after falling to the unranked University of Washington 72-67 on Sunday, Feb. 5. Following their loss, Stanford dropped from No. 2 to No. 6 in the AP Top 25 Women’s Poll.
Stanford is led by junior forward Cameron Brink, senior guard Haley Jones and senior guard Hannah Jump. Brink leads the Cardinal in scoring, rebounds and blocks. She averages 14.4 points, 9.6 rebounds and 3.6 blocks per game. Additionally, Brink has 10 double-doubles this season and one triple-double. Senior guard Jones is not far behind Brink, as she puts up 13.6 points and 9 rebounds per game and her 3.8 assists per game lead the team. Jump is third on the team in scoring, averaging 11.8 points per game. She is also an elite three-point shooter, averaging 42.4% from behind the arc, ranking 11th nationally.
Brink and Jones are two of the best women’s basketball players in the entire country according to ESPN, which ranked Brink and Jones fifth and sixth, respectively, in the nation for women’s college basketball players.
Stanford has an all-time record of 74-11 against Arizona. Additionally, since 2004, Arizona has beaten Stanford only three times: February 2004, February 2015 and February 2020. Arizona has lost five straight games against Stanford, including their 54-53 loss in the 2021 National Championship Game.
Record against AP Top 25:
Stanford is 6-1 against Top-25 teams this season.
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