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Stanford's Free-Throw Shooting an Early Concern
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- Stanford's Free-Throw Shooting an Early Concern
(Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images)
The Stanford Cardinal women's basketball program is through both of its exhibition games, finishing with a 1-1 record following Wednesday's 65-56 loss to UC Santa Barbara.
What has stood out in both contests is the team's lack of effective free-throw shooting up and down the roster. Across the two games, the Cardinal went 18-of-34 from the line, good for an abysmal 52.9%. The difference in the Santa Barbara game was those missed shots at the line.
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Santa Barbara shot two fewer free throws, but made five more than Stanford, going 15-of-17 (88%). Those missed points loom large when both teams shot a total of 60 times, with the Cardinal also missing two more shots from the floor. It was a close game, but those were the key differences.
Stanford also committed 20 turnovers after committing 16 in their first exhibition game , which will be another part of the game to clean up heading into the regular season. The Cardinal didn't notch a single steal in that second game, while Santa Barbara picked their pockets 12 times.
On the bright side, Stanford matched defensive rebounds with Santa Barbara at 29, but doubled them up on the offensive glass 16 to 8.
It should also be noted that sophomore guard Hailee Swain played all 40 minutes on Wednesday night after leading the team in minutes with 32:23 in the first game. She led all scorers with 23 points on 9-of-17 shooting from the field, which included 2-of-7 from three. She also went 3-of-4 from the free-throw line.
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The likely reasoning for this much playing time is that she will be leading the Cardinal in 2026-27, so she needs her reps with everyone on the roster while they can work on things. She'll also likely be relied upon heavily, and this could have been some conditioning work to get her ready for the season as well.
The question is who will be her supporting cast this season.
Alexandra Eschmeyer is another highly touted sophomore who has the potential to be a game-changer for the program, but we haven't seen that from her just yet. After the offseason roster exodus , she'll have plenty of opportunities to cement her place.
Junior transfer Inés Sotelo Míguez also figures to be a big part of this roster. She played 37 minutes on Wednesday, though she shot just 3-of-9 from the field and went 1-for-3 from the free-throw line.
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Charlotte Tuhy continues to be a monster on the boards, collecting another 11 after snagging 13 in game one. One area of her game that will be interesting to watch is the three-point shot. She's just 2-for-10 in exhibition play, hitting one in each game. She shot 32.7% last year as a freshman with American University.
The program only has 12 players listed on the official roster, though freshman Jordyn Wheeler hasn't played in either game. Six-foot-five freshman Kiara Green played just two minutes in the first game and didn't play at all in the second.
If the program faces any injuries, its lack of fresh bodies could become an issue. It also means that the core pieces of the program have to be on every single night. We'll have to see how they respond to that pressure.
