C&R summarized Stanford's 82-57 win over Penn State in the Sweet 16 in a fanpost, writing that "Stanford played their best ball in a long, long time."
A large part of that was their ability to contain PSU's Maggie Lucas defensively, holding her to a career-low six points.
Stanford’s Lili Thompson got the assignment to guard Penn State’s great scorer, Maggie Lucus. She averages about 21 points a game. Lili held her to 6 points in the fist half. And for the game? Six points. That’s right they shut her down in the second half. Lucas was scoreless. Tied her career low, too. She was 3-for-14 from the floor, including 0-for-5 on 3-pointers. Her last points were nine and a half minutes left in the first. Wowsa!
Penn State set screens, and even double screens, to try to free up their outside shooter Lucas, but nobody prepares for a game like Tara Vanderveer. Stanford knew the screens were coming and either got over them or switched personal on her so she never got an open look.
Stanford isn't the first team to stifle Lucas, even if for only a half: in PSU's previous two losses to Nebraska and Ohio State (in the Big Ten tournament), Lucas shot a combined 10-for-34 in the face of similar defensive schemes. Stanford was just able to get it done for 40 minutes.
For more on the game, check out C&R's recap. For more on the region and their Elite Eight opponent, check out our Stanford region storystream.