No. 4 Stanford survives tough battle with scrappy Belmont, moves to 5-0 with 74-55 win

HENDERSON, Nev. -- — Cameron Brink scored 27 points and grabbed 16 rebounds to help lead No. 4 Stanford to a 74-55 victory over Belmont on Wednesday in the opening round of the Ball Dawgs Classic.

The Bruins turned in a formidable performance before national powerhouse Stanford (5-0) pulled away for the win.

After falling behind 33-32 early in the third quarter, a 3-pointer by Hannah Jump ignited a 9-0 run -- the other six points coming from Brink -- as the Cardinal took a 41-33 lead to seize control.

And when the Bruins (2-3) cut their deficit to six, 59-53 with 4:34 left in the game, the Cardinal closed things out on a 15-2 run for the win.

Kiki Iriafen scored 14 points and nine rebounds for Stanford.

”(Cam) had a great second half ... I thought Kiki had a really good game. I thought our fourth quarter was great,” Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. “We started making some shots and we’ve got to run offense better. We worked hard defensively.”

Tuti Jones and Tessa Miller each scored 18 points to lead Belmont . Jailyn Banks chipped in 10 for Belmont, while Kendal Cheesman grabbed 14 rebounds.

Stanford’s second-chance opportunities made the difference, as the Cardinal outscored Belmont 21-2 in that department by outrebounding the Bruins 20-8 on the offensive glass.

Belmont took advantage of Stanford’s poor shooting in the second quarter to gain a bit of momentum, while Brink sat with two fouls for eight of the 10 minutes in the quarter. While the Bruins hit 7 of 15 (46.7%), including 2 of 4 from 3-point range, the Cardinal was just 4 of 20 (20%) from the floor with only 3 of 11 dropping in from 3-point range.

“Belmont’s a great team, defensively they’re solid,” Brink said. “So, it was just a chance for me to kind of observe what’s going on, just be a positive energy for the rest of the girls. Kiki carried us in the first half, she’s just amazing, and without her we wouldn’t have won this game.”

Stanford’s offensive drought in the first half allowed the Bruins to head into the locker room trailing by only one at halftime, 32-31.

“I thought they put us in position to have a shot against a really, really good team,” Belmont coach Bart Brooks said. “And that’s all you ask as a coach going into these things, if we can get ourselves into a place in the fourth quarter where we’ve got a shot.”

ON THE BRINK

Brink had her consecutive free throw streak come to an end when she made just one of two from the line in the second quarter. Brink made 73 consecutive free throws before her miss, which ranks second all-time to North Dakota’s Michelle Gaislerova (75, from Dec. 30, 2018 to Feb. 23, 2020).

"I looked up at my mom and she just gave me a thumbs up,” Brink said. “As a big, as a post, I think that’s impressive. I got my percentage up from 60% or something. So take it with a grain of salt.”

BIG PICTURE

Belmont: The Bruins will be battle-tested when they open Missouri Valley Conference play next Wednesday, after opening their campaign against power conference programs in five of their first six games, including a 76-50 win over Georgia earlier this month.

Stanford: Coach Tara VanDerveer (1,191) is one step closer to breaking Mike Krzyzewski’s record (1,202) to become the winningest coach in college basketball history, in either men’s or women’s.

UP NEXT

Belmont: Faces Northwestern in the consolation on Friday

Stanford: Meets No. 13 Florida State in the championship on Friday.

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