Hailee Swain Continues to Carry Cardinal, But Sotelo Míguez Seals Stanford Win

The Stanford Cardinal women's basketball team climbed to 3-1 on Friday night following a 66-55 victory, complete with sophomore Hailee Swain's fourth game this season scoring 20 points or more. Against Santa Clara, she notched 22, making this the first time all season she hasn't set a new career high in points, following a 26-point effort against UC Davis last week. 

She’s the first Stanford player with four straight 20-point games since Kiki Iriafen in 2023-24 and the first Cardinal guard to do it since Lili Thompson in 2015-16. 

Swain again led the way in shots, hitting 9-of-19 from the field, including a 2-of-4 night from three while nailing both free-throw attempts. She added five rebounds, an assist and a steal, while accounting for one of Stanford's 13 turnovers. The program had entered the game averaging 22.3 per game. 

The sophomore accounted for 33% of the team's points while taking just 15% of the total shots. That has been one of the early signs of trouble for the Cardinal — along with the high turnover rate in the early going — but they have been able to come out ahead in their past three games. Swain also tallied 39:09 minutes on the floor on Friday, giving her three games with 37 or more minutes already this season. 

One player who has been off to a slower-than-expected start is junior transfer Inés Sotelo Míguez, who shot 48.6% from the field as a freshman with Michigan State and followed that up by shooting 45.1% as a sophomore. Through four games she is shooting just 33.3% and has gone just 4-of-16 from the field the past two games. 

That said, one of those field goals was huge on Friday night. 

With 1:11 left in the game and Santa Clara flirting with grabbing some momentum after a three-pointer made it 60-52, Alexandra Eschmeyer's jumper missed, and Santa Clara grabbed the rebound, looking to continue chipping away at Stanford's lead.

Sotelo Míguez collected a steal on the Cardinal end and immediately laid it up to extend the lead back to 10 and squash the Broncos' hopes of a comeback. While it wasn't the biggest play of the game, it certainly helped to seal the win for Stanford. 

The game was close throughout and was tied 43-43 with 2:57 to go in the third quarter, but the Cardinal went on an 8-0 run to close out the quarter and never looked back. 

Nora Ezika finished second in scoring with 15 points on 2-of-6 shooting from the field, but went a perfect 10-of-10 from the free-throw line. 

Shay Ijiwoye added 11 points, five rebounds and six assists. 

Stanford will face Gonzaga at home on Sunday at 2 p.m. Kevin Danna and Mary Murphy will call that one on ACCNX.