Mechelle VoepelESPN.com
SAN ANTONIO — Ashten Prechtel watched the entire first half of Stanford’s Elite Eight game from the bench. In the second half, she came in to save the Cardinal’s season.
The 6-foot-5 sophomore forward scored all of her season-high 16 points after halftime as the overall No. 1 seed Cardinal rallied from down as many as 14 points to defeat Louisville 78-63 and advance to the program’s 14th women’s Final Four.
In 16 minutes of play, Prechtel didn’t miss a shot from the field, going 6-of-6, including three 3-pointers. She also had four assists, three rebounds and two blocked shots.
“I don’t think it was just me. We all started playing better,” Prechtel said. “We were hitting shots and getting stops on defense. I think collectively we did start to feel that momentum, and we tried to keep it going. And I think we were able to do that throughout the third and fourth quarters.”
The final score isn’t indicative of the peril the Cardinal appeared to be in. They trailed by 12 at halftime and were down 43-29 with 7:08 left in the third quarter. But a key characteristic of Stanford this season has been its deep bench, and that came through for coach Tara VanDerveer. She said that of the mix of post players she had to choose from, Prechtel — who came into Tuesday averaging 5.2 points per game — was the one who responded the best.
“When we were down 12 at halftime,” Prechtel said, “I hadn’t thought about that it could be our last game before. And that’s when I started to think about it. I didn’t want that.”
Prechtel didn’t score her first points until a layup with 3:45 left in the third quarter. But she was just getting started. She had a 3-pointer, another layup and a blocked shot as Stanford closed to within 50-48 at the end of the period. In the fourth quarter, Prechtel had nine points and three assists.
“She was a two-way player,” VanDerveer said. “She played great defense. She rebounded. Honestly, I thought her [first] 3 was the shot that really just kind of said, ‘All right, we’re back. We can win this game.’
“It was really exciting to see her play well. She’s been doing great things for us all year. She really picked a great time to shine.”
