After completely dominating Cleveland State’s frontcourt Tuesday night, you’d think Wisconsin power forward Jessie Stomski would choose to dwell on her own 27-point, 10-rebound performance.
Instead, Stomski showed her widest grin when asked for her thoughts on the career-best 14 points scored by senior center Sarah Jirovec, one of Wisconsin’s last reserves and a classmate of Stomski’s.
“I’m so happy for Sarah,” Stomski said. “She’s worked just as hard as the starting five and everyone else, and it’s just so great to see her producing a game. She really deserves to enjoy this.”
Incidentally, Stomski’s exceptional offensive performance probably allowed Jirovec to score so many points.
After Stomski led the Badgers to a 20-point lead in the game’s first 12 minutes, UW head coach Jane Albright began to substitute liberally for the rest of the game. By the end, all 15 Badgers had logged playing time — including Jirovec, whose 14 points in 14 minutes nearly tripled her previous game-high.
Stomski found her shot on a night when the Badgers’ outside shooters struggled. Cleveland State’s aggressive 2-3 zone defense prevented Wisconsin from scoring a single point outside of the paint during the game’s first 10 minutes. Stomski, however, made eight of nine first-half shots and scored 18 before retiring to the bench for the last eight minutes of the half.
“In the first three games I think I was struggling from the field,” Stomski said. “It was nice to get into a game where I could get my confidence back up. I really have to thank my teammates also for sticking with me, especially Tamara [Moore]. You helped me in a time when I was kind of struggling. You kept feeding me the ball.”
How’d Stomski do it? Quite simply — none of the Vikings could match up with her physical play, especially her back-to-the-basket post moves. Stomski used a mix of drop steps, pump fakes and spins to juke past and barge through Cleveland State’s defenders.
Stomski played just as tough without the ball in her hands. She grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds on her way to the 26th double-double of her career.
“Compared to our conference, she’s the most physical by far,” said Vikings power forward Tonya Crum, who was stuck with the unenviable task of guarding Stomski. “They like to say I’m pretty physical. I’d say she was pretty physical in there. She was having her way with me. She’s definitely an all-American candidate. I think she can go far, that’s for sure.”
Because of Stomski’s overpowering performance, a well-rounded effort by point guard/small forward Tamara Moore may have slipped under the radar. Moore scored 22 points, passed for six assists and swiped six steals while playing the same minutes as Stomski.
But the game’s second-leading scorer wasn’t about to keep the ball away from her oldest teammate.
“I’ve been playing with Jessie since the 10th grade, so I know when to give her the ball and when not to give her the ball,” Moore said of her fellow Minnesota native Stomski. “Of course I’ll give it to her when she’s 12 for 15, but even when we were in the Paradise Jam tournament, when she wasn’t making her shots, I was still giving her the ball, because she’s proven to me over the years that she has the ability to dominate whenever she needs to.”
After the game, Stomski deflected praise from herself onto her teammate Jirovec. The opponents, however, knew exactly who had beaten them.
“Stomski and Moore are the real deal,” Cleveland State head coach Duffy Burns said. “We knew that watching them on film, but they really showed us tonight how good they are as individuals.”
