Stanford forward Cameron Brink looked on from the bench, having fouled out of her team’s February matchup against Oregon late in the fourth quarter. As she sat and watched the waning seconds of the contest, with then No. 2 Stanford clinging to a three-point lead, something clicked in her mind.
With 6.5 seconds to play, Agnes Emma-Nnopu went to the free throw line. The then sophomore guard would take only nine shots from the stripe all season and make just five of them. On this night, she missed the first. In between the pair, Brink and then teammate guard Alyssa Jerome called out from the sideline, “You’re loved, Agnes. We love you!”
“Just letting her know we’re behind you,” Brink says now. “It kinda just felt second nature.”
