There isn’t much March Madness expected when it comes to No. 1 overall seed Stanford in the Women’s NCAA tournament.
They’re pretty much expected to dominate most of the field as a No. 1 seed in the tournament. So it came as no surprise that they were totally dominating No. 16 seeded Montana State on Friday 29-6 just midway through the second quarter.
What did catch some folks off guard was a play that happened at that moment, though.
Stanford forward Fran Belibi blocked a jump shot from a Montana State player and got the ball out on the break. She jumped out in transition slightly ahead of the rest of the pack and then — boom — she dunked the ball.
It was an absolutely fantastic display of athleticism from the block to corraling the ball in transition and pushing it on the break to the dunk itself.
🚨 FRAN SLAM 🚨
📺 » ESPN2
💻 » https://t.co/9zAJqh12Gd#GoStanford pic.twitter.com/8o1M8l1AY3— Stanford Women’s Basketball (@StanfordWBB) March 19, 2022
This wasn’t just any dunk. It was a dunk of historic proportion. It was the third dunk of Belibi’s career and also the third dunk in Women’s NCAA tournament history.
The only other two players to pull this off were Brittney Griner in 2013 and Candace Parker in 2006. That’s some pretty fantastic company to be in.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to see Belibi throwing it down like this. She’s been throwing down alley-oops since high school.
Still, Fran’s big dunk had college basketball fans hyped.