by Jerry Feitelberg

The Stanford Cardinal rebounded form the trouncing they took Monday night at the hands of Brigham Young University. The BYU Cougars shredded the Stanford defense and the Cardinal was looking to turn things around Thursday night at Maples Pavilion. The Cardinal did just that as they played a very stout defense and they beat the Northwestern Wildcats 71-58. The Cardinal improved to 2-1 for the season and Northwestern, coached by first year head coach Chris Collins, dropped to 1-1. Collins is the son of former NBA star Doug Collins.

The first half was very close. The half ended with Stanford holding a slim two point lead 29-27.

The Cardinal was paced by center Stefan Nastic who had eight points and Chasson Randle added seven and forward Josh Huestis pitched in with five. The Wildcats were led by Drew Crawford who had thirteen points and four rebounds. Stanford’s Dwight Powell committed two personal fouls early in the first half and was on the bench for the rest of the period.

The second half belonged to Stanford. The Cardinal went on a 6-0 run to take a 41-32 lead with 12:46 left to play. Stanford kept increasing the lead as their defense shut down Northwestern. The Cardinal

continued to play well and had a seventeen point lead halfway through the second half. Northwestern made a run and closed the gap to nine but Stanford put on the pressure and coasted to a 71-58 victory.

The star of the game was Josh Heustis. Heustis, a senior from Great Fall, Montana, scored eighteen points. Anthony Brown had twelve, Stefan Nastic added eleven, while Chasson Randle, who had thirty-three Monday against BYU, was held to fourteen and Dwight Powell, who had twenty-eight Monday,

scored just eight points. JerShon Cobb and Drew Crawford were the stars for Northwestern.

Notes- Stanford plays its first road game of the year Sunday night when the meet Denver University

in Denver. The next home game is next Thursday when they face Texas Southern at 7pm at Maples Pavilion.