By Jeremy Harness

 

Three days after nearly pulling off a monstrous upset, the Stanford men’s basketball team came back to beat a very good Arizona State team, using a dominant second half to come away with a 76-70 win at Maples Pavilion Saturday afternoon.

 

Dwight Powell scored 28 points on 8-of-19 shooting to lead the Cardinal, while Chasson Randle added 21 and made eight of his 14 shots from the field. 

 

The Cardinal came within a couple of possessions of knocking off top-ranked Arizona Wednesday night before faltering in the final minute, but there would be no second-half letdown this time around. They trailed by one at halftime on Saturday, but they took charge almost as soon as the second half got under way.

 

They went on a 12-3 run in the first five minutes of the second stanza and led by as many as 13  points. However, the Sun Devils, who squeaked by Cal Wednesday night, kept hanging around and proceeded to cut the lead down.

 

Arizona State managed to get the lead trimmed to three with 1:09 to play when Jermaine Marshall hit a 3-pointer, but they could not get any closer, as the 3’s stopped falling.

 

Meanwhile, Stanford knocked down their free throws when Arizona State was forced to foul in order to keep the game close.

 

Jahii Carson, the Sun Devils’ dynamic point guard, scored 24 points on Saturday while Marshall chipped in with 22 and made six of his eight 3-point attempts.