By Matthew T.F. Harrington

STANFORD, Calif. – The Stanford Cardinal continued it’s early undefeated season, topping the University of South Dakota 84-73 in the second game of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic at Maples Pavilion Sunday. The Cardinal (2-0) also beat the Wofford Terriers 74-59 Friday night to open the season.

The Cardinal open this season missing two-thirds of its lethal front court, with standouts Josh Huestis and Dwight Powell leaving the Farm for the professional ranks after last season’s surprising run to the Sweet 16. They’ll be counting on returning fifth-year senior Stefan Nastic and the front court tandem of Anthony Brown and Chasson Randle to shoulder the load offensively.

Friday, Nastic took major strides in revving the offense, scoring a career-high 26 points. Sunday against the Coyotes proved much the same, as the Six-foot-Eleven center scored 14 points despite battling foul trouble late. Nastic’s goal for the season as Stanford’s lone returning big man is to avoid finding himself on the bench late in games to protect from fouling out.

“He’s one of the best big men in the country,” said Stanford head coach Johnny Dawkins. “I think that’s evidenced by how he’s been playing, not just now but the end of last year. Of course we want him as much as we can possibly have him.”

Randle pitched in with game-high 23 points on 5 of 11 shooting against South Dakote (0-2), but the real star offensively was someone both familiar and unfamiliar to Cardinal fans; Rosco Allen.

“He gave us a lift,” said Randle. “He came out ready to go from the gates. That’s something we need him to do going forward. He’s a great player, a lot of potential. He’s our x-factor. He can do that night in and night out if he wants to.”

The junior Allen scored a career-high 17 points in just his second game since suffering a shin injury last October that caused him to miss all but one game last season. The Hungarian-born forward averaged 3.2 points a game, playing 391 minutes his freshman season of 2012-13.

“I’m so happy,” said Allen when asked how it felt to be back on the court. “I loved being a part of the team last year, see those guys go so far. It’s a different feeling to be out on the court instead of on the sidelines.”

After South Dakota hit one of two free throws for the first point of the game, the Cardinal never trailed. The Cardinal led its visitors 40-26 by the half, but failed to put the game entirely out of reach over the final 20 minutes.

“I give South Dakota a ton of credit,” said Dawkins. “They came in to compete. They made it a 40 minute game.”

“They played great as a team for 40 minutes,” echoed Randle. “You have to give them credit. They really locked in at times offensively and defensively. Offensively, they got into a rhythm, made shots and got offensive rebounds.”

The Coyotes cut the Cardinal lead as close as six points with 12:34 to play, thanks largely in part to Stanford’s inability to stop South Dakota defensively in the second half. The Coyotes hit 46.9 percent of their second half field goal attempts, but sent Stanford to the free throw line 26 times. Stanford hit 22 second-half attempts from the charity stripe to keep distance from its opponents. In total, the Cardinal went 38 for 46 from behind the charity stripe.

“We shoot free throws relatively well in practice,” said Dawkins. “We talked about it before. Some of our guys who haven’t had as much experience in game situations are getting that experience now in front of our eyes. They’re growing up, they’re playing those roles now. I have all the confidence in the world that they’re going to be very good free throw shooters. I think it’s evident by how we shot it tonight.”

Next up for the Cardinal is a high profile match-up against UNLV in another Coaches vs. Cancer classic match-up. This time, play moves to the Barclay Center in Brooklyn, a site familiar to the Cardinal after a pair of stops there last season.

“The Pizza,” replied Randle with a smile when asked what he’s most looking forward to on the road trip. “Really, I’m just looking forward to an opportunity to play against UNLV. We’ve watched film on them, we know they’re a pretty good team.”