by Matt Harrington

PALO ALTO–The Stanford Cardinal just got by in fashion over the Washington Huskies on Wednesday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas with a 71-69 victory. The win advances the Cardinal to face the Utah Utes on Thursday night. What a finish for the Cardinal for the win on Wednesday night who could have scripted a win like that for Stanford it was positively electric.

You couldn’t have scripted it any better as the Cardinals “Flame” Chasson Randle for his going away performance had ten points and it looked like the senior was going to go out on a down note and now I’m changing my script. Randle had a huge three pointer to win that game. It’s another case of when you think that Randle is out of the game, when you think he’s struggling all of sudden he hits the big shot.

I don’t think I’ve seen a bigger shot in his career at Stanford, so that was an incredible ending of a crazy game. It was a game where the Cardinal weren’t really in control of their own dynasty for the majority of it. It really did feel like Stanford was going to be on the wrong end and that this was going to be another game to chalk up for the season.

When you look at the stats Washington was on the free throw line five times and had only five free throw opportunities in the game and they were still leading by a couple of points that’s just crazy. You look at the three point shooting they finished 13-20 from the three point line and you look at all those stats and you start thinking this shouldn’t have been Stanford’s game.

It ended out working out for them in the long run, the Cardinal shot something like five percent it’s hard to figure out that five last minutes of play in game. It was really a struggle for Stanford in the game. It’s certainly not a performance that the Cardinal doesn’t want to repeat. In the next round they face the Utah Utes at the MGM on Thursday night.

The Utes are a team that will really give Stanford some challenges but it really felt like they snatched victory out of the jaws of defeat on Wednesday and it didn’t look like it was going on the right path and all of a sudden the final five minutes things start to turn. That last rebound by Marcus Allen and the three pointer by Randle that was a huge swing for Stanford.

Matt Harrington is the Stanford Cardinal beat writer for http://www.sportsradioservice.com catch below on his podcast