photo by gostanford.com: Stanford Cardinal Travis Reid (22) led Stanford in offense on Thursday night at Maples Pavilion with 33 points

By Alexandra Evans

PALO ALTO—After defeating their archrivals, the California Golden Bears, in Berkeley on Sunday, the Stanford Cardinal Men’s Basketball team (15-13 overall, 9-6 in the Pac-12) returned to Maples Pavillion on Thursday night to face the Washington Huskies (18-10 overall, 8-7 in the Pac-12), whom they beat 73-64 in mid-January on the road. Both teams were 8-6 in the Pac-12 conference going into the match.

Humphrey made the first basket for the Cardinal and Noah Dickerson for the Huskies. The Cardinal kept a lead over the Huskies for the entire first half, which gradually increased as the period progressed. The Huskies started trailing the Cardinal by the double digits 5:29 in after forward Dorian Pickens made a three-pointer.

Huskies’ Dominic Green cut Stanford’s lead back into the single digits at 10:28, but only for 19 seconds, when Stanford’s Reid Travis made a jumper. The lead remained in the double digits from there on out. At the end of the period, the Cardinal exceeded the Huskies by 22 points.

Travis ended the period with 23 points, the highest on the team, and Pickens, Travis’ runner-up, finished the opening stanza with 12 points. Dickerson led the Huskies with 10 points, followed by Jaylen Nowell who had seven.

The second period began with a jumper from Pickens to make the score 50-26. The Huskies began inching their way toward cutting the Cardinal’s lead below 20 (and they came close at the four-minute mark when David Crisp got a layup to make the score 56-36), but the Cardinal held on as Oscar da Silva made a three-pointer at the five minute mark, keeping them ahead of the Huskies by more than 20 points.

Da Silva made one of three free throws just after the seven-minute mark to bring the score to 62-42. Daejon Davis (who was originally committed to the University of Washington) then stepped in for da Silva.

Dominic Green made a jumper for the Huskies to bring the Cardinal’s lead down to 18 points. Additionally, after Josh Sharma was fouled, Nahziah Carter made both free throws to cut the lead to 16 points. Then, Green made a three-pointer with 11 minutes remaining on the clock, and the Huskies trailed only by 13 (62-49), the closest they’d get to a single digit lead since early in the first half.

After much back and forth in the three minutes that followed, a dunk from Humphrey, a three-pointer from Pickens, a layup from da Silva, two free throws from Pickens, and a three-pointer from da Silva, the Cardinal inched their way back up to a 19-point lead, then 21 after da Silva made a dunk. Crisp made a three-pointer for the Huskies, followed by a layup from Humphrey for the Cardinals, and then another three-pointer from Matisse Thybulle brought the score to 78-62.

Carter chimed in on the three-pointer action and shot one for the Huskies with just over 6 minutes remaining in the match, and the score was 80-65. Nowell got a layup with 5:19 remaining and the lead was once again cut to 13 points, and then increased to 14 after Pickens made one of two free throws for the Cardinal.

Travis stepped on the line for a bonus one-and-one, making both shots to bring the score to 83-67. Carter then made a free throw (83-68) for the Huskies.

Carter was fouled with just over four and a half minutes remaining, giving Travis two free throw opportunities, both of which he made. Carter made a three-pointer for the Huskies before his teammate Hameir Wright was fouled, giving Davis two free throws; he made one to make the score 87-71.

A three-pointer from Thybulle cut the Cardinal’s lead to 12, then KZ Okpala made one of two free throws from Stanford to make it 13 once again. Carter missed a three-pointer which would have brought the lead down to 10 points.

The Cardinal closed out their win with one free throw from Travis and another from Okpala.

Travis earned a career high in points and led the Cardinal with 33, and Pickens finished second with 20 points. Nowell led the Huskies with 18 points, followed by Carter with 17.

Stanford will face the Washington State Cougars on Saturday, February 24, which is also Senior Day. Pickens and Humphrey will be honored for their contribution to Cardinal Basketball.