Photo credit: gostanford.com

By: Joey Friedman

PALO ALTO–The new 2018-19 season opened Tuesday night at Maples Pavilion for the Stanford Cardinal with an exhibition game against the DII Sonoma State Seawolves. Stanford beat Sonoma State 75-59.

The obvious absence left by the graduate transfer of Reid Travis and the graduations of both Michael Humphrey and Dorian Pickens is leaving much to be desired on the leadership and in-game production fronts. Head coach Jerod Hasse, this exceptionally young Cardinal team, and the fans looked for their first game to help break the ice and find some answers. Senior center Josh Sharma and playmaking sophomores Daejon Davis, KZ Okpala, and Oscar da Silva are expected to be the leaders of this team on and off the court.

Out of the gate, da Silva delivered with a three-pointer on the first play after the tip. Immediately afterward, Josh Sharma showed a spark of energy and leadership when he dove in an all-out effort on the defensive boards which yielded a Stanford possession. Sharma’s was the first floor-burn of the year for the Cardinal which is an official statistic recorded now in the Jerod Hasse era of hustle and heart.

Concerns of inexperience certainly manifested in Stanford’s play early on as sloppy play and turnovers, especially for Okpala, who had 3 in the first half, prevented the Cardinal from pulling away from the Seawolves in the early going. However, glimmers of elite talent emerged from the underclassmen who put together Hasse’s two consecutive highly ranked recruiting classes. Freshman shooting guard Cormac Ryan made a 3-pointer on his first attempt while Okpala and Davis created offense at will by driving to the hoop when they needed to in order to keep Stanford in stride with the Seawolves in the first half. Sonoma State had a 5-point lead with 3 minutes left in the first half, yet Stanford was able to trudge their way to a 36-32 lead by the end of first half regulation which was capped by junior Marcus Sheffield’s first 3-pointer of the game.

Okpala and da Silva shared the team lead in points in the first half; both had 9. da Silva led the team with 5 rebounds. The Seawolves’ sophomore forward Wesley Gilbert led his team with 8 first-half points. Sonoma State lost the turnover game to Stanford in the first half by a 9-6 margin while maintaining an even overall shooting percentage with the Cardinal at 45%. Stanford also outplayed the Seawolves in transition, outscoring them 10-0 in fast-break points.

The second half got off to an energetic start, but the Seawolves kept it within three to five points for the first eight minutes. Defensively, a pair of exciting blocks by Davis and Sharma energized the Cardinal but, again, turnovers and a lack of experience and flow on offensive stunted any serious momentum. Offensively, in the first 10 minutes, a pair beautiful finishes at the rim by Okpala and Davis, a Sharma offensive rebound and slam, and a da Silva three-pointer all combined to inch Stanford up slowly to a lead of 10 points with the score 56-46. Davis hit his first 3-pointer of the season with just over 4 minutes left in the game to push the lead up to 11 points in favor of the Cardinal. Just about 20 seconds later, Okpala did the same with his first 3 of the night to push up the lead to 14 points before the final minutes stretched Stanford’s lead to a 75-59 final.

Okpala and Davis each finished the game with 18 points and 34+ minutes, leading the team in both categories and each collecting a pair of 3s. Oscar da Silva led the team with 9 rebounds and collected 14 points of his own in 29 minutes. Freshman Cormac Ryan debuted with 31 minutes, collected 9 points, and gathered 6 boards.

Stanford outshot Sonoma state by a 53% to 38% and similarly beat Sonoma State in terms of 3-point percentage, going 7/15 while the Seawolves went 7/19. Each team shot near a meager 50% from the free throw line. Sonoma State turned the ball over a total of 14 times compared to Stanford’s 13 turnovers. Stanford out-rebounded Sonoma State 37-28.

Stanford will be in action next when they take on Seattle University next Tuesday, November 6 at 7:00 pm PT inside Maples Pavilion.