By: Ben Leonard
Follow Ben on Twitter @Ben___Leonard
The Stanford Cardinal opened their conference play with a 71-56 victory over the Washington State Cougars, moving to 83-27 at Maples Pavilion under coach Johnny Dawkins. Washington State, the Pac-12’s worst team coming into play Friday, sitting at .500 (6-6) against soft opponents, gave the Cardinal a fight in the incipient stages of the game. However, the efforts of a more talented Cardinal team proved too much for the Cougars in the end, with Stanford moving to 9-3 on the season.
They won without the efforts of injured freshman sensation, team rebounding leader, and McDonald’s All-American Reid Travis, who suffered a stress fracture and is out indefinitely. Dawkins did not know when the “upper thigh” injury happened, but noted that he “needs to rest it” and “should be out” somewhere “around a month.” Guard Marcus Allen called his loss a “huge hit,” but explained that the Cardinal will try to “pick him up as a team.” Coach Dawkins praised Grant Verhoeven’s ability to fill in for Travis, as he was “pleased with his contributions.” Verhoeven scored five points in fifteen minutes of action, also pulling down six rebounds.
The victory did not come as easily as it should have on paper for the favored Cardinal, who were coming off a blowout victory over Arkansas-Pine Bluff. The Cougars provided more resistance than the Golden Lions, but not much more so. They jumped out to an early 8-0 lead with 15:13 remaining in the first half, fueled by 4-7 shooting. The Cougar’s quick start forced a frustrated Dawkins to call a timeout, who gave them credit for playing “with a lot of energy.” On the other hand, the Cardinal missed their first six shots, falling behind by ten points with 13:47 left, their largest deficit of the game.
Stanford played sloppy basketball early on, turning the ball over three times in the first five minutes and missing wide open shots. Guard Anthony Brown noted that the Cardinal did not have a shoot-around before the game, only a walk-through, a possible explanation for the slow start. Dawkins explained that the Cougars had “prepared very well for [Stanford],” and were able to succeed defensively because of it. Dawkins also noted that their ability to “hit shots early… opened up the basket for everyone.” For Dawkins, the Cardinal’s ability to eventually bounce back “show[ed] a lot of heart” for a team that “always manages to fight back…despite sluggish starts.”
Joining in on the poor start shooting was star guard Chasson Randle, who had a very poor start to the game. He played uninspired, flat defense, while missing his first seven shots from the field. Randle needed just two three pointers to become Stanford’s all-time leader, trailing just Dion Cross (1992-96) for the lead. He made only one three pointer, late in the second half. His poor play early on lead him to ride the bench for an extended period of time in the first half, playing just thirteen minutes in the period.
Randle eventually overcame this dreadful start to propel the Cardinal to victory, leading the team with eighteen points on 5-13 shooting, although not until the second half. He did not score his first field goal until the early stages of the period. Although Randle had not turned around in the first, Anthony Brown’s breakaway dunk with 9:52 left in the first swung the momentum in the Cardinal’s favor. On the ensuing possession, sixth-man Roscoe Allen slammed one home himself, cutting the Cougars’ lead to 16-13, forcing Washington State to take a timeout. Stanford would go on to tie the game at 17-17 with 6:30 left to play, and did not look back from there, storming to take a 27-24 halftime lead.
The Cardinal carried their momentum into the second half, going on a 13-3 run to start the period, energizing the announced crowd of 4,373 at Maples Pavilion. For the remainder of the game, the Cardinal controlled the post and the flow of the game. The Cardinal dominated in the paint, scoring 30 points to the Cougar’s 10 down low. This post play was led by senior center Stefan Nastic, who scored 16 points on 5-9 shooting, grabbing seven rebounds. Anthony Brown led the team with 11 boards, and dropped 13 points to go along with them. Overall, the Cardinal shot 64.0% in the second half, a huge turnaround from the pitiful 33.3% shooting in the first half.
In all, the Cardinal had four players score in double-figures, a healthy advantage over the Cougars’ one player, John Hawkinson. Hawkinson had a game-high 15 rebounds, but did not make a shot from the field, scoring eleven points, all on free-throws. The sophomore forward commented on his poor shooting day:”I’ve found that all season long that there’s a soft spot in the middle, whether it was a ‘man’ or zone. I really wasn’t able to knock down a shot in this game, but it’s normally there. I was short on every single shot — I wasn’t using my legs — I was having an off-day. We’re going to get back into the gym, and we’re going to fix that. We’ll come out better shooting in the next game.”
Hawkinson was able to take so many free throws because of multitude of fouls with little contact. With both teams deep into the double bonus, Dawkins seemingly rallied the crowd, raising his arms up in the air in protest.
Stanford will face #21 Washington on Sunday night, a conference showdown big enough to warrant national television coverage. As the fifth-year senior Brown put it, the Cardinal need to play “a lot better” and “stick to what we (Stanford) do” to give the Huskies a “good test” on Stanford’s “home court.” As he put it, “any time you have a ranked team coming into your house, you… can’t let them leave with a win.” The Cardinal may not have been happy with their early play, but it got the job done.
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