Photo credit: gostanford.com
By Joey Friedman
Sports Radio Service
February 3, 2018
PALO ALTO — The grass was green for the Stanford Cardinal on the Oregon Trail as they handed the Oregon Ducks its worst loss of the Dana Altman era. The Cardinal (13-11, 7-4 Pac-12) cruised to a 96-61 win over the Ducks at Maples Pavilion. Oregon competed with Stanford for the first four minutes and actually, at one point, had an 11-10 lead. Once Stanford took back the lead (13-11) on a Dorian Pickens’ 3-pointer, they never looked back and led for the rest of the game.
After a great 5-1 start to conference play (including a win over #16 Arizona State), the Cardinal had slowed down. After three straight losses to #14 Arizona, UCLA, and USC, the Cardinal turned it around in a dominant win over Oregon State at Maples last Thursday night to avoid evening their conference record. Similarly, Oregon has suffered close losses to Arizona and USC and they also won against the Top 25 Arizona State Sun Devils. They entered today’s game fresh off of a three-game win streak, beating UCLA, Oregon State, and Cal en route to a conference record that was a half a game behind Stanford.
A quick-paced game until the closing minutes, Stanford and Oregon were matching each other on the scoreboard for the opening minutes. Then, Stanford’s shooting ignited. At a certain point in the first half, the Cardinal was shooting 75% from the field (15-20). They finished the half shooting 68% (19-28). Aided both by their shooting and by Oregon’s sluggish offense, which had numerous scoring droughts each lasting a couple of minutes, Stanford led at the half 50-34. Pickens contributed 14 points in the first half.
For only one minute in the middle of the first half, it did seem as though Oregon had momentum shifting their way. For the first couple of defensive possessions during which they pressed, the Ducks caught the Cardinal off guard, causing three Cardinal turnovers within a single minute. Oregon went on a short 8-0 run in that span and shrunk Stanford’s lead to six. The Cardinal recovered, however, and stretched the lead back to 16 by the end of the half.
The second half saw Stanford only grow its lead once to 35 (with 9:49 left in the game and the score in favor of Stanford 78-43) and a second time to 37 (with 3:09 left and the score 92-55). The Cardinal finished shooting 63% from the field as they also made six threes in each half, totaling 20 attempts (60% from beyond the arc). The best free throw shooting team in the conference was overmatched both at the line by the Cardinal and on the boards–by large margins.
For Stanford, Dorian Pickens scored a total of 25 points tonight (three points shy of career high) as he shot 9-11 from the field, 5-6 from beyond the arc, and collected four rebounds.
A career night for Pickens became very special early on when he scored his 1000th career point at Stanford in the early going. Sitting at 999 entering the game, he joined Reid Travis, who accomplished the feat earlier this season, in the exclusive club, becoming the 46th Stanford men’s basketball player to do it.
Kezie Okpala collected 20 points, going 9-12 from the field, 2-4 from three, five rebounds, and four assists.
Not to be outdone was Travis, though, who added 17 points and seven boards in 28 minutes.
Oregon’s Troy Brown Jr. had 15 points and six rebounds, Elijah Brown had 10 points and did not attempt a free throw even though he has made 52/54 this year, Paul White had 10 points and a rebound, and Victor Bailey Jr. had 13 points, nailing two out of his three triples.
What’s Next?
ORE: Oregon will host the Washington schools, face the LA schools on the road, and then play host to the Arizona schools to close out the month.
STAN: Stanford will embark on a three-game road trip, visiting Utah, Colorado, and Cal. They will then host the Washington schools to close out the month.
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