Stanford Perks Up, Tops UW

Pac-10

After two straight losses, No. 24 Stanford wasn’t about to sit back and let its chance for an NCAA tournament bid fade away.

So an aggressive and confident Stanford took the court Saturday against Washington and came away with a 71-56 Pacific-10 Conference win at Stanford, Calif.

“After our last loss, we had to refocus and ask ourselves if we really wanted to be in the NCAA Tournament or not,” said guard Brevin Knight, who finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and five assists. “We wanted to steer our own destiny.”

Andy Poppink had 21 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Cardinal (17-7 overall, 10-5 Pac-10), while Dion Cross contributed 13 points. Poppink and Cross, both seniors, were playing their final home game at Stanford.

Washington (14-9, 7-7), which has lost five of its last six games, received 14 points each from Todd MacCulloch and Mark Sanford. MacCulloch, a 7-foot freshman, also had seven rebounds for the Huskies.

Washington took its only lead of the game at 38-37 on Jamie Booker’s layup. Stanford answered with an 11-0 run, capped by a pair of free throws by Poppink, that put the Cardinal ahead 48-38.

“It took us losing the lead before we kicked it up again,” Poppink said. “When we’re ready to play, we play well and we’re tough to beat.”

Stanford went up by as many as 15 points three times in the second half.

“Stanford showed a lot of character in coming back,” Washington coach Bob Bender said. “We fought, but we got beat. They made a run that we couldn’t respond to, and we fell behind.”

The Cardinal, looking for an NCAA Tournament bid, lost its first home game at Maples Pavilion this season Thursday when Washington State came away with a 68-59 victory.

“We weren’t as aggressive as we wanted to be against Washington State. Tonight we were,” said Knight. “On defense, we didn’t want to give up anything. We tried to make them feel uncomfortable.”

The Cardinal bounced back from the two losses by taking command of Washington early on the way to a 31-23 halftime lead.

Stanford went on a 9-0 run midway through the first period, ending with a Cross 3-pointer that put the Cardinal up 23-10 with 6:19 to go.

The Huskies closed the margin to 29-23 on a 3-pointer by Donald Watts with 1:13 left, but could get no closer before the half.

Stanford coach Mike Montgomery emphasized it was a key conference win. The Pac-10 will likely send three or four teams to the NCAA Tournament, which leaves Stanford fighting for a spot behind likely representatives UCLA and Arizona.

“This was a huge win for us. Obviously, if we didn’t get this one, we were in a tough situation, Montgomery said. “This was a must.”

Stanford 71, Washington 56

Washington (14-9) - Sanford 5-12 3-4 14, MacCulloch 6-10 2-2 14, Hamilton 1-1 0-0 3, Boston 5-10 2-4 12, Booker 2-5 0-0 4, Watts 2-5 0-0 5, Femerling 1-4 0-0 2, Hartman 0-3 0-0 0, Amos 1-2 0-0 2, Thompson 0-0 0-0 0, Roberson 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 23-53 7-10 56.

Stanford (17-7) - Harbour 1-8 2-6 5, Poppink 5-13 11-12 21, Allaway 1-2 3-4 5, Cross 5-8 1-2 13, Knight 2-10 6-8 10, Lee 2-3 1-1 5, Seaton 5-6 0-1 10, Weems 0-2 0-0 0, Sauer 0-1 2-2 2, Tshionyi 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-53 26-36 71.

Halftime-Stanford 31, Washington 23. 3-Point goals- Washington 3-9 (Hamilton 1-1, Watts 1-1, Sanford 1-4, Booker 0-2, Roberton 0-1), Stanford 3-12 (Cross 2-5, Harbour 1-3, Poppink 0-1, Knight 0-1, Weems 0-1, Sauer 0-1). Fouled out-MacCulloch, Hamilton. Rebounds-Washington 30 (MacCulloch 7), Stanford 36 (Poppink 13). Assists-Washington 16 (Booker 5), Stanford 12 (Knight 5). Total fouls-Washington 27, Stanford 13. A-7,153.

Oregon 81, Arizona State 70

Jamal Curry scored 23 points to lead the Ducks past the Sun Devils at Tempe, Ariz.

Curry scored 10 of his points in the first 5 minutes of the second half as Oregon (14-12, 7-8) extended a five-point halftime lead to 51-36 with 14:08 to play.

Terik Brown and Kyle Milling each scored 13 points and Jamal Lawrence added 11 for Oregon, which led by as many as 18 points in the second half.

Jeremy Veal scored 29 points to lead Arizona State (10-13, 5-9).

Ron Riley, ASU’s leading scorer, had six points before spraining his right ankle with 2:11 left in the first half. He finished with 12, eight shy of his 20.6-point average.

Oregon (14-12) - Milling 3-11 7-8 13, Curry 8-11 7-12 23, Ramaker 3-6 0-3 6, Wilkins 1-6 6-6 9, Lawrence 4-9 1-3 11, Brown 5-10 0-0 13, Smith 1-1 0-0 2, Quinine 0-1 0-0 0, Williams 0-0 0-0 0, Carson 0-0 0-0 0, Larry 1-2 1-2 4, Totals 26-57 22-34 81.

Arizona State (10-13) - Riley 3-16 5-5 12, Farrington 5-6 0-0 10, Oziwo 1-4 0-0 2, Veal 11-21 3-3 29, Brewer 0-1 0-0 0, Zaletel 2-5 0-1 4, Richardson 0-1 0-0 0, Holly 2-7 0-0 5, Davis 3-8 0-0 8, Totals 27-69 8-9 70.

Halftime-Oregon 30, Arizona St. 25. A-8,944.

(13) Arizona 84, Oregon State 60

A three-point play by Ben Davis started the Wildcats (21-5, 10-4) on a 9-0 run in the first 2 minutes of the second half, and they went on to rout the Beavers (3-21, 1-14) at Tucson, Ariz.

Arizona beat the Beavers for the 13th straight time. Oregon State lost its school-record 13th in a row overall.

Oregon State (3-21) - Vetter 0-3 7-8 7, Benjamin 5-10 0-0 11, Petrovic 1-5 2-2 4, R.Williams 3-7 0-0 8, Brown 3-11 2-3 8, Edwards 1-4 0-0 2, Roberts 1-1 0-0 2, Johnson 3-7 0-0 7, Walker 4-7 3-6 11, Riggs 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-55 14-19 60.

Arizona (21-5) - McLean 3-6 2-4 8, C.Williams 3-4 3-4 11, Davis 5-10 1-1 11, Simon 1-5 3-4 5, Geary 4-6 4-4 15, Dickerson 6-13 2-3 16, Terry 3-4 3-4 11, Bramlett 0-1 0-0 0, Eafon 3-4 0-0 7. Totals 28-53 18-24 84.

Halftime-Arizona 25, Oregon St. 20. A-14,221.