After opening the Pacific-10 season with a demoralizing 92-66 loss at California, Stanford men’s basketball proved itself anything but demoralized. Instead, the Card returned to the court hungry for a win and determined to prove itself a conference contender. Cal’s disappointment was quickly erased with a we-can-win-at-the-end victory over USC, followed quickly by a we-can-win-decisively stomping of UCLA.

The one caveat? Both were home games and the only win Stanford has outside of Maples is a 57-52 victory over Virginia in the Cancun Challenge. Now, only one question remains for the Cardinal: can they win on the road?

Luckily for Stanford, the team’s first away game since the Bears is a meeting with the team currently at the bottom of Pac-10 rankings, the Washington Huskies. The Huskies are 1-3 in the conference — although 10-5 overall — after winning their first game against Oregon State, then dropping three in a row to Oregon (home) and the Arizona schools (on the road).

However, Washington does boast the conference’s leading scoring offence, which averages 79.6 points per game. In its last two games, though, Stanford has held its opponents to 53 and 59 points, respectively, and head coach Johnny Dawkins hopes the trend will continue in Seattle.

“I thought our defense was terrific [in the last few games],” Dawkins said. “We were very active, we forced turnovers and more importantly, we didn’t give up many easy baskets. Holding our opponents under 60 is very good and it’s a standard that we want to set, where we become a very stingy defensive team.”

This stingy defense will have its work cut out for it against Washington senior forward Quincy Pondexter and sophomore guard Isaiah Thomas. The duo rank third and fifth in the Pac-10 in scoring, putting up 19.5 and 18.3 ppg, respectively. Pondexter also snags an average of 7.9 rebounds and knocks down 81.3 percent of his free throws. He’ll be Card standout Landry Fields’ toughest match-up of the season thus far, but will also be a warm-up for Saturday’s standoff with the conference’s leading scorer from Washington State, Klay Thompson. (Thompson and Fields are the only two who top Pondexter in scoring, tallying 23 and 22.1 ppg, respectively.)

“[Washington State has] one of the best players in the conference in Klay Thompson, who is a terrific, terrific scorer,” Dawkins said. “Our match-ups with Landry Fields, versus him and Pondexter, are key match-ups for us. Those are three of the best players in our conference and we need our guy — Landry — to be the player he’s been all year. And that’s a rock for us and one of the best players in our conference.”

The backcourt battle will prove equally important against the Huskies, as Stanford sophomore Jeremy Green falls just behind Thomas in scoring for the year with 17.6 ppg. But, he has spent his last two outings leading the team, with 17 against the Trojans and 30 against the Bruins. Green hits roughly three shots from long range every time out — making him the Pac-10’s best three-point shooter — offering a threat that Thomas has yet to match.

After Stanford’s own comeback from a slow season start, Dawkins is taking nothing for granted and knows Washington will be looking for a win tonight.

“I expect Washington to come out in the game very strong,” Dawkins said. “They’re a very competitive team — they’re a team that’s going to come out right away and try to hit us hard and their crowd is going to be terrific. They’re coming off a few losses, so they’ll be hungry, and we need to match their intensity.”

The crowd may very well prove to be another factor for the young Card, which often plays to a less-than-packed Maples, but Dawkins believes that experiences from other games from the season will help Stanford adjust to playing to a new environment.

“I think the games we played in the preseason plus the Cal game will be beneficial,” Dawkins noted. “We’ve been in some hostile environments, some great crowds, and I think our kids have learned from those experiences. And now it’s time for us to go on the road again and to show the poise, to execute under pressure, be able to work and communicate through large crowds.”

Hostility will meet Stanford from both opponents and crowds this weekend. But this time around, Stanford hopes it will fare better than the last time it hit the road.