Green, Fields not enough in loss

Stanford put up a fight, but Arizona was too athletic and the Cardinal was too far from home Thursday night, falling to the Wildcats by the s

core of 76-68 at the McKale Center in Tucson.

The loss continued Stanford’s road woes — the team has yet to win a game on the road this season. Head coach Johnny Dawkins and the Cardinal are 0-6 away from Maples Pavilion, not including a 57-52 win over Virginia on a neutral site at the Cancun Challenge.

The Cardinal (10-10, 4-4 Pac-10) was soundly beaten despite the fact that it outshot the Wildcats (11-9, 5-3) by a large margin, shooting 47 percent from the floor compared to Arizona’s mark of 32 percent.

Arizona was able to dominate nearly every other statistical category en route to victory, though — the Wildcats scored 20 second-chance points compared to the Cardinal’s two, turned the ball over 10 times compared to Stanford’s 18 turnovers and went to the line 18 more times than Stanford did.

“Some of those were just guys being in the right place at the right time but they really did a good job of spacing to put them in that position to get those boards,” Dawkins told the Associated Press in reference to the Wildcats’ offensive rebounding.

Arizona’s ability to crash the boards may have been the difference in the game — even though the final rebounding totals were 38 for the Wildcats and 34 for the Cardinal, Arizona grabbed 19 offensive rebounds compared to just seven for Stanford.

Dawkins’ squad was — not surprisingly — led by the duo of senior forward Landry Fields and sophomore guard Jeremy Green. Fields and Green scored a combined 56 points — good for more than 80 percent of the Cardinal’s scoring on the night. Fields filled the box score with 31 points and 11 rebounds on 11-of-18 shooting, while Green finished the night with 25 points on 9-of-20 shooting. Green’s backcourt mate, sophomore Jarrett Mann, had a solid game at point guard with eight assists and eight rebounds.

Despite the efforts of Fields and Green to keep the game close, Stanford never posed a serious threat to the Wildcats’ lead in the second half. Arizona went into the locker room with a four-point lead at halftime and the Cardinal would never get closer than that.

The Wildcats were led by freshman forward Derrick Williams, who tore up the Cardinal down low with his quickness. Williams finished the night with 23 points and eight rebounds. Arizona guards Kyle Fogg, Nic Wise and Lamont Jones all had their way with the Stanford defense too, using their speed to consistently penetrate the Cardinal’s man-to-man. Dawkins adjusted, employing a zone for much of the second half, but Arizona never had trouble maintaining its lead.

Best known for his play on the football field, senior Tavita Pritchard suited up for Thursday’s game, though he never saw action on the court. The school announced Wednesday that the 6-foot-4 Pritchard would join the team in response to the losses of sophomore forward Andrew Zimmermann and freshman guard Gabriel Harris due to stress fractures. Stanford only had five scholarship players available for the game.

In a surprising turn of events, Dawkins was also charged for a technical foul in the middle of second half with his team down just four points. Dawkins was protesting a call made the previous possession and elicited the technical after stepping a few feet onto the floor with an Arizona player in relative proximity.

“Coach was just trying to inspire us,” Fields said. “I think we just have to respond better when that happens.”

Stanford will continue its search for its first road win of the year on Saturday when it takes on Arizona State at Wells Fargo Arena at 1 p.m.