It may have taken until mid-February against the last place team in the conference, but Stanford’s first road victory was an impressive one, as the Cardinal downed Oregon 72-65 on Thursday.
“It’s been tough, but I knew with this team we have the perseverance to get over the hump. I knew it was just a matter of time before we did that,” said senior forward Landry Fields.
The score made the game seem closer than it actually was–Stanford (12-14, 6-8 Pac-10) utilized a 14-0 run in the second half to create a 16-point lead with nine minutes to play and the Ducks (12-13, 4-9), who failed to establish much of a rhythm throughout the night, could not escape the hole.
In the process, the Cardinal reached a season milestone that was a long time coming–the team had lost its first 10 road games. Stanford had near misses thrice before in conference play.
Fields keyed the Cardinal attack, leading Stanford in scoring with 21 points on 50 percent shooting, but it wasn’t until sophomore shooting guard Jeremy Green began to contribute that Stanford was able to truly assert itself. Green chipped in 18 points of his own, all of which came in the second half and six of which came during the Cardinal’s big run.
While Fields and Green were the motor for the Cardinal offense, as is the norm, they also received significant help from the rest of Stanford’s starters, all of whom played at least 32 minutes. Only three reserves got into the game and none scored. Sophomore forward Andrew Zimmermann and freshman guard Gabriel Harris saw their first action since returning from injury, and redshirt junior guard Da’Veed Dildy added further support. But the effort began and ended with the starting five.
Sophomore forward Jack Trotter dropped 14 points on 6-9 shooting to tie his career high. Classmate and point guard Jarrett Mann finished with seven points, but he led the team in rebounds with six (along with Fields), and had a team-high five assists. Senior guard Drew Shiller added four three-pointers.
“It’s nice to see the balanced attack,” said Stanford head coach Johnny Dawkins.
Shiller was especially important in the first half, when he nailed three of his buckets from beyond the arc. All of them came at points where the Ducks were threatening, only to have Shiller push the Stanford lead a little further.
“We knew he was a shooter, but we just got lost,” said Oregon’s E.J. Singler.
While Singler was fairly morose over his team’s performance, he was one of the Ducks’ leaders on the night–he put up 15 points and eight rebounds, while teammate Jeremy Jacob led the squad with 19 points. But Oregon made a number of costly mistakes, particularly during Stanford’s major second-half run, when Malcolm Armstead committed three of his game-high four turnovers.
“We just weren’t focused,” Singler said. “The turnovers were up high instead of down low, and we couldn’t get back.”
“I thought during that run our guys really locked in defensively,” Dawkins said. “We had come out of halftime talking about what we needed to do to win. Our guys were able to build a lead and kind of hold on.”
Oregon did fight back to bring the deficit to within four with just over a minute left to play, but expert foul shooting from Fields and Green prevented any further incursion on Stanford’s lead.
Green in particular hit all 10 of his foul shots, as Stanford excelled in an area that has hounded it in the past–the team was a combined 19-of-23 from the line, after shooting just 11-of-24 in their prior contest, a loss to Washington.
“It was definitely an adjustment after last game,” Green said.
Both the foul shooting and the win were notable because of their location–McArthur Court, also known as The Pit, is one of the most intimidating opposing arenas in the conference.
“It felt great to get the win here,” Fields said. “I think they have the toughest fans in the Pac-10.”
Stanford’s victory pushes the Ducks even further into last place and gives the Cardinal a season sweep of Oregon and the team’s first win at The Pit since 2006. With a win over Oregon State on Saturday, the Cardinal can ingrain itself in the middle of the Pac-10 with just three conference games to play, all of which will be played at home.
The importance of Stanford’s first road win was not lost on Fields. But with so much left to be sorted, celebrations will be fleeting.
“This is big,” he said. “I’m going to treasure this for a night and then get ready for Oregon State.”
The Cardinal will take on Oregon State on Saturday at 12 p.m. in Corvallis, Ore.
