After dazzling the crowd on the Farm with three blowout wins to open the season, the Stanford men’s basketball team headed south for the Thanksgiving weekend, winning one game and dropping two at the 76 Classic in Anaheim. With an overtime victory over DePaul on Sunday, the Card ended a two-game slump and improves to 4-2 overall.

On Nov. 19, before hitting the road, Stanford faced visiting Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) opponent Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Maples Pavilion. Impressive three-point shooting—particularly from senior guard Allen Smith—enabled Arkansas-Pine Bluff (0-6) to hang with Stanford throughout the first half, but foul trouble and the Card’s size plagued the Golden Lions in the second half. After a mere seven-point halftime lead, Stanford pulled away, winning the game 92-49.

“I think it was a really good game for us to play,” said Stanford head coach Johnny Dawkins. “From the standpoint that we were able to have a lot of guys come into the game and compete, and that we were able to get better from this experience.”

Early on, Smith was the Golden Lions’ offense, hitting six three-pointers—three of which came on consecutive shot attempts—in the first half alone, accounting for 18 of the team’s 28 points. Smith finished with a game-high 23 points, despite being held to just five in the second half.

“We lost him too many times…so we decided to stay home on him the entire second half and try to make it more difficult for him to find open looks,” Dawkins said of the defensive adjustments in the second half. “Our guys did a good job being very disciplined in doing that.”

Dawkins managed to work every uniformed player into the lineup, with twelve players putting up points for the Card. Junior guard Jeremy Green led the team with 21 points on 6-of-13 shooting. Redshirt junior forward Josh Owens had 14 points and nine rebounds, and freshman forward Dwight Powell added 12 points.

“It’s always exciting to get out there—it definitely felt good,” said Powell after the game. “It has been a good week, but moving forward we have a lot of stuff—both as a team and me, individually—to get ready for.”

After a dominant start on the home front, Stanford readied itself for its first road trip of the season to the 76 Classic in Anaheim.

On Thanksgiving Day, the Cardinal opened tournament play against Murray State (3-3), the defending Ohio Valley Conference champion, at the Anaheim Convention Center. Stanford trailed the Racers by 14 points in the first half, but made a late comeback attempt, only to fall short, losing the game 55-52.

Powell posted a career-best 16 points in the loss—including 12 of the Card’s 18 first half points—and shot 7-of-10. Green remained scoreless until the game’s final minute when he downed three shots from behind the arc. Owens, who fouled out with 5:28 left to play, contributed 10 points and five rebounds.

Murray State senior guard B.J. Jenkins had 15 points, including two free throws in the game’s last 30 seconds that helped the Racers withstand the Card’s late game surge.

One day later, Stanford fell to Tulsa (4-2), which only lost once in the 76 Classic during the first round to Nevada, the tournament winner. The Golden Hurricane took control of the game midway through the first half, and maintained a comfortable ten-plus point lead for the duration of the evening, beating the Card 65-53.

Stanford’s shooting was a tepid 25.9 percent in the first half, but improved to 48.1 percent in the latter half of the game. The Card’s free throw shooting, which has been a challenge in the team’s preliminary games, was a respectable 83.3 percent, improving on Stanford’s previous best of 66.7 percent from the line.

Green had 18 of his game-best 20 points in the second half, marking the third time this season that he has reached the 20-point mark. Owens tallied 10 points, while Green and freshman center Stefan Nastic led the team with six rebounds apiece.

Tulsa’s guards were impressive—freshman Jordan Clarkson matched Green’s 20 points and senior Justin Hurtt added another 19, along with five rebounds and three assists. Junior forward Steven Idlet had a game-best 10 rebounds.

Stanford finished the tournament on Sunday with an exciting overtime victory against DePaul (1-4). The game was evenly matched throughout regulation—the score reached a tie 11 times—and a jump shot from Jeremy Green evened the score at 67-67 to send the teams to overtime. DePaul narrowed Stanford’s lead to one at 71-70, but the Card outscored the Blue Demons 14-7 in overtime for a final score of 81-74.

Once again, Green was the team-leader in scoring, with 19 points on 8-16 shooting. Freshman wing Anthony Brown scored 14 points off the bench, and Powell had 13 points, going 9-9 from the free throw line, as well as 10 boards and five assists.

The Cardinal experienced a scare when Green collapsed as he was leaving the court post-game, suffering from dizziness and difficulty breathing. After being treated on the scene by paramedics, Green was taken to a local hospital, where he was determined to be in stable condition. The collapse was attributed to exhaustion, as Green was reportedly battling sickness all week. He returned to the Farm with the team on Sunday.

Stanford will have a 13-day break from games until facing UC-Riverside on Dec. 12 at home. The Highlanders (2-4) have lost two straight games, including a three-point deficit in its most recent game against San Jose State. Riverside is led by junior guard Phil Martin, who had 27 points, eight rebounds and four blocks in the loss.

The Cardinal will have one more home game on Dec. 15 against North Carolina A&T before a two-game road trip against Butler and Oklahoma State. Stanford’s final game in 2010 comes against Yale on Dec. 28, followed by its first Pac-10 contest on Jan. 2 against cross-Bay rival California, both in Maples.

Tip off for the Card’s game against Riverside will be at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 12 in Maples Pavilion.