M. Basketball: Men dominant at home, shaky on the road over break

Jan. 5, 2011, 1:35 a.m.

Before deftly handling visiting California in its first Pac-10 matchup of the season on Sunday, the Stanford men’s basketball team had little time to relax during the holiday break, with five non-conference games in just over two weeks. The Card (8-4, 1-0 Pac-10) experienced early success and remains undefeated at Maples Pavilion, with wins over UC-Riverside, North Carolina A&T and Yale, but it continues to struggle on the road, falling in consecutive contests to Butler and Oklahoma State, its toughest non-conference opponents of the year.

On Sunday, Dec. 12, the Card never trailed against visiting Riverside (6-7, 1-0 Big West), jumping out to a quick 7-0 lead that it maintained. Stanford won the game, 55-48.

Junior guard Jeremy Green, who gave fans a scare when he collapsed from exhaustion after the final game of the 76 Classic, started off slowly, but he came back with a vengeance to score all of his game-leading 22 points in the second half.

“At halftime, I went back and thought about why I was missing so much,” he said. “I wanted to let the game come to me instead of forcing it. I concentrated more on making shots and I settled in.”

The Cardinal dominated the boards, out-rebounding the Highlanders by a 43-27 margin. Redshirt junior big man Josh Owens led the team–his 10 rebounds and 14 points notched him his first career double-double.

Several days later, still on the Farm, Stanford dominated North Carolina A&T (6-8, 1-0 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference), winning 76-59. After trailing by as many as seven in the first half, the Card turned around to lead by 20 points in the game’s final minutes. Twelve players saw minutes, with key contributions again coming from captains Green and Owens, with 18 and 15 points, respectively. North Carolina A&T junior guard Nic Simpson led the night with 20 points on 8-for-15 shooting.

“J.O. is finding himself,” said Stanford head coach Johnny Dawkins of Owens, who sat out all of last season. “Every game you see him getting better and better.”

Owens is refocused and driven after his year off, as evidenced by his continued improvement on the court.

“When you’re away from the game for a year, you appreciate it a lot more,” he said. “It’s definitely a different mindset, and I think that’s been the biggest difference.”

However, road games continued to be difficult for Stanford’s young squad, which fell decisively to Butler (10-5, 2-1 Horizon), last year’s national runner-up, and to Oklahoma State (12-2), which it faced in the Pac-10/Big 12 Hardwood Series.

Playing on Dec. 18 in Indianapolis, Butler took control early, with a 10-point lead halfway through the first period; the Bulldogs stretched their advantage to 19 at halftime. Butler’s senior forward Matt Howard scored 10 straight points to open the second half and finished with a game-high 27 points and 10 rebounds in the Bulldogs’ 83-50 thrashing.

Green was Stanford’s leading scorer with 16 points but shot only 5-for-15 from the field, and Owens added another 13. Butler outshot the Cardinal 45.6 percent to 31.4 percent–a season low for the Card–and had 39 rebounds to Stanford’s 29. Junior center Jack Trotter was Stanford’s leading rebounder, with seven total rebounds.

On Dec. 21, in Stillwater, Okla., the Card continued to have trouble, getting off to a rough 7-0 deficit against the Cowboys and failing to score in the game’s first six minutes. Stanford rallied to retie the score at 12-12 and took the lead until the first half’s final seconds, but the second half, and game, belonged to the home team. The Cowboys outscored the Cardinal 45-35 in the second period, and though Stanford narrowed the deficit to six with 1:48 remaining, Oklahoma State held on to win the game, 79-68.

Owens tallied his second career double-double, leading the Card with 21 points and 10 rebounds, and Green added 17. Freshmen Aaron Bright and Dwight Powell had strong contributions off the bench–Bright scored 15, going 8-for-8 from the free-throw line, and Powell had 10 points, two blocks and four rebounds.

Cowboy junior guard Keiton Page had 23 points, 20 in the second half, and five of Oklahoma State’s 11 three-pointers. Three other players: Ray Penn, Marshall Moses and Jean-Paul Olukemi, had 14, 13 and 12 points, respectively.

In its last matchup before the Pac-10 season, Stanford stayed perfect at Maples with a 60-44 decision over Yale (5-7). Dawkins made a notable lineup change, electing to go small by starting Bright at the point guard position, and juniors Jarrett Mann and Green off the ball.

“I like Aaron there [at the point guard position],” Dawkins said. “I think that he’s been playing steady for us, and he’s helped us. I’m actually very encouraged that we’ll keep getting better at that position.”

Both teams started off slowly, and Yale entered the half with a one-point lead, but Stanford awoke to take control of the game in the second period. Green had 11 of his 15 points in the second half, and Owens added 12. Dawkins, however, was more impressed with his team’s defensive effort–the Card had 15 points off turnovers, 10 steals and four blocks.

The Yale game wrapped up Stanford’s non-conference schedule until March, and Dawkins is optimistic about his team’s preparation entering the Pac-10 season.

“We are excited about Pac-10 starting up,” Dawkins said after the Yale game, prior to defeating California last Sunday. “I think we’ve had some amazing tests. We’ve been on the road in some incredible environments. I think our kids have grown from that experience, and that’s going to help us. I think we played a good schedule in preparation for Pac-10 play and are prepared for the conference.”

Stanford will resume Pac-10 play this weekend on the road against the Arizona schools. The Cardinal will face Arizona State on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in Tempe and will take on Arizona on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. in Tucson.

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