In the first leg of its road trip through Washington, the Stanford men’s basketball team managed to hold on for the win, taking down Washington State, 75-62. With the victory, the Card split the season series with the Cougars and is now tied with Cal for fourth in the Pac-10.
Junior guard Jeremy Green led all players with 24 points on 7-for-9 shooting and went 5-for-5 from behind the arc. Freshman forwards Dwight Powell and Anthony Brown were next-best from the floor, with 16 and 12 points, respectively. Junior guard Jarrett Mann orchestrated the offense with confidence, tallying a career-high 11 assists. Powell also won the battle on the boards with eight rebounds.
After a Powell fastbreak layup gave Stanford a 2-0 lead just 49 seconds into the game, the Card (13-10, 6-6 Pac-10) would never trail. The first half saw complete Cardinal dominance, with Stanford leading by as much as 18 with 4:27 left in the half.
Stanford’s bench had 12 points in the first half to Washington State’s zero, with key contributions from junior big-man Jack Trotter as well as freshman guard Aaron Bright and his classmates at forward, Josh Huestis and John Gage. Stanford went into the break with a convincing 45-28 lead.
The home team wouldn’t go down without a fight, however. Led by junior forward DeAngelo Casto, who shot 6-for-7 on the half, the Cougars (16-8, 6-6) showed flashes of brilliance, rallying in the second period to trail just 56-55 with 8:38 remaining.
But despite outscoring Stanford, 34-30, and outshooting it 46.4 to 33.3 percent on the half, Stanford was able to pull out the road victory in the game’s remaining minutes. Powell displayed strong skills on both sides of the ball, blocking, rebounding and scoring, while both Green and Mann were consistent from the free throw line.
And it didn’t hurt that Stanford was red-hot from three-point land, shooting a phenomenal 87.5 percent from behind the arc in the first half alone, and a still-impressive 56.3 percent from three on the game. That performance was in sharp contrast to the Cougars’ 16.7-percent shooting from range. The Cardinal, which has struggled from the line at various points this season, also shot a strong 16-for-19 (84.2 percent) from the charity stripe. Defensively, the teams were more evenly matched, with Stanford narrowly out-rebounding Washington State, 31-28, but matching it on steals and blocks (five and two, respectively).
Casto led Washington State with 22 points on 10-for-11 shooting, while his classmate, forward Klay Thompson, had seven rebounds and 15 points, well below his season average of 21.2 points per game. Junior guard Faisal Aden, who had 20 points in the Card’s Jan. 18 loss to the Cougars, was held to just three points in last night’s matchup.
On Saturday, Stanford will travel to Seattle looking to sweep the season series against a conference-leading Washington squad. Tip-off against the Huskies is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. in Hec Edmundson Pavilion.