The Stanford men’s basketball team cruised to a 97-71 victory over the Texas Southern Tigers on Thursday night in its final game before heading east next week, where it will play in the semifinals of the Progressive Legends Classic. Stanford’s strong string of second halves continued as the Cardinal (4-1) blew out the Tigers (2-4) in the final frame.
The first half was a high-scoring affair as Stanford went into the break leading 51-44. The Tigers hung tough for most of the opening half thanks to strong offensive performances by their leading scorers Aaric Murray and Jose Rodriguez, who each contributed 14 points. Stanford was led by the sweet shooting of senior guard Anthony Brown, who had 15 points in the period to go with four rebounds, in addition to nine points and three assists from fellow senior guard, Aaron Bright. Bright gave the Cardinal a huge lift off the bench, bringing the spark and infectious energy that he has been known for throughout his career at Stanford.
“In shoot-around today, I was just lights out,” Bright said. “I just felt really good tonight, and I just wanted to come in and be aggressive.”
Most of the first half was a close contest, as neither team was able to gain much separation. Texas Southern actually led the Cardinal 42-41 after a three-pointer by Rodriguez with 3:03 left to play in the first half. That lead would be the high-water mark of the game for the Tigers, as Stanford would never trail again. Brown’s three-pointer at the buzzer gave the Cardinal a seven-point lead going into halftime, and it was the first sign of the rout to come. Stanford outscored TSU 58-29 over the final 22:57 of the game.
The Cardinal wasted no time in blitzing the Tigers right out of the gates in the second half, as it opened with an authoritative 33-11 run. Everybody chipped in for Stanford on this night, as five players finished in double figures. Brown led the team with a career-high 23 points and 10 rebounds on 9-of-13 shooting, including 3-of-5 from three-point range. The other major contributors for Stanford were senior forwards Josh Huestis and Dwight Powell, who combined for 29 points, 14 rebounds, six assists and four monstrous blocks that had the few fans in attendance “oohing” and “aahing.”
Junior Chasson Randle had his fifth-straight double-digit scoring performance despite suffering his worse shooting performance of the young season. He finished with 15 points, six assists and four rebounds.
For Texas Southern, Murray finished with 28 points but was just 9-of-25 from the field, while Rodriguez totaled 24 points on 7-of-17 shooting for the Tigers.
After the game, Stanford head coach Johnny Dawkins was complimentary of his team’s effort, which even saw freshmen Schuyler Rimmer, Malcolm Allen and Marcus Allen all make their first collegiate field goals.
“I thought it was one of our best team efforts of the year,” Dawkins said. “I thought our guys really did an excellent job of sharing the basketball, [with] 21 assists. We had 21 offensive rebounds. It was good to see our guys do that tonight against a very good basketball team.”
Despite struggling defensively during a first half in which it allowed 44 points and seven three-pointers to a team from arguably the worst conference in college basketball, Stanford made the necessary defensive adjustments at halftime to produce the expected result. The Cardinal held the Tigers to just 30-percent shooting in the second half while converting nine points off five TSU turnovers.
“I think defensively, we did a much better job of getting back and making them a half-court team,” Dawkins said. “I thought our activity level picked up. I thought with our physicality, we were able to wear them down some. I thought we did a much better job in the second half of identifying their shooters and taking some of their strengths away.”
The victory on the court was the cap to an exciting day for Stanford basketball, as the Cardinal had earlier announced the signing of four top-100 recruits for next season’s class. The class includes guards Robert Cartwright and Dorian Pickens, in addition to forwards Michael Humphrey and Reid Travis.
This year’s team will be in action next on Monday night at 6:30 p.m., when it faces the Houston Cougars in Brooklyn, N.Y., for the semifinals of the Progressive Legends Classic.
Contact Daniel Lupin at delupin ‘at’ stanford.edu.