The Stanford men’s basketball team shocked the No. 9 Texas Longhorns with a 74-71 overtime upset in Austin on Tuesday night.
Senior forward Anthony Brown poured in 25 points for Stanford (7-3), while senior guard Chasson Randle added another 22. Both shined against a strong Texas defense known for shutting down teams’ star players.
“I wanted to be aggressive,” Brown told GoStanford.com. “I wanted to have no regrets.”
The win marked the Cardinal’s first road victory against a top-10 team since beating No. 9 Washington State in 2008.
By handing Texas its second loss of the season, Stanford joins some good company. The only other team that has beaten the Longhorns is the top-ranked Kentucky Wildcats.
The Cardinal fought hard from the beginning, grinding to a 31-31 halftime draw despite shooting a mere 38.7 percent from the field in the half. Although the shooting improved in the second half, the game remained tight. The upset only seemed within grasp with about five minutes left in the game, when Stanford pulled ahead to a game-high lead of four.
Stanford had a chance to win the game in regulation. In the half’s final possession, with the game tied at 64, Stanford came out of a timeout huddle and was unable to make a final shot. However, when the game went to overtime, Stanford was able to pull away.
In overtime, it was not so surprisingly Brown and Randle who made the difference. Brown drove to the basket with 1:08 left to give the Cardinal the lead, and Randle hit a jumper with 10 seconds left to put the Cardinal up by three. Two missed 3-point shots by Texas sealed the win.
“I wanted to create some space,” Randle told GoStanford.com regarding his final shot. “I knew if I got that, I was going to get the shot. We do a lot of that in our skill development with our coaching staff.”
Guard Javan Felix came off the bench and led the way with 19 points for Texas, who is still playing without point guard Isaiah Taylor. Taylor has now been sidelined for nine straight games with a broken wrist.
Another bright spot for Stanford was freshman forward Reid Travis, who dominated the glass with a season-high 14 rebounds. Despite being out-rebounded in the game, Stanford had an 11-5 lead in second-chance points. This may have been one of the difference makers in a game of slim margins.
On a road trip that had gotten off to somewhat of a rocky start, the Cardinal came out and played with a high level of energy and toughness. This wasn’t the same team that lost to BYU a few days earlier.
“Our guys played with a lot of passion,” Stanford head coach Johnny Dawkins told GoStanford.com.
While it may not have been Stanford’s most attractive win, it was the kind of signal that the Cardinal needed to send to the rest of the country. This is the team that can hang with the top teams by playing physical defense and hitting key shots when needed.
The Cardinal head home to Maples Pavilion to play Arkansas-Pine Bluff in their last game before Pac-12 play on Dec. 29 with tip-off at 8 p.m..
Contact Sandip Srinivas at sandips ‘at’ stanford.edu.