Stanford men’s basketball (3-0) overcame a slow start on defense to defeat the Weber State Wildcats (1-2) 67-49 at Maples Pavilion Thursday night behind junior forward Reid Travis’ second double-double of the season.
Travis dominated in the paint, grabbing 15 rebounds while shooting 58 percent from the field and hitting eight of nine free throws as part of a 22-point performance. Travis has yet to be held under double digits in scoring this season, an indication that the team is doing a good job of embracing new head coach Jerod Haase’s system, which emphasizes ball movement and getting the ball in the paint to the bigs.
“He’s an amazing player,” Haase said. “For us to have him on the team is a huge asset in a variety of ways. His playing abilities are obvious, but his leadership is phenomenal, and I think the guys respect him a ton.”
“It’s been great,” Travis added. “My teammates have been great feeding me the ball. It’s all a product of their hard work too, so it’s been a great start.”
Dorian Pickens was the only other Stanford scorer in double digits with 12 points, a change from Stanford’s last two games, in which five players finished in double digits. This was representative of a sloppy night for the Cardinal, which turned the ball over 17 times over the course of the game.
“We were trying to manufacture things at times instead of just making the easy play, and I thought some of the turnovers were caused by that,” Haase said. “We just need to keep the ball flowing more, and those plays that I’m asking for are going to be the easy play. But we tried to make the difficult play too many times, especially in the first half.”
What Stanford lacked in offense, they made up for with suffocating defense, holding Weber State’s leading scorer Jeremy Senglin, who was averaging 26.5 points per game coming into Thursday, to just 13 points. The Wildcats finished the game shooting 30 percent from the field as a team and scored only 0.71 points per possession.
“Defensively, I thought we really did some nice things, especially after a slow start,” Haase said. “To hold them to a 30 percent field goal percentage is a heck of a job because they have a lot of talented players and good shooters.”
“There was just a ton of ball pressure, and I don’t know if they really ever got a clean look,” added junior forward Michael Humphrey.
Weber State took advantage of a sloppy Stanford team in the first half, jumping to a 15-12 lead in the middle of the first half, but the Cardinal went on a 10-0 run, capped off by an impressively precise alley-oop from half-court thrown by senior guard Christian Sanders, which Humphrey finished with a lay-in.
Stanford was in control from that point forward, outscoring the Wildcats 24-5 to close the half.
“I felt like we started pretty slow,” Travis said. “We were pretty disappointed in the fact that we were letting them get open shots, and that’s when they got hot. Then, of course, we ended the half the way we wanted to… The more we can stay steady with our communication and our defensive effort, it shows that we can play with anybody.”
Stanford maintained its sizable lead in the second half to finish off the Wildcats.
“We’re excited about that game,” Haase said. “We believe that Weber State has a fantastic chance to have a great year. They’re often a team you see in the NCAA Tournament, and I think they’re that caliber of team again this year.”
Stanford will finish its three-game home stand Sunday against Colorado State at 3 p.m., while Weber State will travel to Anchorage, Alaska to open the Great Alaska Shootout against UC Davis next Thursday.
Contact Samuel Curry at currys ‘at’ stanford.edu.