It took Cal (14-18, 7-11 Pac-12) just 20 seconds to secure a layup and an early lead over Stanford (20-12, 9-10 Pac-12) on Wednesday night. In the 39 minutes and 40 seconds that followed, the Cardinal were never able to close the gap and fell to their cross-Bay foe 63-51 in the first-round of the Pac-12 tournament.
Converting on just 17 of 53 total attempts, Stanford recorded its lowest field goal percentage of the season (32.1%). The team’s first-half success rate was even lower, clocking in at an atrocious 27.27% on 6-for-22 shooting. In the same period, however, Cal recorded a 48.0% field goal percentage on a 22-for-46 showing to head to the locker room at halftime leading the Cardinal by 10.
In Stanford’s final three games before Pac-12 tournament play began, four or more Cardinal players tallied 10 or more points. In Wednesday’s action, half as many Stanford players achieved the feat.
Junior Daejon Davis led the Cardinal effort with five successful shots from the field, and sophomore Bryce Wills netted three of his own; the pair of guards picked up 4 points apiece from the charity stripe to record totals of 16 and 10, respectively.
Nowhere to be found near the top of Stanford’s stats sheet were freshman guard Tyrell Terry and junior forward Oscar da Silva, who paced the team’s scoring with averages of 16.1 and 14.6 heading into Wednesday night’s contest in Las Vegas.
Pestered around the perimeter by Cal’s Matt Bradley and Paris Austin and in the paint by Grant Anticevich and Andre Kelly, the duo combined for just 10 points against the Golden Bears on a collective 3-for-18 effort. Despite the low totals, da Silva’s first two points of the game gained him entry to Stanford’s 1000-point club.
With 6 points to his name at the end of the night, Terry’s offensive performance marked the first time this season that he has recorded back-to-back single-digit games. The freshman also posted 6 points against No. 13 Oregon on March 7.
For Cal, Bradley, Austin, Anticevich and Kelly complemented the challenges they provided Terry and Stanford’s offense by crashing the defensive boards. Six rebounds apiece were snagged by the former two, while the latter reeled in an additional seven each to account for 26 of the Golden Bears’ 33 total.
Cal’s dominance under the hoop limited Stanford’s offensive rebounds to a mere three but was hardly contained to the defensive side of the ball. Nearly half of Cal’s points (30) came from within the paint, compared to Stanford’s 22 from the same region.
Additionally, Bradley and Austin accounted for more than half of the Golden Bears’ points, tallying 18 each against the Cardinal. Kareem South added another 15.
Stanford’s second half was a slight improvement from the first thanks to 35.48% success from the field on 11-for-31 shooting; however, with Cal netting 10-of-21 from the field and 11-of-15 from the foul line, it was not enough to repair the damage done in the first 20 minutes.
With the loss, Stanford is now eliminated from the Pac-12 Tournament and will await word of a possible tournament appearance to be delivered this weekend on Selection Sunday.
Contact Savanna Stewart at savnstew ‘at’ stanford.edu.