Stanford men’s basketball (14-5, 3-3 ACC) fell to No. 6 Duke (17-1, 6-0 ACC) in a blowout loss at home on Saturday evening. The Cardinal held a 16-point deficit at halftime, despite offensive sparks from graduate guard Jeremy Dent-Smith and graduate forward AJ Rohosy. The Blue Devils continued to extend their lead to 30 in the second half behind a dominant performance from freshman forward Cameron Boozer. The top-three NBA prospect finished with 30 points and 14 rebounds. 

Stanford’s 80-50 loss snapped its momentum just three days after the upset victory over fellow blue-blood No. 14 North Carolina, while Duke extended its win streak to six. 

“Obviously a tough one for us,” head coach Kyle Smith said. “Lesson learned in handling success.”

Stanford started the game struggling against Duke’s quick and relentless defense, forcing a turnover on freshman guard Ebuka Okorie seconds within tipoff. The Cardinal finally broke through three minutes into regulation, scoring their first points on a Rohosy hook shot. No solution appeared for stopping Boozer, who easily nailed his first three field goal attempts. Boozer and sophomore center Patrick Ngongba II tallied two steals each, giving Duke an early 13-4 lead.

Duke’s strong perimeter defense limited Stanford’s interior looks and shifted the Stanford offense to rely on chances beyond the arc, where Dent-Smith and redshirt sophomore forward Cameron Grant each knocked down a triple.

Okorie, after scoring 36 points against the Tar Heels on Wednesday and breaking the school’s single-game scoring record, uncharacteristically struggled on the offensive end. Duke tagged freshman forward Dame Sarr as the primary defender on the freshman star, causing Okorie to miss his first three field goal attempts and leaving him with little room to operate. Okorie managed to score a tough layup, which was followed by a Grant steal that led into a Rohosy and-one layup. On the next possession, Okorie faked a drive into the paint, stepping back beyond the arc for a three-pointer. Despite these offensive efforts, Boozer responded, scoring inside the paint and knocking down a three-pointer to erase the deficit. 

Boozer appeared unstoppable on the offensive end, with Grant, Rohosy and redshirt sophomore center Aidan Cammann all being tasked to guard the big man. With double teams focused on Boozer, Duke was able to redirect passes to wide open players for easy drives.

Duke, outrebounding Stanford 21-13 and tallying eight steals, prevented the Cardinal from scoring in the final four minutes of the first half and caused a shot clock violation on their very last possession of the half, leaving the score 35-19.

Rohosy opened up the second half as the Cardinal’s sole contributor on offense, flying past Boozer for a layup and converting an offensive board into a putback tip-in. Redshirt junior forward Ryan Agarwal nailed a three-pointer on the following possession, assisted by Okorie. The Cardinal defense managed to stop a Boozer putback layup, leading to an and-one layup for Dent-Smith. Following this, Dent-Smith nailed a high-arching stepback three-pointer and a quick midrange pullup, courtesy of a Rohosy screen. Duke remained superior on the offensive and defensive end, however, extending their lead to 19 at the midway point of the second half, leaving the score 60-41.

At one point, Stanford temporarily switched to zone defense, causing Okorie to deflect a pass and score a fast break layup. Nevertheless, the Cardinal offense could never find any consistent rhythm, letting Duke reach its highest game lead of 30 with four minutes left in play. With three minutes left, Duke stars Boozer, Sarr and senior forward Maliq Brown headed towards the bench to a standing ovation from the multitude of Blue Devil fans in Maples Pavillion. In the closing moments, Duke capped the game with an and-one layup, securing an 80-50 victory.

Stanford’s prominent contributors, Dent-Smith and Rohosy, ended up with 18 points and eight points with eight boards respectively. Okorie put up nine points on 3-9 shooting.

Boozer finished with 30 points, passing Cooper Flagg and Marvin Bagley with the third most 25-point games by a Duke freshman.

Stanford will return to Maples Pavillion and face Cal next Saturday at 5 p.m.