59-year-old Stanford alum Todd Lichti ’89 can no longer say he holds the Stanford Men’s Basketball freshman scoring record. This past Saturday, despite Stanford’s 68-63 loss to Wake Forest (13-12, 4-8 ACC), freshman guard Ebuka Okorie shattered Lichti’s record.
Okorie, who ranks sixth nationally in scoring with 22.5 points per game, dropped 26 points in the loss to the Demon Deacons. Head coach Kyle Smith showered Okorie with praise when asked what it is like to have a historically great freshman on his team.
“I don’t think many people have had a freshman like him,” Smith said. “He’s really special. He’s just made of the right stuff. He’s got an awesome attitude and gives you great effort.”
Okorie broke the 40-year-old record on a night where was not feeling well, as Smith revealed after the game.
“[Okorie] was a little sick today too, and he was able to perform in a big way,” Smith said. “He is only going to get better.”
Okorie’s performance this season sizes up well against all players who have donned the Cardinal jersey. The freshman is now 17th on Stanford’s single-season scoring list for all players. Where things stand now, if Okorie were to replicate his 541-point season-long performance for the next three seasons, he would finish fourth among Stanford’s all-time leading scorers.
Despite Okorie’s heroics this season, the Cardinal continue to creep closer to .500. The road loss to Wake Forest may have been the final nail in the coffin for Stanford’s March Madness hopes. In a game where both teams shot the ball at similar rates and had nearly identical turnover rates, the discrepancy at the free throw line decided the final outcome. The Cardinal attempted 14 free throws, making nine of them, while the Demon Deacons shot a whopping 32 attempts, resulting in 28 points at the charity stripe. The abundance of trips to the line for Wake Forest negated the fact that Stanford finished the night with four more total field goals made.
“We had four more field goals than them,” Smith said. “So that’s usually a recipe [for success]. When you have 10 more shots than your opponent, it’s hard to lose those but we did.”
Stanford is now 3-7 in their last 10 games, but they have a chance to boost morale on Saturday as they travel to Berkeley to face a Cal team (18-8, 6-7 ACC) that is coming off a win against Boston College (9-16, 2-10). Tip-off is scheduled for 3 p.m.