Davis’ clutch play, 3-point shooting lift the Cardinal
On an emotional night for Daejon Davis, the Stanford freshman point guard seemed to take a large step forward Friday.
An 18-year-old friend had died in a car accident in Seattle on Wednesday, Davis said. “I knew I wanted to play as hard as I could,” he said. “This game was really for her.”
Shaken by the tragedy, he nevertheless maintained his focus during the game. He had a season-high 20 points and five assists in the Cardinal’s 75-62 victory over Denver at Maples Pavilion.
The Cardinal had lost five of their previous six games and were coming off an 11-day break for finals. But they scored 28 points in the first 10 minutes, hitting six threepointers.
They cooled off considerably, and the Pioneers (5-7) rallied to cut the lead to 56-53 with just under 10 minutes left. Then Davis sank one of two foul shots and came right back, hitting a runner and adding a foul shot for a threepoint play.
He had four turnovers, a far cry from the 11 he committed against Portland State on Nov. 26.
“There’s been a couple of blips,” Stanford head coach Jerod Haase said, “but really we see a young man that’s getting better and better every game. I think you’re going to continue to see that. When he’s thinking as a point guard and as a leader, his game will just flow. I thought a lot of that happened today.”
Denver coach Rodney Billups agreed. “I looked at our staff and said, ‘That kid there is going to be a really good player,’ ” he said. “He’s a freshman, he’s got some poise, he sees the floor very well and he’s got a lot of confidence.”
Although Reid Travis scored 20 points for Stanford (5-6), Denver did its best to take away his inside game. That strategy led the Cardinal to fire a season-high 32 threepoint attempts; they made 13 of them, including four by freshman guard Isaac White (17 points).
“That number (32) is larger than what we need,” Haase said. “If we’re going to be a successful team … we’ve got to get it into the interior and balance that out some.”
Stanford’s Michael Humphrey scored 11 points, all but one in the first 7½ minutes, and grabbed nine rebounds. Travis had just two rebounds, dropping his average to 7.3, a dip from his 8.9 and 7.3 figures of the previous two seasons.
Haase said part of the reason is Travis was defending players away from the basket Friday, but said he “needs more rebounds.”
Center Daniel Amigo led Denver with 16 points. Jake Pemberton added 13 and Joe Rosga 12.
The Pioneers, picked for fifth place in the Summit League, found the paint closed off all night by the bigger Cardinal, but they made a game of it by sinking 9 of 20 three-point shots.
Stanford committed 10 turnovers while taking a 37-28 halftime lead. The Cardinal gave the ball away just five times in the second half.