Stanford men: Pickens’ big 3 lifts Cardinal.

PULLMAN, Wash. — Dorian Pickens scored a careerhigh 28 points, three coming on a key three-pointer with 76 seconds left, to help Stanford beat Washington State 79-70 on Thursday night.

Pickens, who came in 10for-35 from three-point range this season, made 7 of 10 shots from beyond the arc. Freshman Kezie Okpala added 21 points and Daejon Davis scored 15 on 6-of-7 shooting for Stanford (9-8, 3-1 Pac-12).

The Cougars led 55-47 early in the second half when Washington State’s Kwinton Hinson committed a hard foul on Reid Travis and both players had to be separated by teammates. Stanford responded with a 21-3 run despite going six-plus minutes without a field goal during that stretch, to make it 68-58 with 6:26 to play. Washington State twice cut its deficit to three points from there, but Pickens hit two treys as the Cardinal held on for its third win in a row.

Washington State made 11 of its first 12 field-goal attempts, including 4-of-4 three-pointers, but Pickens had 22 first-half points on 8-of-9 shooting. He hit back-to-back threes to give Stanford a two-point lead before Malachi Flynn closed the half with three three-pointers.

The Cardinal trailed 45-38 at halftime.

“Pac-12 road games are always a big-time challenge and I thought in the second half we responded very, very well,” Stanford coach Jerod Haase said. “We understood it was going to be a monster game and take our best effort. I think we did a lot of nice things. Not perfect, but a lot of nice things in the second half.”

Flynn hit seven three-pointers and led Washington State (8-8, 0-4) with 24 points. Milan Acquaah added 10 points and Drick Bernstine scored eight and grabbed 12 rebounds. Robert Franks, who came in averaging a team-high 17.3 points per game, had eight points and six of Washington State’s 22 turnovers.

An official collided with the Cougars’ Viont’e Daniels early in the second half and Daniels left the game due to injury.

“All of our officials do a tremendous job, they really do,” WSU coach Ernie Kent said. “But for having our third game where a critical point in the game we collide with an official in the dead corner, there’s a problem with that.”

Travis, who came into the game averaging 21.3 points, finished with six points and six rebounds.