Cardinal give big scare to Wildcats
Stanford led No. 14 Arizona by 11 points with under 10 minutes left Saturday. It couldn’t finish the upset, though, because the Wildcats kept their poise in the final minute.
A layup by Rawle Alkins gave the Wildcats the lead for good with 38 seconds to go, and Arizona prevailed 73-71 to take sole possession of first place in the Pac-12. It was the Wildcats’ 16th straight win in the series with Stanford.
Before 6,079 at Maples Pavilion, the Cardinal faced two 12-point deficits in the first half. But they gave the Wildcats a major scare with a zone defense that held Arizona big man Deandre Ayton to nine points and eight rebounds, well below his conferenceleading averages of 20.2 and 11.3, respectively. Plagued by fouls, he was limited to 28 minutes.
“It was a battle,” Stanford head coach Jerod Haase said. “Outside the first 10 minutes, I thought we joined the battle and competed at a high level. There were a lot of positives we can take away and obviously a ton of things we can learn from as well.”
The Wildcats (16-4, 6-1 Pac-12) got 21 points from Allonzo Trier and 18 from Dusan Ristic, and they had nine blocks, six by Ayton, a 7-foot-1 freshman. Alkins added 13 points.
“When we went to our zone defense we were able to lock in,” said Stanford forward Reid Travis, who scored 20 points and helped Stanford build an 11-point lead in the second half. “But giving up that 11-point lead” and “letting
them come and take the lead and win the game is obviously tough. There’s a lot of learning we need to do.”
Alkins and Trier gave the surprising Cardinal (11-9, 5-2) an opening, each making just one of two foul shots in the closing seconds, but Dorian Pickens missed what would have been a game-winning three at the buzzer. His shot hit off the backboard and the rim and bounced out.
Stanford lost point guard Daejon Davis with just under two minutes to go in the half, and he didn’t return. He was shaken up in a loose-ball scuffle, but his injury wasn’t immediately known.
Pickens had to play point guard for the Cardinal most of the rest of the way. He scored 15 points, and Michael Humphrey had 13 points and 12 rebounds.
Humphrey “was an absolute warrior on the defensive end,” Haase said. “It probably took away a little of his offensive energy, but I thought he battled the whole night.”
“A loss never feels good,” Humphrey said, “but I think as a team there’s lot of things we can build off of. I’m not disappointed in our team at all. We played extremely hard and put ourselves in a position to win.”
With Stanford leading 5246, Ayton was called for an offensive foul, his fourth. Wildcats head coach Sean Miller drew a technical foul for his protest. Pickens made both free throws and followed with a three from the corner for a 57-46 lead.
Ayton fouled out in the final seconds, but he impressed the Cardinal with his athleticism. They doubleteamed him most of the time when he got the ball.
“He’s big, he’s long, he can move his feet,” Travis said. “For me it was just trying to get him off the post and just play to my advantage, putting my quickness on him. Obviously he’s a great player. Everything people say about him is true.”
“A loss never feels good, but I think as a team there’s lot of things we can build off of. I’m not disappointed in our team at all.” — Michael Humphrey, Stanford forward