Stanford, Cal men top Oregon schools
Last year Stanford was a 6-12 team in the Pac-12, while Oregon reached the Final Four.
As testimony to what can happen in the annual turnover of college basketball, the Cardinal pounded the Ducks 96-61 Saturday afternoon in what was probably their best performance during head coach Jerod Haase’s two years on the Farm.
It was Stanford’s most onesided win over Oregon in a series that began in the 1919-20 season. It also was its largest conference win since a 105-60 victory over Washington in 2002 and the worst defeat for the Ducks during Dana Altman’s eight years as coach.
“That was a little bit of a perfect storm,” Haase said. “They did not play their best, and we were operating on all cylinders — shooting the ball from the three-point line, being efficient inside and playing hard on defense. It was a snowball effect. I wouldn’t read too much into it on either side; that was a good team we beat today.”
The Cardinal (13-11, 7-4 Pac-12) ran their record at Maples Pavilion to 11-4, compared with 2-3 on the road.
Dorian Pickens scored a game-high 25 points on just 11 field goal attempts, missing just two. He made 5-of-6 three-point tries and became the 46th player in Stanford history to reach the 1,000-point milestone.
He said he was not surprised by the 35-point win over a team that has been a Pac-12 powerhouse in recent years.
“When we come to compete and lock in on the defensive end and play together and tough, I think we’re one of the best teams in the conference,” he said.
Stanford made 12 of its first 16 shots in jumping to a 32-16 lead.
“We all wanted to come out and be aggressive from the jump,” Pickens said. “One of our themes for this game was: attack on both ends right from the tip-off. I think we did that, and it paid off big-time.”
The Cardinal had six dunks, by five different players, and hit 12-of-20 threes. They also owned the boards 34-21 and played suffocating defense in snapping the Ducks’ threegame winning streak.
KZ Okpala, a 6-8 freshman, hit a pair of threes and connecting on a variety of dunks and acrobatic drives en route to 20 points. He also played his usual strong defensive game.
“He was attacking and getting to the rim,” Haase said. “At this point, that’s what we really thrive on, his ability to get to the paint, get an offensive rebound and score around the rim. … He played a heck of a game.”
The Cardinal shot 63 percent from the field against a Ducks team that is rebuilding after last year’s Final Four appearance spearheaded by Dillon Brooks, Tyler Dorsey and current Warriors rookie Jordan Bell.
“I don’t know if effort was the problem,” Altman said. “Our energy level wasn’t good. We sure didn’t get any stops. Defensively, we weren’t communicating well. We didn’t talk much. We gave up a lot of easy looks.”
Stanford’s Reid Travis had 17 points and seven rebounds. Freshman point guard Daejon Davis had nine points, seven rebounds and eight assists with just one turnover.
Troy Brown Jr. led Oregon (15-8, 5-5) with 15 points, while Victor Bailey Jr. added 11 and Elijah Brown and Paul White had 10 each. MiKyle McIntosh, who had three double-doubles in his previous six games, had no points and two rebounds in 25 minutes.