Okpala scores 29 in Cardinal opener

KZ Okpala, Stanford’s slashing 6-foot-9 sophomore forward, is well on his way to becoming a complete player.

On Tuesday night, he scored a career-high 29 points and also had 10 rebounds, five assists, three blocks and a steal as the Cardinal routed Seattle 96-74 in the season opener Tuesday night at Maples Pavilion.

“Obviously, he has a high ceiling,” head coach Jerod Haase said. “The crazy part is that ceiling’s a lot higher than where he is right now.”

Okpala hit 8-for-12 from the field and 11for-13 from the line. Last season, he averaged 10 points a game.

Stanford trailed the Redhawks by as many as eight points (24-16) in the first half, but the Cardinal led 40-36 at the half and outscored Seattle 56-38 the rest of the way.

“Daejon (Davis) came back in,” Okpala said of the difference in the halves. “He’s a great leader on the court, vocally and with his play. The pace was much better offensively in the second half.”

Davis scored 15 points while playing just 20 minutes because of foul trouble.

Freshman guard Cormac Ryan, a native of New York City, hit 5 of 6 three-point tries on his way to 16 points, and Marcus Sheffield added 10 points for the Cardinal.

Ryan’s performance didn’t surprise Okpala. “Dude can really light it up,” he said. “The first day (of practice), I said, ‘Damn, this kid’s just coming in — no fear.’ ”

“In a very positive way, he’s like a 40-yearold man,” Haase said of Ryan. “He has a presence about him, a confidence about him. At the same time, he plays with a great deal of passion.

“All those things really made him into the reason I took so many redeyes to go see him.”

Stanford made 11 of 15 three-point attempts and sank 27 of 33 freethrow tries.

Seattle’s Terrell Brown scored 16 points before leaving with an injury with just less than eight minutes left. Anand Hundal came off the bench to score 13 points. Matej Kavas also had 13 and Morgan Means 11.

The Redhawks were 20-14 last season and reached the semifinals of the WAC tournament before playing in the CBI. This season, they are picked to finish third by the coaches and fourth by the media in the WAC preseason polls.