Okpala helps Stanford get trip off to flying start
Even Stanford coach Jerod Haase knows that the Cardinal’s early season schedule might be a bit much.
Sophomore KZ Okpala had 23 points, and Stanford scored 17 unanswered firsthalf points to take control and beat UNC Wilmington 72-59 on Friday night, the first of two games in North Carolina amid a November full of cross-country flights.
Cormac Ryan added 14 for the Cardinal (2-0), which became the first power-conference team to visit the Seahawks in nearly a decade. After traveling to No. 8 North Carolina on Monday, the Cardinal comes home for one game, then heads back east for the threegames-in-three-days Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas during the Thanksgiving break.
Stanford trailed by eight midway through the first half but held the Seahawks (0-2) without a basket for the final 7 minutes before halftime to take a 39-25 lead at the break. Stanford quickly pushed that margin to 18, and UNCW got no closer than eight again. YALE 76, CAL 59 >> Paris Austin, a junior transfer from Boise State, led the Bears with 18 points, but the rest of the team shot 12 of 41 (29 percent) from the field in the opener played in Shanghai.
PRAIRIE VIEW 81, SANTA CLARA 64 >> Keshawn Justice, one of five freshmen among eight newcomers, led the Broncos with 15 points in the season-opening loss to the visiting Panthers. KJ Feagin, who averaged 17.5 points last season, finished with four. Santa Clara had 20 turnovers. NO. 11 AUBURN 88, NO. 25 WASHINGTON 66 >> Chuma Okeke had 19 points and 10 rebounds, and Samir Doughty scored 18 to lead the Tigers over the visiting Huskies. Center Austin Wiley saw his first action in more than a season for Auburn (2-0), scoring five points in 13 minutes. Wiley, who was forced to sit out last season as part of a federal probe into corruption in college basketball, missed the opener with a left foot injury.
BUFFALO 99, NO. 13 WEST VIRGINIA 94 >> CJ Massinburg had 43 points and 14 rebounds as the Bulls (1-0) pulled off another big upset against a power program, stunning the Mountaineers (0-1) in overtime. Buffalo grabbed attention last March when the Bulls blew out Arizona in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
NO. 7 NEVADA 83, PACIFIC 61 >> Caleb Martin scored all of his 22 points in the second half, and the Wolf Pack (2-0) shot 48 percent from 3-point range to crush the visiting Tigers (1-1). Anthony Townes finished with 13 points and Lafayette Dorsey added 10 for the Tigers.
NO. 14 OREGON 81, EASTERN WASHINGTON 47 >> Freshman Bol Bol, son of former Warriors big man the late Manute Bol, had 23 points and 12 rebounds as the Ducks (2-0) cruised.
Women
USF 85, SAN JOSE STATE 63 >> The Dons (1-0) held the Spartans (0-2) to four points in the second quarter on the way to the win at Memorial Gym.
SAINT MARY’S 90, WYOMING 84 >> Sydney Raggio scored 24 points, and the host Gaels shot 68.0 percent to hold off the Cowgirls.