San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Balanced attack paces Cardinal
This would have sounded strange a little over a week ago: Look out, Pac-12, here comes Stanford.
The hot Cardinal shot 53 percent from the floor and had nine dunks in a 104-80 walloping of UCLA Saturday night at Maples Pavilion.
Stanford (14-11, 7-6 Pac-12) won its second straight game and completed a sweep of the Los Angeles schools. The win also ended a three-game losing streak in the UCLA series and improved Stanford’s home record to 9-2 this season.
Stanford took control of the game with a 14-0 run in the first half, then opened a 23-point lead in the second half. It was one of the Cardinal’s best performances of the season.
The Bruins cut the lead to 85-76 with just over four minutes left, but that’s as close as they got.
Stanford reached the 100mark on a three pointer by Isaac White with 55 seconds left. It was the first time Cardinal had hit the century mark since they scored 107 against UCLA a year ago.
UCLA dropped to 13-13 overall and 6-7 in the conference. All of the Bruins’ conference games came under interim coach Murry Bartow after Steve Alford was fired Dec. 31.
Stanford had a balanced attack with 22 points from Josh Sharma, 20 from KZ Okpala, a season-high 19 from freshman Cormac Ryan, 12 from Daejon Davis and 10 from Bryce Wills. Davis also had 11 assists.
Davis returned to Stanford’s lineup after missing two games with what was called an upperbody injury. He was hit in the face during the Oregon State game.
Sharma had seven dunks. Of his 98 field goals this season, 48 have been dunks.
Jaylen Hands led the Bruins with 29 points and freshman Jules Bernard added 19 points. Kris Wilkes, who scored 27 against Cal on Wednesday, was limited to seven points.
The second half was delayed for more than 45 minutes to repair one of the baskets and its backboard.
During the intermission, workers tried unsuccessfully to tighten the rim, so it was decided to replace the whole basket unit with a backboard attached to a floor stanchion. In the interest of fairness, the other basket was replaced with a floor stanchion as well.
When the second half finally started, Okpala shot a 14-foot turnaround jumper on which he appeared to lose control of the ball. It swished through anyway.
Wilkes had a dunk, but Stanford went on another run. Sharma blocked a dunk attempt by Prince Ali, and Davis quickly dunked at the other end. Sharma added another dunk, Bryce Wills three foul shots and Okpala a 3-pointer from the corner for a 61-42 lead.
Davis quickly piled up five assists in the first half and scored eight points before the intermission.
A 14-0 run sent the Cardinal from a 16-14 deficit to a 28-16 lead. Sharma started the run with his fourth basket of the early minutes.
Ryan made his first four 3-point tries against the UCLA zone and scored 14 points in the first half, after which Stanford led 49-40.
Tom FitzGerald is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tfitzgerald@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @tomg fitzgerald
Stanford 104, UCLA 80