Humphrey holds Cardinal together after loss of Travis

By Tom FitzGerald

For a Stanford fan, most of the second half was painful to watch as the Cardinal squandered a 21-point lead. Then Michael Humphrey came to their rescue.

Washington tied the score 63-63, but the junior forward had eight points in the final 3½ minutes to save Stanford from a demoralizing loss and secure a 76-69 win Saturday night at Maples Pavilion. The Cardinal, however, lost forward Reid Travis to a recurrence of his right shoulder injury.

During that final stretch run, Humphrey grabbed a couple of what head coach Jerod Haase called “man’s rebounds — going up above the rim and securing the basketball.” He also blocked a UW layup. He finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds.

“I always need to play with that pissed-off edge,” Humphrey said. “I don’t know if I got hit or something like that. It’s finding something that motivates you.”

Until the Huskies missed nine straight shots down the stretch, the game was looking like a valiant comeback win for them and their superb freshman point guard, Markelle Fultz.

Fultz, who picked UW over Kentucky, Arizona, Maryland and Louisville, had 25 of his 34 points in the second half. He’s considered a potential lottery pick in the next NBA draft, and the Cardinal won’t argue with such speculation.

“He’s a great player — he’s going to have a great career,” said Marcus Allen, one of those assigned to guard him. Neither Fultz’s shot-making skills nor his range surprised Stanford, Allen said. “We watched enough tape to know what he’s going to do.”

Stanford (10-8, 2-4 Pac-12) powered to a 43-24 lead at the half, and it looked as though the loss of Travis about six minutes before the break wouldn’t affect the outcome. He went down hard as he was fouled trying to shoot from the inside, and he was escorted to the locker room. Travis had missed two games with an injury to the same shoulder before returning for the Washington State game Thursday.

Without him, the Cardinal slumped badly on both ends of the floor in the second half after a driving layup by Allen made it 45-24. Fultz and the Huskies broke loose, outscoring Stanford 39-18 to forge a tie.

“We were very poor offensively,” Haase said. He pointed out that his team didn’t have a single assist in the second half. “I think if we had scored some, that would have continued to energize our defense,” he said. “But it was really a total collapse. … There were times we didn’t get back in transition. Our overall energy dipped.”

Allen scored 15 points for Stanford, and Robert Cartwright and Dorian Pickens added 13 each. David Crisp scored 10 for UW.

UW’s Lorenzo Romar is in his 15th year, the longest-tenured head coach in the Pac-12. He has guided the Huskies to six NCAA Tournaments, but none in the past five years. They haven’t had a winning record in the conference since 2012.

Getting Fultz was quite a coup for Romar, but he’s widely considered to be a one-anddone player, as were two of last season’s Huskies, Dejounte Murray and Marquese Chriss. A 1-4 start in conference play and an 8-9 overall record are not hopeful signs for the exWarriors point guard.

“I think if we had scored some, that would have continued to energize our defense. But it was really a total collapse.” Stanford coach Jerod Haase, on second-half slump