February 25, 1999
STANFORD, Calif. (AP) - In the first half, No. 6 Stanford looked like a tired, slow team. In the second half, the Cardinal barely held on against much quicker Arizona State.
Arizona State's Mike Batiste gets a hand on the ball as Stanford's Arthur Lee drives to the basket. Lee had 18 points.
It wasn't until overtime that Stanford finally resembled the team that returned all five starters from a squad that went to the Final Four last year.
Kris Weems had five of his 19 points in overtime as Stanford, which hit 12 straight free throws down the stretch, defeated the Sun Devils 87-77 Thursday night to take a commanding lead in the Pac-10 conference.
Arthur Lee, who had 18 points for the Cardinal (23-5, 13-2 Pac-10), added seven points -- all from the foul line -- in overtime. The win gave Stanford a two-game lead in the conference with three games remaining.
"We got off to another slow start because we weren't shooting very well," said Mike Montgomery, who became Stanford's winningest coach. "In the second half we played better. In overtime was when we really showed what we could do."
Mike Batiste, who had 22 points, hit a 3-pointer for Arizona State with 6 seconds left in regulation and Bobby Lazor blocked a final shot by Lee to send the game into overtime. Eddie House also had 22 points for the Sun Devils (14-13, 6-9).
But Arizona State, which built a 13-point lead in the first half, simply could not sustain its frenetic pace.
"We ran out of gas," said Arizona State coach Rob Evans. "We're not very deep and we didn't have the bodies to come in and rest our starters. In overtime, we were just tired."
The Cardinal, who trailed by four points in the closing minutes of regulation, can clinch their first league title since the Pac-10 expanded to its current size in 1978-79 by winning at home against Arizona on Saturday night.
Montgomery has a 258-137 record in 13 seasons at Stanford. Overall, Montgomery has 412 career wins in 21 seasons, including eight at Montana.
"I'm very excited about it," Montgomery said. "I feel really good about this. Being in one place long enough to win that many games is something."
Stanford used a 19-2 run bridging halftime to get back into the game against the much quicker Sun Devils.
After getting outhustled and outplayed for most of the first half and trailing 32-19, the Cardinal scored 11 straight points over the final 3:20 to trail by only two points at the break.
Alton Mason scored on a layup starting the second half to give Arizona State a 34-30 lead, but Stanford then scored eight straight -- including layups by Peter Sauer and Lee.
A 3-pointer by Mike McDonald with 13:30 left expanded the Stanford lead to 49-40, and Weems followed with a jumper for an 11-point lead.
But the Sun Devils bounced right back and took a 54-53 lead with 7:34 remaining as Batiste completed a 6-0 run with a slam. Arizona State expanded its lead to 61-57 with 4:28 left on a 3-pointer by House.
Mark Madsen responded with a basket and Lee hit a 3-pointer with 3:34 remaining to give Stanford a 62-61 lead, but Batiste had another dunk with two minutes left to give Arizona State its last lead of the night.
Sauer and Lee each hit a pair of free throws to give the Cardinal a three-point lead. After House's layup with 16 seconds left, Lee hit two more free throws to set the stage for Batiste's tying 3-pointer -- which hit the front rim, popped straight up and fell in.
Stanford, which lost its previous home game in overtime to Southern California, opened overtime with a 12-4 run that included 3-pointers by Sauer and Weems.