January 2, 1999
By DENNIS GEORGATOS
AP Sports Writer
STANFORD, Calif. (AP) - Maybe later, Mike Montgomery will take the time tosavor his 400th career victory. He's too busy now thinking about getting thenext one.
Peter Sauer scored a season-high 19 points and Kris Weems had 17 as No. 5Stanford beat Oregon State 72-56 Saturday for Montgomery's milestone win.
"It was an opportunity for Coach to get his 400th win," Stanford pointguard Arthur Lee said. "There was a lot of emotion out there. We were thinkingabout it. It was a nice Saturday afternoon and we wanted to get it for him."
Mark Madsen added 10 points and Lee had nine for the Cardinal (11-2, 1-0Pac-10), who won their sixth straight conference opener. Stanford has won sevenstraight games since consecutive losses to North Carolina and Maryland.
Josh Steinthal's 20 points led Oregon State (6-4, 0-1), which lost for a12th straight time to a ranked opponent. Adam Masten added 11 points for theBeavers, who were held to 35 percent shooting.
The Cardinal, coached the past 13 years by Montgomery, who also spent eightyears at Montana, asserted themselves early and led by 23 points by halftime.
"At some point, you look back and recognize how long you've been in thegame," said Montgomery, who took Stanford to the Final Four last season andhas all five starters back.
"I suppose 400 is 20 years of 20 wins but win No. 401 is the one I'mconcerned about right now," added Montgomery, now 400-211 lifetime.
Oregon State guard Deaundra Tanner had a tough time getting his game goingagainst Lee's defense, going 2-for-20 from the field, including 0-for-5 from3-point range.
"He's going to have to learn to become patient and be willing to turn downshots," Oregon State coach Eddie Payne said. "He's a point guard with ascoring mentality. He didn't do a good job of picking his spots."
Hitting seven 3-pointers in the opening 20 minutes, including three byWeems, Stanford built a 41-18 halftime lead.
"We didn't guard the 3-point line very well," Payne said. "We dropped ourheads a little in the first half and gave them good looks."
Then, the Cardinal began driving the ball inside, with Madsen, Lee, Sauer,Tim Young and Weems finishing fast breaks with layups or dunks as part of a13-5 run starting the second half.
Masten tried to stem Stanford's momentum by hitting a 3-pointer but Saueranswered with the Cardinal's first 3-pointer of the second half, and twominutes later, David Moseley made two free throws to put the Cardinal up 61-31with 11:48 left.
Montgomery began substituting freely and Oregon State made a mild runagainst Cardinal reserves but it was not nearly enough to prevent Stanford'sninth victory in the last 11 games against the Beavers.