November 18, 1998
STANFORD, Calif. (AP) - Mark Madsen, Peter Sauer and Jarron Collins eachscored 12 points as No. 3 Stanford dominated inside for an 86-51 win over SMUon Wednesday night in the first round of the Preseason NIT.
Stanford (2-0), which never trailed, led 21-7 after 10 minutes and 43-17 athalftime. The Cardinal held a 51-38 rebounding edge.
The Cardinal will play host to Southwest Missouri State in the second roundFriday night. Southwest Missouri State beat Missouri 72-69 Wednesday night.
Stanford has won 37 of its last 40 games at Maples Pavilion, winning homegames by an average of 26 points during the past four seasons.
Jeryl Sasser had 26 points for SMU (0-1), which started two freshmen andthree sophomores and was overmatched underneath against a Cardinal team thathas one of the strongest front lines in the country.
The Mustangs did not score their 10th point until Sasser hit a leaningjumper with 6:51 left in the first half, by which time Stanford students weretaunting SMU players with chants of "sin-gle di-gits."
SMU hit just 26 percent of its shots in the game and was 4-for-22 on3-pointers.
Stanford built its lead throughout the first half, increasing its margin to20 points for the first time when Lee hit a 3-pointer to make it 32-11 with5:13 left before halftime.
SMU never got closer than 22 points in the second half.
The only thing that marred Stanford's dominating performance was continuingproblems at the free-throw line. After going 14-for-29 on foul shots in theiropener against UC Davis, the Cardinal was just 27-for-47 against SMU.
Stanford usually is among the nation's top foul shooting teams. The Cardinalmade 74 percent of their free throws last season, 15th best in the country.