Feb. 10, 2000
By ROB GLOSTER
AP Sports Writer
STANFORD, Calif. - Stanford's stingy defense turned yet anotherhigh-powered offense into a mess of missed shots and lost chances.
Casey Jacobsen and Mark Madsen each had 19 points and Ryan Mendez added 14as the No. 2 Cardinal, who hold opponents to the lowest shooting percentage inthe nation, never trailed in a 76-61 win over No. 24 Oregon on Thursday night.
Oregon (16-5, 7-3 Pac-10) entered the game shooting 49 percent, the11th-best mark in the nation. But the Ducks were held to 36 percent from thefield by Stanford, including just 33 percent in the second half.
"Stanford plays like a No. 2 team. They're so smart as a basketball team,"Oregon coach Ernie Kent said. "There were some times in the game we thought wecould get them, and we played like it. But as soon as we made a mistake, theycapitalized on it and stopped us cold."
Stanford (20-1, 9-1), which has won eight straight against Oregon, had eightblocked shots - including four by Jason Collins - despite the absence of itstop shot blocker.
The Cardinal were missing reserve center Curtis Borchardt, who needs oneblock to tie the Stanford freshman record of 43 set by Tim Young in 1994-95.Borchardt is out indefinitely with a stress reaction in his right foot, aproblem he aggravated last weekend. He'll also miss Saturday's game againstOregon State.
Alex Scales had 14 points and eight rebounds to lead Oregon. But A.D. Smith,the Ducks' leading scorer with 15.7 points per game, was held to two points inthe second half and 11 overall.
Smith said Madsen, who led Stanford with 10 rebounds, seems to always be inthe right position on the court.
"No one is stronger than he is," Smith said. "There's not one thing hedominates on. He sees shots and he sees rebounds and goes for them."
The Cardinal, who have won 20 games for a school-record sixth straightseason, led by 11 points at halftime and took a 45-33 lead on David Moseley's3-pointer with 3:05 gone in the second half.
Oregon scored six straight points to pull within 45-39, but the Cardinalresponded with a 19-6 run that began with a 3-pointer by Mendez and was cappedby another Mendez 3-pointer to make it 64-45 with 8 1/2 minutes remaining.
"They had some momentum going for them until Mendez made those points,"Stanford coach Mike Montgomery said. "That (first) 3-pointer he made stoppedOregon from making a big run on us."
The victory was the first by Stanford against a ranked team since theCardinal's 67-58 win over No. 2 Auburn in late November. Stanford had playedonly one other ranked school since then, a 68-65 home loss to No. 5 Arizona inearly January.
Stanford led throughout the first half, with Tony Giovacchini's 3-pointer atthe buzzer giving the Cardinal a 40-29 halftime lead. Jacobsen had 12 points inthe first half to lead the Cardinal, while Smith had nine for Oregon.