Feb. 19, 2000
By DENNIS GEORGATOS
AP Sports Writer
STANFORD, Calif. - Stanford coach Mike Montgomery knows his team betterthan anyone and even he had a hard time believing what he was seeing.
In a display of absolute domination, the Cardinal overwhelmed regional rivalCalifornia, using a runaway offense and bruising defense for a 101-50 victorySaturday.
The loss was the worst ever for Cal, surpassing a 44-point defeat to UCLA in1968, when the Bruins were led by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
"That shouldn't happen. We're not 51 points better and we know that,"Montgomery said. "It was just one of those games where everything we wereshooting went in. I've been on the other end before. We did play well, but notonly was this not expected, it probably won't happen again."
David Moseley scored a career-high 28 points and helped break it open earlywith 14 points during a 25-4 run that gave Stanford (22-1, 11-1 Pac-10) a 42-18lead before the game was 17 minutes old.
By the time Casey Jacobsen connected on a 3-pointer with 14:11 remaining,Stanford was up 70-30 and the crowd mocked Cal (14-10, 5-7) by chanting, "Downby 40! Down by 40!"
"We kind of lost our composure late in the first half when Moseley startednailing the shots from the outside," Cal coach Ben Braun said. "Give himcredit. He stepped up early. He came off some tough screens and made them."
Jacobsen finished with 15 points and Mark Madsen had 13 points and 10rebounds as Stanford won its 10th straight since its only loss of the season,to Arizona last month. Jason Collins added 12 points and 10 rebounds and histwin, Jarron Collins, contributed 11 points for the Cardinal, who shot 67.7percent in the first half en route to a 50-23 lead.
Stanford converted a season-best 64.9 percent of its shots during the gamewhile its defense, ranked tops in the nation, held Cal to 33.3 percentshooting.
"I'd like to think we're that good but in my heart I know we're not quitethat good," Jacobsen said. "The first time we played Cal, we beat them by 11and it was a tough, physical game. We're probably somewhere in between 11 and51 points better than them. Things were just clicking along perfectly."
It was Stanford's seventh straight victory over Cal, matching its longestrun, and the 51-point margin was the biggest ever in the 89-year-old series,surpassing Stanford's 74-42 victory in 1962. It was Stanford's first 100-pointgame in the series and its first 50-point margin over a conference team athome.
"I wanted to leave something on the court for our fans," Moseley, asenior, said. "I've only got three home games left. I want to make the most ofthem."
Sean Lampley had 10 points for shell-shocked Cal, held to its lowest outputof the season.
"The bottom fell out," Lampley said. "We all kind of lost our intensity.We weren't making the plays and you saw the result."
Lampley, asked if the Cardinal were that good, replied, "They're more thanthe real deal."
Cal tried to make a game of it at the outset. A dunk by Madsen and 3-pointerby Jacobsen gave Stanford a 17-10 lead but Nick Vander Laan scored from upclose and Ryan Forehan-Kelly hit a jumper as Cal pulled within three points.
Then Stanford took over with the force of a blindside hit.
Jarron Collins muscled in a layup and Moseley knocked down a 15-foot jumper.Forehan-Kelly answered with another jumper before Stanford took off again,starting with an emphatic putback by Jason Collins and a long jumper fromMoseley.
Then, epitomizing the direction of the game, Madsen wrestled a rebound awayfrom Vander Laan, shoveled an outlet pass to Mike McDonald, who fed thestreaking Moseley for a fast-break layup.
The surge carried forward to a 25-4 run that didn't even have a hint ofending until Shantay Legans hit a 3-pointer with 3:25 remaining in the firsthalf, ending a 3 1/2-minute scoring drought by Cal.