Dec 29, 2001
By RICK EYMER
Associated Press Writer
OAKLAND, Calif. - With Stanford's best player struggling, CurtisBorchardt turned in his finest effort and gave the No. 16 Cardinal their bestwin of the season.
Borchardt scored a career-high 27 points as the Cardinal beat No. 13Michigan State 75-64 on Saturday night in the Pete Newell Challenge.
"I didn't play smart last week, so I wanted to work harder to establishmyself in the post," said the 7-foot junior. "I asked for the ball more andmore and the guys kept giving it to me."
Borchardt added 10 rebounds and matched his own school record with sixblocked shots as Stanford (7-2) won for the fourth time in five tries. JuliusBarnes also had a career-high 19 points.
Casey Jacobsen was limited to 10 points on 3-of-11 shooting, including1-of-6 from 3-point range.
"This was a timely game for us. Curtis was huge," Stanford coach MikeMontgomery said. "It was the best performance of the team this year. It hadthe flavor of a tournament game."
Marcus Taylor set a career high with 21 points for Michigan State (9-4),which had a five-game winning streak stopped and fell to 0-4 away from home.
The Spartans, already short-handed because of injuries and players jumpingto the NBA, were forced to use a walk-on at times down the stretch after threeplayers fouled out in the final minutes.
"Until we get healthy, the nightmare will continue," Michigan State coachTom Izzo said. "We had too many guys in foul trouble and they kept bringingfresh guys in. It seemed like they had 100 guys on the bench."
It was Stanford's first game against a ranked opponent this season.
Borchardt sparked a Cardinal rally to open the second half with eight pointsas Stanford outscored the Spartans 13-4 in the first seven minutes to build a44-41 advantage.
The Spartans regained the lead four minutes later on a four-point play byAdam Wolfe, who finished with 11 points, and neither team could gain asignificant foothold until the final minute.
"Our lack of depth hurt us and they had so much of it," said Wolfe, whosprained his left ankle. "They just wore us down."
Michigan State made 12 of its first 15 shots to open a 30-18 lead midwaythrough the first half. Taylor scored 12 of his points during that stretch.
Stanford responded with 10 unanswered points - five each from Barnes andBorchardt - over the next five minutes.
The Spartans led 37-31 at halftime.
"They made us go inside," Jacobsen said. "That played to our advantage.It was frustrating to me that my shots weren't falling but it doesn't matterwhen we get a win like this. They didn't need me tonight."
Stanford shot nearly 57 percent from the field, the first team to shoot over50 percent against the Spartans in 50 games, dating to a 2000 NCAA tournamentgame against Utah. The Cardinal also became the second team to outreboundMichigan State this season.
The Spartans lead the nation in field-goal percentage defense, and are amongthe leaders in rebounding margin.
With the Michigan State football team playing a bowl game in nearby San Joseon Monday, the Spartans had a full complement of 300 band members - 40 withinstruments - 17 cheerleaders, a mascot and 15 bus loads of fans in attendance.Nearly half the crowd of 12,124 was pro-Michigan State.
Stanford, with school out of session, was represented by a 20-member alumniband, no cheerleaders and no mascot, making it seem more like a Spartans homegame.
Michigan State grad Magic Johnson was honored at halftime for his lifetimecontributions to the game of basketball and three former Spartan coaches, alongwith several former players, were introduced before the contest along withcurrent coach Tom Izzo: Pete Newell, for whom the event is named, Gus Ganakasand Jud Heathcote.