Dec. 22, 2007
DALLAS (AP)- Brook Lopez knew it was his responsibility to lead Stanford back after halftime.
In just his second game of the season, Lopez scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half as No. 25 Stanford won its sixth straight by beating Texas Tech 62-61 Saturday.
"It was completely on me," Lopez said. "I realized that I had two points in first half. For me to help the team, I had to attack the basket."
The 7-foot Lopez played 9:30 in the first half before picking up his second foul. Robin Lopez, another Stanford 7-footer and Brook's twin brother, also picked up two quick fouls and logged less than six minutes before halftime.
Texas Tech (6-5) ended the first half on a 21-7 run to take a 33-26 halftime lead.
That's when Stanford (10-1) and Brook Lopez got going offensively. He scored the first six points of the second half, and was 5-of-8 from the field and hit seven free throws as the Cardinal rallied.
"Brook can play. There's no mistake about it," Stanford coach Trent Johnson said. "Offensively he's a handful. The thing I was most proud of [Saturday] was he played through adversity on the floor. There's no secret. Brook Lopez is one of the best players in the country."
Stanford won its first game by single digits this season. The Cardinal had won its first nine by an average of 21 points.
Martin Zeno scored 14 points for the Red Raiders and Alan Voskuil added 13.
Texas Tech (6-5) lost its second in a row as coach Bob Knight remains stuck on 896 victories.
"We made some errors," Knight said. "We're a team that can't make a lot of errors and we made too many."
Stanford's Anthony Goods and Robin Lopez each had 10 points.
Lopez hit two free throws to give the Cardinal a 60-58 lead with 1:55 left. With Texas Tech looking to tie the game, Lopez then blocked Alan Voskuil's layup attempt.
After a Stanford miss, Texas Tech freshman guard John Roberson threw a bad pass for a turnover with 46.7 seconds left.
Lopez then hit one free throw with 27.3 seconds left to put Stanford up 61-58. Roberson missed a possible tying 3-pointer with about 10 seconds left. Stanford's Mitch Johnson hit one free throw before Voskuil hit a 3-pointer to bring Texas Tech within 62-61 with 2.1 seconds remaining.
But Stanford was able to run out the clock to secure the victory.
"They toughed it out," Johnson said. "You're good when you can win ugly. We beat a very good Texas Tech team."
Stanford's only loss this season came Nov. 17 at Siena. The Cardinal had won every game by at least 11 points and six of the victories were by at least 20 points.
Goods had a 3-point play to put Stanford ahead 19-12. The Cardinal committed eight turnovers in the last 9:42 of the first half to spark Texas Tech.
Voskuil hit a jumper to tie things at 21, and Damir Suljagic hit a pair of free throws to give the Red Raiders their first lead of the game.
Tech took its biggest advantage of the half at 33-24 when Suljagic blocked Lawrence Hill's shot and then he tipped in a D'walyn Roberts missed shot.
"It wasn't like we waved a wand," Knight said of his team's first half. "We just played well."