Jan. 17, 2009
STANFORD, Calif. -
Final score: Stanford 75, Cal 69
Stanford inbounds to Anthony Goods, who slips, but calls timeout before losing possession with a turnover or jump ball (the arrow favors Cal).
Goods receives the next inbounds pass and is fouled immediately, sending him to the line with 13.4 seconds left. Goods misses the first, but hits the second for a 75-69 lead.
Mitch Johnson fouls Jerome Randle on a drive, but its only Stanford's fifth team foul and Cal must bring the ball in, only to lose the handle and turnover the ball over. Stanford, with a 75-69 lead, 0:8.2 seconds left and Goods on the line, seems to have the game in hand. He misses both.
But Cal misses a shot and the clock runs out, giving Stanford the victory.
Stanford improves to 12-3 and 2-3 in the Pac-10, while No. 23 Cal drops to 15-3 and 4-1. The teams will play again Feb. 14 in Berkeley.
Lawrence Hill led all scorers with 25 points, and Jamal Boykin led Cal with 22.
Cal outrebounded Stanford, 31-29. Stanford shot 55.6 percent (30 of 54) to Cal's 51.7 percent (31 of 60). There were 15 lead changes and 10 ties.
Second half (0:15.9 left): Stanford 74, Cal 69
Stanford inbounds to Johnson, who is fouled in the backcourt by Jerome Randle with 25 seconds left. Johnson he makes the first, but misses the second: Stanford 74-69. But Cal's Jorge Gutierrez throws up an air ball that travels out of bounds. Stanford ball with 15.9 seconds left.
Second half (0:30.6 left): Stanford 73, Cal 69
Stanford inbounds the ball to Mitch Johnson, who gets the ball across halfcourt and finds Landry Fields, who is fouled with 38 seconds left. He gets two shots with Cal reaching 10 team fouls and makes both for a 73-67 lead.
But Jerome Randle blasts through a defense focusing on stopping the three-point shot for a left-handed layup, drawing Cal within 73-69.
Second half (0:53.5 left): Stanford 71, Cal 67
A Lawrence Hill block stymies another Cal possession, leaving the Bears in dire straits. Hill was fouled on the rebound, but misses the front end of a one-and-one. Theo Robertson hits a three for Cal to draw within 71-64 with 1:36 left.
A turnover ends a Stanford possession and Robertson again hits a three. The score: 71-67 with 53.5 seconds left.
Second half (2:03 left): Stanford 71, Cal 61
What magic can Montgomery conjure to bring the Bears back? How about a floating bank shot by Jerome Randle? An exchange of baskets leaves Stanford ahead 67-61 until Lawrence Hill converts a Mitch Johnson pass for a left-handed layup and then grabs a defensive rebound - followed by his own two-handed slam.
Second half (3:52 left): Stanford 65, Cal 56
Cal indeed stopped the 6-0 run, but the Stanford surge continued with an Anthony Goods three-pointer, Jeremy Green steal and Mitch Johnson jumper. Stanford has opened a 65-56 gap on Cal.
Goods has 18 to lead Stanford and Jamal Boykin has 22 to lead Cal.
Second half (4:58 left): Stanford 60, Cal 55
An offensive rebound by Jeremy Green off a Theo Robertson miss gave Stanford a chance to increase its lead, but an Anthony Goods jumper failed to fall, giving Cal the ball and the chance to halt Stanford's 6-0 run.
Second half (5:34 left): Stanford 60, Cal 55
The game was tied for the ninth time when Theo Robertson hit a jumper after being freed by a successful pump fake, making it 48-48.
The rebounds are even at 21-21.
Robertson hits a three for the lead, but Lawrence Hill responds with another for Stanford, tying the game at 51-51. Only for Cal to re-take the lead on a jumper by Jamal Boykin with 8:56 left to make it 53-51.
This time, Jeremy Green hits a three, only for Patrick Christopher to answer with a layup and a Cal lead. But the back-and-forth nature of the game was sustained when Mitch Johnson hit a jumper for a 56-55 lead with 7:19 left and Stanford collected a Cal miss.
Johnson hit again, this time with a jumper from the free-throw line after his own steal, and Stanford has turned on its harassing style of defense. The pace of the game has increased dramatically and Lawrence Hill takes advantage with a layup to give Stanford its biggest lead of the game, at 60-55.
Second half (11:48 left): Stanford 47, Cal 46
Anthony Goods again broke a tie, hitting a conventional three-point play to give Stanford a 47-44 lead. Cal closed within a point, but a block by Landry Fields prevented further damage.
Second half (15:37 left): Stanford 42, Cal 41
A Stanford turnover to open the second half led to a Cal basket, but Goods scored from the outside to put Stanford up 37-34.
Cal got the ball inside to Jamal Boykin, who was fouled by Will Paul - the third foul for Stanford's only true big man. Boykin tied it with the first free throws shot in the game, but Goods put Stanford ahead at 38-37 with a free throw of his own.
Hill spun in the lane for a 40-37 lead as Stanford continues to do well in its half-court offense. Hill followed shortly after with a jumper to go up 42-39. Again, Stanford has not yet turned up the defensive pressure as it likes to do, to cause turnovers and raise the tempo. But, so far, it hasn't been necessary.
Halftime: Stanford 35, Cal 32
A Mitch Johnson steal led to a Johnny Dawkins timeout with 16 seconds left. The Cardinal got what it wanted, an open shot from the left corner from Kenny Brown at the buzzer to give the Cardinal a 35-32 lead.
By halftime, there had been 11 lead changes and six ties. No team has led by more than three points and neither team has shot a free throw.
Landry Fields had a game-high 13 points, while Cal was led by Jamal Boykins' 12.
The Cardinal shot 53.3 percent from the field (16 of 30) to Cal's 55.2 percent (16 of 29).
An interesting Cal note: The Bears have not scored a three-pointer. Another oddity, 12 of Cal's 16 baskets have come from inside the paint.
First half (0:27 left): Stanford 33, Cal 32
A fadeway three-pointer by Lawrence Hill gave Stanford a short-lived 28-26 lead. The sequence began when Jeremy Green stole the ball from an out-of-control Jorge Gutierrez.
Cal immediately tied the score, but Landry Fields hit another three to put the Cardinal up 31-28, for its biggest lead, only for Cal to answer with a Theo Robertson layup.
To this point, Hill and teammate Landry Fields share game-high scoring honors with 11 points. After a Cal basket, Fields converted a Kenny Brown pass for a layup and a 33-32 lead.
First half (3:44 left): Cal 26, Stanford 25
An exchange of jumpers marked the seventh and eighth lead changes of the game, after fewer than 15 minutes.
With Cal ahead 24-23, when D.J. Seeley deflected a rebound to Jamal Boykin for an easy basket only for Lawrence Hill to knock in a jumpshot to bring the Cardinal back within 26-25.
First half (6:50 left): Cal 22, Stanford 21
Stanford re-took the lead at 19-18 with two consecutive baskets. First Drew Shiller found Anthony Goods for a backdoor layup on an inbounds pass under the Cal basket, and then Lawrence Hill made a steal and layup with 10:06. His spin move freed him from a defender in the lane.
Jorge Gutierrez, a 6-3 freshman guard, scored on a baseline layup with 8:46 left to put Cal in front 20-19, the sixth lead change of the game, and then scored again inside to make it 22-19.
Landry Fields hit a jumper to cut the deficit to 22-21.
First half (11:28 left): Cal 18, Stanford 15
An Anthony Goods 3-pointer gave Stanford a 13-12 lead, but Cal came right back with a Jerome Randle jumper and Patrick Christopher dunk to go up 16-13.
The Bears appeared to be on the verge of creating the first gap of the game, when Cal's Theo Robertson punched the ball away from Lawrence Hill underneath the basket after a nice Mitch Johnson pass. But the Bears were whistled for an offensive foul at the other end and the score remained 18-15 Cal.
First half (14:46 left): Stanford 10, Cal 10
Cal scored first on a Jamal Boykin layup, beginning a back-and-forth few minutes in which a backdoor dunk by Patrick Christopher tied the score at 8-8.
Stanford made five of its first eight shots, with Cal converting five of 10 after first five minutes.
At 10-10, already the game had been tied five times, with two lead changes.
Pregame:
The return of Mike Montgomery is the most notable aspect of Stanford's game against Cal, but far from the most important.
After a pair of one-point losses in Washington, the Cardinal is desperate for a victory that can ignite a run to join the Pac-10 men's basketball race.
Stanford enters the game at 11-3 overall and 1-3 in the Pac-10, to No. 23 Cal's 15-2 and 4-0.
First-year Cal coach Montgomery coached Stanford to 12 NCAA tournament berths, four Pac-10 regular-season titles, three Sweet 16's and one Final Four in 18 seasons.
His introduction was met with a big reaction, a mix of cheering and booing. Montgomery listened with a smile.