Jan. 22, 2009
STANFORD, Calif. (AP) - Kenny Brown learned he was going to make his second career start a couple of hours before Stanford's game against Oregon on Thursday night.
The former walk-on made it a smooth transition in replacing senior point guard Mitch Johnson, who missed the game with a lower calf bruise.
Anthony Goods scored 20 points in helping Stanford beat the Ducks 77-55. Goods now has 1,007 points in his Stanford career. He joins Lawrence Hill (1,169) as Stanford's only active 1,000-point scorers.
Brown contributed three 3-pointers, four assists and three rebounds.
"We knew this was a big game and we had to step up," Brown said. "Mitch is the rock of our team. He holds us together. I've kind of made my living coming off the bench. My job is to stay in it, and stay focused."
Brown made his only other start in last year's Senior Night. He decided to return for a fifth season, putting off dental school.
"Kenny and Drew (Shiller, the backup point guard) have made great contributions," Goods said. "It's always tough without Mitch. He's been running the program for four years. But these guys have been working hard."
Landry Fields added 13 points as the Cardinal (13-3, 3-3 Pac-10) won their second straight. Goods, fourth in the Pac-10 with a 17.3 scoring average, has reached double figures in scoring in all but one game.
"I thought the guys responded well without Mitch," Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins said. "Mitch has been our leader and given a lot to this program. We didn't want to put too much pressure on Kenny and Drew, so we tried to make it a collective effort."
Tajuan Porter scored 14 points for the Ducks (6-13, 0-7), who are off to their worst conference start since losing 11 straight in the 1992-93 conference season. Kamyron Brown added 11 points and Matthew Humphrey scored all 10 of his points in the second half.
"They did a good job of getting up on us defensively in the first half," Oregon coach Ernie Kent said. "To say that we were going to come out and have that poor of a start, though, I would have never guessed that. We settled down and played much better in the second half, but by then, we got ourselves in a little bit of hole."
The Ducks have lost 23 consecutive games at Stanford, last winning here on Jan. 13, 1986.
The Cardinal never trailed after scoring 13 of the game's first 15 points. They led by as many as 26 points early in the second half.
Oregon turned the ball over 22 times and was outrebounded by a 34-23 margin. The Cardinal outscored the Ducks 25-4 on turnovers and 16-2 on second-chance points.
"We got much better looks in the second half, for some reason, that we weren't getting in the first half," Porter said. "There's no reason we can't play the whole game like that. We just didn't come out with that fire. I don't have an answer for that."
Stanford led 40-18 at halftime.
NOTES:
Anthony Goods leads the Cardinal with 17.4 points per game, has scored in double-figures a team-best 15 times, paced the club in scoring on eight different occasions and registered six 20-point games.
Goods entered tonight's game with a career shooting mark of 7-34 from the field in five career contests against Oregon. He finished 5-10 from the field, 8-9 from the free throw line and 2-6 from three-point territory in tonight's victory against the Ducks.
Stanford improved to 10-1 at home on the year, hitting the 10-win mark in games played at Maples Pavilion for the 16th consecutive year. The Cardinal is 26-2 in its last 28 home games dating back to the start of last year.
Stanford held a 34-23 rebounding edge, with Landry Fields pulling down a game-high eight boards.
The Cardinal owned a 34-14 edge in points in the paint.
For the sixth time this year, Stanford forced its opponent into 20 turnovers. The Cardinal entered the week 11th in the country in turnover margin (+4.9). The number now stands at +5.1.
Lawrence Hill dished out a career-best six assists.
Oregon shot just 31.6 percent in the first half, connecting on 6-19 attempts from the field.