March 23, 2009
WICHITA, Kan.- A first-half scoring barrage coupled with a stingy defensive effort resulted in a 70-56 Stanford victory in the quarterfinals of the 2009 College Basketball Invitational (CBI).
Less than a week after routing Boise State 96-76 in the tournament's opening round, Stanford picked up its fifth road win of the year in front of 8,812 raucous fans at Wichita State's Charles Koch Arena.
Now Stanford will experience a quick and unique turnaround on the road and square off against Pac-10 foe Oregon State in Corvallis on Wednesday, Mar. 25, with a berth in the CBI's best-of-three championship series on the line. Stanford and Oregon State will be battling for the fourth time this year, with the Cardinal winning 62-54 two weeks ago in the play-in round of the Pac-10 Tournament after the Beavers swept both meetings by double-digits in the regular season series.
With Monday's 70-56 victory, Stanford notched its 20th win of the year and improved to 20-13 overall. That's quite an accomplishment for a team that had to overcome the losses of Brook Lopez and Robin Lopez (2008 NBA Draft) and three seniors to graduation.
Much like last week's win over Boise State, Stanford raced out to a huge lead and coasted the rest of the way. Leading the charge was Lawrence Hill with a game-high 21 points on 8-13 shooting in 33 minutes while Anthony Goods added 18 points on 7-15 shooting in 32 minutes.
Stanford shot 50.9 percent overall, including a blistering 60.7 percent in the first half, and held a 37-31 advantage in the rebounding department over Wichita State (17-17, 8-10 Missouri Valley).
The Shockers were paced by Clevin Hannah's 13 points while J.T. Durley chipped in with 11.
Stanford was in front 42-26 at intermission, leading by as much as 20 points early on after Josh Owens converted on the second of two free throws for a 30-10 lead with 6:17 remaining in the first half.
Meanwhile, a stifling Cardinal defense limited the Shockers to just 32.1 percent shooting from the field over the first 20 minutes as the home squad struggled to get open looks.
Stanford maintained a comfortable lead throughout the second half, and extended its lead to 19 on a triple from Hill at the 16:50 mark. But Wichita State countered with a 16-8 run thanks to six points over the next eight minutes from Durley. That's as close as the Shockers would get the rest of the way.
The Cardinal held a 24-20 points in the paint edge and dished out 13 assists compared to the Shockers' total of six.
NOTES
The fourth meeting between Stanford and Oregon State is a byproduct of the CBI deciding to re-seed the tournament bracket for the semifinals. Originally on opposite sides of the draw, Stanford and Oregon State will now meet on Wednesday night while UTEP travels to Richmond in the other semifinal. The winners meet in a best-of-three championship series next week, with the host school yet to be determined.
Monday's contest was the first-ever between Stanford and Wichita State on the hardwood. The Cardinal is now 6-5 all-time against Missouri Valley opponents.
Stanford recorded its 20th season of at least 20 victories. Following up last year's 28-8 mark, this is the first time since 2002-03 (24-9 overall) and 2003-04 (30-2 overall) that Stanford has posted back-to-back 20-win campaigns.
Stanford has now won six straight non-conference road games, a streak that began with a 67-43 victory at Colorado last year.
Stanford is now 13-0 in non-conference competition, joining North Carolina (15-0), Pittsburgh (14-0) and Connecticut (13-0) as the only teams in Division I competition with unbeaten records against non-league foes. Those three teams are No. 1 seeds in this year's NCAA Tournament.
Mitch Johnson dished out eight assists in a game for the fifth time this year. Johnson has now registered 140 handouts this season compared to just 73 turnovers. His career total stands at 529, good for second place in the school record books behind Brevin Knight (780).
Jeremy Green chipped in with nine points, all on three-pointers. Over the last three games, he is averaging 10.1 points per game while shooting 8-13 from beyond the arc.
Josh Owens snagged five rebounds, his best total since pulling down a career-best 10 boards against USC back on Feb. 28.