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March 5, 2009
TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) -- Arizona State drubbed Stanford by 30 points in January.
Fueled by the memory of that humiliating loss, the Cardinal turned the tables on the 21st-ranked Sun Devils on Thursday night with a 74-64 victory.
"That's always motivation," said Landry Fields, who led the Cardinal with 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting. "That's the kind of stuff that our coaching staff and our players, we don't forget."
Anthony Goods scored 15 points, Lawrence Hill added 13 and Kenny Brown had 12 for the Cardinal (17-11, 6-11 Pac-10), who lost 90-60 to Arizona State on Jan. 2, in Palo Alto.
Stanford won for the first time in eight conference road games, and the Cardinal did it with defense. In the first 8 minutes, Stanford limited Arizona State to 0-for-6 shooting from the field with five turnovers. The Sun Devils' first basket came with 11:50 to play in the first half, when James Harden split two defenders and scored in the lane.
Stanford limited the Sun Devils 36 percent shooting. That was a big change for the Cardinal, who ranked ninth in Pac-10 field goal percentage defense, allowing opponents to shoot 47.8 percent from the field.
Stanford's biggest lead was 22-11 with 6:39 to go in the half.
The Sun Devils had more turnovers (8) than field goals (7) in the first half but managed to trim the deficit to 32-26 at halftime.
The second half started pretty much the same as the first. The Cardinal scored the first eight points after halftime to take a 40-26 lead with 15:40 to play.
Stanford led 44-30 when the Sun Devils went on a 7-0 run sparked by a 3-pointer by Rihards Kuksiks, who had missed his first seven shots.
But the Cardinal weathered the storm. Fields had two baskets to push the lead back to 11, and Brown's 3-pointer from the right wing made it 61-47 with 3:49 to play.
Harden scored 22 points and Jeff Pendergraph had 15 points and 11 rebounds for the Sun Devils (21-8, 10-7), who lost their third straight.
Arizona State had trouble shaking last week's overtime losses at Washington and Washington State, which knocked the Sun Devils out of contention for their first Pac-10 title.
ASU coach Herb Sendek said he didn't think the excruciating losses had taken the wind out of his team.
"I can't go there," he said. "How do you know something like that? The minute you allow yourself to trespass into that area, you're using a crutch and you're using an excuse."
NOTES
Stanford now leads the all-time series at 38-28. The Cardinal has won six of the last eight and 19 of the last 23 overall dating back to 1998.
For the 14th game this year, Stanford placed at least four players in double-figures. The Cardinal is 10-4 when that's the case.
Stanford is now 2-4 against top-25 opponents this year, with the other victory coming in the form of a 75-69 win over No. 22/23 California back on Jan. 17 at Maples Pavilion. This was Stanford's first road win against a top-25 club since defeating No. 9/9 Washington State 67-65 in overtime on Feb. 2, 2008.
Stanford picked up its first Pac-10 road win of the year and first since edging Arizona 67-66 on Feb. 16, 2008.
Mitch Johnson dished out four assists, increasing his career total to 502. He is one of three players in school history to reach the 500-assist plateau, joining Brevin Knight (780) and Keith Ramee (513).
Landry Fields led the Cardinal with 20 points on 8-12 shooting, notching his second 20-point game of the year. Fields was a perfect 4-4 from the foul line in 38 minutes.
Stanford forced Arizona State into an uncharacteristic 14 turnovers and limited the Sun Devils to just 8-30 shooting from three-point territory and a 36 percent clip for the game. That's a far cry from the first meeting when Arizona State shot 59 percent overall, connected on 6-13 chances from beyond the arc, dished out 22 assists and committed only 11 turnovers.
Arizona State did not score its first field goal until the 11:55 mark of the first half, when James Harden converted on a spinning lay-up. Prior to that bucket, the Sun Devils missed their first six shots and committed five turnovers during the first eight minutes.
Both teams shot well from the charity stripe, with Stanford making 18-23 and Arizona State 20-25.
Jeff Pendergraph torched Stanford for 31 points on 14-19 shooting and 11 rebounds in the first meeting. On Thursday night, he totaled 15 points and 11 boards, but was only 2-4 from the field with most of his damage coming at the foul line (11-14).
Walk-ons Jack Trotter (12 minutes, one rebound, one assist) and Matei Daian (six minutes, one rebound) won't excite with you their stat lines, but both were effective options off the bench on defense and helped keep Pendergraph from finding a rhythm in the paint.