Dec. 29, 2009
STANFORD, Calif. (AP)- A flurry of activity in the closing seconds of the first half may have been the catalyst for better things in the second half. It also could have been Stanford head coach Johnny Dawkins' halftime talk that caused a reversal of misfortune.
Landry Fields scored 24 points to lead Stanford to an 80-76 victory over James Madison on Tuesday night.
Fields registered his eighth consecutive 20-point game, finishing 7-16 from the field and 8-10 from the foul line. He also tallied nine rebounds, four assists and five steals in 35 minutes. Fields is now averaging 23.4 points and 9.0 rebounds per game heading into Pac-10 play.
Jeremy Green added 15 points for the Cardinal (6-6), which snapped a three-game losing streak. The Cardinal had not dropped four straight non-league games since December of 1979. Andrew Zimmermann matched his career high with 14 points and Drew Shiller chipped in with 12.
"I can't remember the exact words but we got the meaning of his talk," Zimmermann said. "We needed to pick it up both on the defensive end and rebounding. Those were two big keys that sealed the game for us."
James Madison shot 51.9 percent overall compared to Stanford's 40 percent clip. But the Cardinal forced 26 turnovers, racked up a season-high 12 steals and connected on 18-25 attempts from the charity stripe.
Denzel Bowles had as many rebounds (11) as Stanford did as a team by the end of the first 20 minutes. The Dukes also outshot Stanford and held the halftime advantage at 36-34 despite committing 15 of their 26 turnovers over the first 20 minutes.
Bowles was held without a rebound in the second half and the Cardinal outrebounded James Madison by 10 in the final stanza.
"James Madison forced us to make adjustments," Dawkins said. "We did a good job of that and we'll get better as a result."
Julius Wells scored a season-high 29 points, 23 in the second half, for the Dukes (6-5), who had a two-game winning streak snapped. Bowles added 22 points and now has 97 in his four games with James Madison.
Fields scored 15 of his points in the first half, but Stanford trailed 36-34 at intermission.
Bowles, a transfer from Texas A&M, was playing in his fourth game with the Dukes since becoming eligible on Dec. 12. The 6-10 junior made his first eight shots and was 6-of-6 from the foul line.
The game was tied at 60-all with 5:38 remaining to play when baskets from Green, Emmanuel Igbinosa and free throws from Fields and Jarrett Mann gave Stanford a 68-60 edge with 2:38 left, the biggest lead of the game for either team.
The Cardinal held on the rest of the way.
Stanford scored two quick baskets in the final 24 seconds of the first half to draw within 36-34 at the intermission. Curtis tried to save the ball from going out of bound but knocked it to Fields, wide open under the basket.
Another turnover, one of the Dukes' 15 in the first 20 minutes, gave the Cardinal possession at halfcourt with just under two seconds left. Shiller, a high school quarterback, sent a perfect pass to Zimmerman for an easy layup at the buzzer.
"I've never been a wide receiver," Zimmermann said. "When I played football I was a quarterback. We knew they would switch out on Fields and it was a matter of finishing the play."
James Madison scored the game's first nine points, with White getting seven of them.
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NOTES: Stanford opens Pac-10 play on Saturday, Jan. 2, at California. The Cardinal is 5-5 in league lid-lifters over the last 10 seasons, most recently winning a Pac-10 opener in 2007 against Arizona State ... The Cardinal closed out non-conference play at 6-6. Last year, Stanford finished 13-0 against non-league competition, joining North Carolina (20-0) and Pittsburgh (16-0) as the only Division I programs to finish with an undefeated non-conference record ... Stanford placed at least four players in double-figure scoring for the sixth time this year ... Stanford and James Madison each made 28 field goals. The Cardinal attempted 70 shots compared to the Dukes' 54 ... Jarrett Mann dished out seven assists, representing the 10th time this year he has finished with at least five handouts ... Matei Daian recorded the first block of his career, rejecting a shot from Julius Wells with four minutes left prior to halftime ... Emmanuel Igbinosa was solid off the bench, chipping in with seven points and five boards in 15 minutes ... Stanford is 2-4 in games decided by 10 points or less ... Former Cardinal standout Kenny Brown was in attendance and joined KZSU's team of Kevin Danna and Frederick Alexander for a halftime interview.